Labyrinths (New Directions Paperbook)

The groundbreaking trans-genre work of Argentinian writer Jorge LuisBorges (1899-1986) has been insinuating itself into the structure,stance, and very breath of world literature for well over half acentury. Multi-layered, self-referential, elusive, and allusive writingis now frequently labeled Borgesian. Umberto Eco's internationalbestseller, The Name of the Rose, is, on one level, anelaborate improvisation on Borges' fiction "The Library," whichAmerican readers first encountered in the original 1962 New Directionspublication of Labyrinths.

This new edition of Labyrinths,the classic representative selection of Borges' writing edited byDonald A. Yates and James E. Irby (in translations by themselves andothers), includes the text of the original edition (as augmented in1964) as well as Irby's biographical and critical essay, a poignanttribute by André Maurois, and a chronology of the author's life. Borgesenthusiast William Gibson has contributed a new introduction bringingBorges' influence and importance into the twenty-first century.