Labyrinths: Selected Stories and Other Writings Summary
Jorge Luis Borges

Labyrinths: Selected Stories and Other Writings Summary

Several important themes are developed in this rich collection of stories.

One is the theme of idealism, revealing Borges as a disciple of the philosophical systems constructed by Berkeley and Hume — among others — that assert that ideas are the only true measure of reality and that objects are nothing but imperfect and transitory images. In the universe of "Tlon," a perfect idealist construct, objects do not exist outside the idea of their existence.

Another theme, that of the interplay between reason and the absurd, appears in several stories in which man attempts to understand reality around him by conceiving of a world according to his own sense of the perfect form. Invariably this universe, as in "The Library of Babel," is just as — if not more — paradoxical and labyrinthian as reality: its mysteries as secret and obscure, its custodians as ignorant, and its limits...

(read more from the Short Guide)