The Labyrinth of Solitude: Life and Thought in Mexico [First English Edition]

Octavio Paz

Published by Grove Press, 1961

1961 first English edition, Grove Press (New York), 5 5/8 x 8 1/4 inches tall hardcover in publisher's unclipped ($3.95) dust jacket, yellow marbled paper-covered boards over pale green cloth spine, dark green lettering to spine, 212 pp. Very slight rubbing and edgewear to covers. Very slight foxing to page edges. Marginal foxing to blank endpapers. On the blank front free-endpaper, the signature of the prior owner, Murdo J. MacLeod (b. 1935), a Scottish historian of Latin America, who published extensively on the history of colonial-era Central America, the Caribbean, and the Atlantic world. Otherwise, a very good to near fine copy - clean, bright and unmarked - in a moderately foxed, chipped and edgeworn dust jacket which is nicely preserved and displayed in a clear archival Brodart sleeve. A classic work which is uncommon in this first English edition. ~SP25~ [2.0P] A nine-part philosophical and historical essay on Mexican identity and culture. Octavio Paz (1914-1998), a famous Mexican poet and career diplomat, began writing The Labyrinth of Solitude during his time as the Mexican ambassador to France in the late 1940s. Originally published in 1951, the first edition of Paz?s work appeared in Spanish under the title El labertino de la soledad, and it is widely considered to be Paz?s masterpiece. In it, Paz offers an extended meditation on Mexico?s long struggle to clarify its identity and come to terms with its history through analyses of Mexican-American Youth culture, gender and sexual violence, fiestas, the Spanish Conquest, literature, intersections of indigenous religion and Catholicism, revolutionary politics, intellectual culture, the social and economic challenges of developing nations, and myth. Paz examines these subjects from an existential philosophical perspective. Seller Inventory # SP25-0642-14535

Bibliographic Details

Title: The Labyrinth of Solitude: Life and Thought ...
Publisher: Grove Press
Publication Date: 1961
Binding: hardcover
Condition: Very Good
Dust Jacket Condition: Acceptable