Description

Fascinated by the polarity of being, Paz has boldly attempted to write a "history of man". Unlike countless other histories that simply chronicle civilizations and cultures, Paz's work explores the human heart, the meaning of human nature, and the duality that exists within all beings.

About the author(s)

Octavio Paz was born in 1914 in Mexico City and served as the Mexican ambassador to India from 1962 to 1968. He was the author of many volumes of poetry as well as literary and art criticism and works on politics, culture, and Mexican history. Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1990, he was also awarded the Jerusalem Prize, the Miguel de Cervantes Prize, the Neustadt International Prize for Literature, and the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade. He died in 1998.

Reviews

“Dense, lyrical, digressive, perverse, and sometimes witty . . . The magician is as serious as he was in The Labyrinth of Solitude. He may not persuade, but he dazzles.”—The New York Times

“Delicious insights crop up with pleasurable frequency.”—Newsday

“The descriptive brilliances succeed each other with dazzling rapidity, and Paz takes on the blurred vivacity of a hummingbird.”—American Scholar

“Dense, lyrical, digressive, perverse, and sometimes witty . . . The magician is as serious as he was in The Labyrinth of Solitude. He may not persuade, but he dazzles.”—The New York Times

“Delicious insights crop up with pleasurable frequency.”—Newsday

“The descriptive brilliances succeed each other with dazzling rapidity, and Paz takes on the blurred vivacity of a hummingbird.”—American Scholar

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