Description:
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 unequaled 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.
Review Quotes:
Praise for The Labyrinth of Solitude:
"The Labyrinth of Solitude is essential to an understanding of [Mexico] and, by extension, Latin America and the third world." --The Village Voice
"The most celebrated volume by Mexico's greatest man of letters." --The Boston Globe
"Octavio Paz is an even better essayist than he is a poet. His evocation of Mexican character and culture is, in fact, devoted to the real world, and it produces an astonishing image of a whole nation, truer than the profound truth it reveals for presenting them in a mythos made entirely beautiful. Written in a lucid, rich prose, The Labyrinth of Solitude is Paz's poetic masterpiece." --Commonweal