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The Country of the Blind

"The Country of the Blind" is a short story by English writer H. G. Wells. It was first published in the April 1904 issue of The Strand Magazine and included in a 1911 collection of Wells's short stories, The Country of the Blind and Other Stories. It is one of Wells's best known short stories, and features prominently in literature dealing with blindness.

For the Andrew Leland memoir, see The Country of the Blind: A Memoir at the End of Sight. For the Christopher Brookmyre novel, see Country of the Blind. For the Skeleton Crew album, see The Country of Blinds.

"The Country of the Blind"

United Kingdom

English

Short story

The Strand Magazine

Print (Magazine)

April 1904

Wells later revised the story, with the expanded version first published by an English private printer, Golden Cockerel Press, in 1939.

Nuñez – a mountaineer from , Colombia

Bogotá

Yacob – Nuñez's master

Medina-Saroté – the youngest daughter of Yacob

Several radio adaptations of the story have been produced. debuted its adaptation starring William Conrad on Thanksgiving week, 1947, which featured a different ending in which Nuñez escapes the Valley alone (and thus is able to tell the story in-character), but goes blind in the process due to the constant glare from the snow. Another episode of Escape aired 20 June 1948, starring Paul Frees. In 1954, 1957 and 1959 the CBS radio series Suspense rebroadcast this version. CBS Radio Mystery Theater aired another radio adaptation 7 May 1979. The episode was titled "Search for Eden" (episode 977) and the main characters' names were changed – Nunez was renamed Carlos and Medina-Saroté was renamed Eva. The BBC folded the story in two others by Wells for a BBC Radio 4 Extra entitled "The Door in the Wall", also with a twist at the end in which the storyteller reveals himself to be the tale's protagonist.[8]

Escape

A teleplay written by Frank Gabrielsen was produced in 1962 for the TV series . The title of the hour-long episode was "The Richest Man in Bogota", and it aired on 17 June 1962.[9] It starred Lee Marvin as Juan de Nuñez, and Míriam Colón as "Marina" (not Medina-Saroté, as in the original story). In this story it is revealed that something in the water of the valley has caused the blindness of the residents. At the end of the episode Juan de Nuñez is shown to now be blind as well.

The DuPont Show of the Week

The Russian studio made a wordless 19-minute animated film adaptation in 1995 called Land of Blind (Страна Слепых).[10]

Soyuzmultfilm

The theme of the protagonist getting lost in the world of the blind was used in the 1997 Malayalam movie starring Mohanlal.

Guru

The composer wrote a chamber opera based on the story, completed in 1997.

Mark-Anthony Turnage

A stage production was written by Frank Higgins and Mark Evans; the only production to date has been in The Coterie Theater in in 2006.

Kansas City, Missouri

A Chinese version of a was adapted under the name 盲人国 (Mángrén Guó) as part of the Mandarin Companion series. The location was adapted from Ecuador to China's province of Guizhou. A twist at the ending indicates the blindness condition affecting the people is contagious.[11]

graded reader

An audio version of "The Country of Blind" was published in the Indian language of .[12]

Malayalam

Tall poppy syndrome

Plato's Allegory of the Cave

Original H. G. Wells short story in the April 1904 issue of The Strand Magazine

The Country of the Blind

Short story by H. G. Wells

The Country of the Blind

– Public-domain text from Project Gutenberg

The Country of the Blind and Other Stories

title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database

The Country of the Blind

Streaming Audio