The Labyrinth of Solitude: The Other Mexico, Return to the Labyrinth of Solitude, Mexico and the United States, the Philanthropic Ogre (Winner of the Nobel Prize) - Softcover

Paz, Octavio

Softcover

ISBN 10: 080215042X ISBN 13: 9780802150424

Publisher: Grove Press, 1994

Synopsis

Octavio Paz has long been acknowledged as Mexico's foremost writer and critic. In this international classic, Paz has written one of the most enduring and powerful works ever created on Mexico and its people, character, and culture. Compared to Ortega y Gasset's The Revolt of the Masses for its trenchant analysis, this collection contains his most famous work, "The Labyrinth of Solitude," a beautifully written and deeply felt discourse on Mexico's quest for identity that gives us an unequalled look at the country hidden behind "the mask." Also included are "The Other Mexico," "Return to the Labyrinth of Solitude," "Mexico and the United States," and "The Philanthropic Ogre," all of which develop the themes of the title essay and extend his penetrating commentary to the United States and Latin America.

About this title

Review:

First published in 1950, The Labyrinth of Solitude addresses issues that are both seemingly eternal and resoundingly contemporary: the nature of political power in post-conquest Mexico, the relation of Native Americans to Europeans, the ubiquity of official corruption. Noting these matters earned Paz no small amount of trouble from the Mexican leadership, but it also brought him renown as a social critic. Paz, who went on to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, later voiced his disillusionment with all political systems--as the Mexican proverb has it, "all revolutions degenerate into governments"--but his call for democracy in this book has lately been reverberating throughout Mexico, making it timely once again.

About the Author:

Octavio Paz was born in Mexico City in 1914 to a family of Spanish and native Mexican descent. He was the author of more than twenty-five books of poetry and prose. In addition to being a poet, essayist, playwright, social philosopher, and critic, he also served as a Mexican diplomat in France and Japan, and as ambassador to India. He was awarded the Cervantes Award in 1981, the Neustadt Prize in 1982, and the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1990. Octavio Paz died in 1998.

About this edition

• Publisher: Grove Press
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 080215042X
• ISBN 13: 9780802150424
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 398