The Labyrinth of Solitude

1 About this book

The Labyrinth of Solitude is a 1950 book-length essay by the Mexican poet Octavio Paz. One of his most famous works, it consists of nine parts: "The Pachuco and other extremes", "Mexican Masks", "The Day of the Dead", "The Sons of La Malinche", "The Conquest and Colonialism", "From Independence to the Revolution", "The Mexican Intelligence", "The Present Day" and "The Dialectic of Solitude".

After 1975 some editions included the three-part essay "Posdata", which discusses the Tlatelolco massacre, in which hundreds of unarmed students at the National Autonomous University of Mexico were murdered by the Mexican Armed Forces in 1968.

The essays are predominantly concerned with the theme of Mexican identity and demonstrate how, at the end of the existential labyrinth, there is a profound feeling of solitude. As Paz argues:Solitude is the profoundest fact of the human condition. Man is the only being who knows he is alone, and the only one who seeks out another.

Summary adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

• History
• Politics & government
• Social life and customs
• Civilization
• National characteristics