Showing results for "The Country of the Blind" in Anthologies & Short Stories

Herbert George Wells (1866-1946) was a prolific English writer, now best remembered for his science fiction novels and often credited as being the father of science fiction. 'The Country of the Blind' is the strange story of a mountain guide who accidently falls off a cliff ledge in the Andes. He survives the fall unhurt, and finds himself in a remote valley where a tribe lives completely cut off from the rest of the world.

“In the country of the blind, the one-eyed man is king” repeats in Chen Fangyuan’s mind after he finds himself trapped in a valley holding a community of people for whom a disease eliminated their vision many generations before and no longer have a concept of sight. Chen Fangyuan quickly finds that these people have developed their other senses to compensate for their lack of sight. His insistence that he can see causes the entire community to believe he is crazy.

In his fiction, HG Wells explored various fantasy and science fiction sub-genres, from alien invasion narratives through time travel to dystopian tales. He was also an innovator and pioneer in matters of plot and style, as proven by the 33 short stories in The Country of the Blind and Other Stories. The tale of the title is about a mountaineer who discovers a secluded valley of blind people. When he tries to tell them about the sense of sight, they scoff and attribute it to an over-active imagination.

This 1911 collection of thirty-three stories, selected and revised by the author from amongst his huge output of short fiction, includes tales of comedy, horror, monsters, and strange worlds. In his Introduction, Wells writes that the book brings together, “All the short stories by me that I care for any one to read again,” and that, “No short story of mine of the slightest merit is excluded from this volume.”

This superlative work by Sarah Orne Jewett, a late 19th century writer, shows great literary skill, artistry and charm. The Country of the Pointed Firs depicts the close personal and family relationships in a small New England village. In its appreciation of the natural beauty and restorative powers of a small community, it is similar to Thoreau's Walden.

"El país de los ciegos: Y Núñez se encontró a sí mismo intentando explicar el ancho mundo del que había caído, el cielo y las montañas, la visión y otros prodigios como aquellos ... Y ellos se negaron a creer o a entender nada de lo que les dijo ... Ni siquiera comprendieron muchas de sus palabras. Durante catorce generaciones, aquella gente había estado ciega y aislada del mundo de los videntes. Los nombres de las cosas alusivas a la visión se habían olvidado y habían cambiado."

Un alpinista llamado Núñez, en su intento por coronar el Parascotopetl, el Matterhorn de los Andes, resbala y cae al otro lado de la montaña. Al final de su descenso, encuentra un valle, aislado del resto del mundo por empinados precipicios. Nuñez descubre así el mítico "País de los Ciegos". El valle había sido refugio de colonos que huían de la tiranía de gobernantes. La comunidad aislada prosperó con los años, a pesar de una enfermedad que les golpeó e hizo que los bebés nacieran ciegos.