H. G. Wells (1866-1946) is widely considered the father of the science fiction genre. His stories examine space and time travel, alien worlds, and the destructive potential of modern technology. Wells' influence is far reaching and remains potent today. "The Country of the Blind and Other Stories" collects thirty-three of Wells' most renowned short stories. In "The Country of the Blind," perhaps his most famed shorter work, Nunez the mountaineer falls does the side of a mountain on an expedition only to discover an isolated valley with a mysterious populace where everyone is blind. In "The Crystal Egg," an antiques dealer discovers a mysterious crystal egg that allows him to remotely view the planet Mars. "The Man Who Could Work Miracles" follows an individual whose supernatural talents gradually become problematic and even disastrous. These are only a few of the many exciting tales contained in this edition by England's most respected science fiction author.
The Country of the Blind, and Other Stories
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle. Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Browse our Bookshelf Favorites store for big savings on popular fiction, nonfiction, children's books, and more. |
Book Description
Frequently Bought Together
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Herbert George Wells was born in Bromley, Kent, England, on September 21, 1866. His father was a professional cricketer and sometime shopkeeper, his mother a former lady’s maid. Although "Bertie" left school at fourteen to become a draper’s apprentice (a life he detested), he later won a scholarship to the Normal School of Science in London, where he studied with the famous Thomas Henry Huxley. He began to sell articles and short stories regularly in 1893. In 1895, his immediately successful novel rescued him from a life of penury on a schoolteacher’s salary. His other "scientific romances"—The Island of Dr. Moreau (1896), The Invisible Man (1897), The War of the Worlds (1898), The First Men in the Moon (1901), and The War in the Air (1908)—won him distinction as the father of science fiction.
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
edition.
Henry James saw in Wells the most gifted writer of the age, but Wells, having coined the phrase "the war that will end war" to describe World War I, became increasingly disillusioned and focused his attention on educating mankind with his bestselling Outline of History (1920) and his later utopian works. Living until 1946, Wells witnessed a world more terrible than any of his imaginative visions, and he bitterly observed: "Reality has taken a leaf from my book and set itself to supercede me."
Andy Sawyer is the librarian of the Science Fiction Foundation Collection at the University of Liverpool Library.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images? |
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This review is for the paperback edition of the "Oxford World Classics" edition edited by Michael Sherborne, with 33 stories collected. It's probably the best place to start on HG Wells' short fiction, containing the title story, his most well-known, and also many other masterpieces including the quite chilling realist revenge story "The Cone", a great example of his early comedic style in "The New Accellerator" and the story that is in my opinion his best, "The Door in the Wall." This is a story that is all atmosphere, sentiment and heartbreak; not typical of Wells but he carries it off in an extraordinarily powerful way in just a few pages. Certainly one of the most significant and influential stories of a door into another place....
Wells proves to be a master of most of the popular shorter forms of his day - the psychological horror, the monster story, the odd invention story, the romance, the harsh and gritty realistic story of crime. There are a few pieces here that I'm not crazy about, but nothing out and out bad. At any rate, if you don't find something to love in the stories I've mentioned, or most of the others in this collection, you are probably not a Wells fan. This is a touchstone.
Wells proves to be a master of most of the popular shorter forms of his day - the psychological horror, the monster story, the odd invention story, the romance, the harsh and gritty realistic story of crime. There are a few pieces here that I'm not crazy about, but nothing out and out bad. At any rate, if you don't find something to love in the stories I've mentioned, or most of the others in this collection, you are probably not a Wells fan. This is a touchstone.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
By hiker bob
Format:Paperback
I misunderstood that this collection contained all thirty-three of the short stories as originally published in 1911. It does not. Beware that the table of contents depicted in the "Look Inside" function on the webpage does not correspond to this edition of the book.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
By Marcus Twain
Format:Kindle Edition
An extraordinary collection of short stories by H.G. Wells. Thirty-three tales picked by Wells himself later in life as the ones he most wanted to represent his legacy in the short form, with a wonderful introduction by Wells, musing on the short story, which could have been written yesterday. And, oh yes, it's free (though not navigable, sigh). Wells was a remarkable short story writer, who, in his early years, relished the form. His story "The Cone" is as scary a piece of realist terror fiction as you're likely to come across. And "The Crystal Egg" is one of my all-time favorite short stories, a baby kangaroo in the pouch of THE WAR OF THE WORLDS. Great great stuff.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
True appreciation.
To really appreciate great authors, we need to read a collection of their works. It's one of the best ways to spend our time.
Published 3 months ago by Michael I. Orlich
5.0 out of 5 stars
Classic stories & great delivery
Classic stories, of course. You might not be inclined to read them other than for a course. But they are worth reading, showing that many of the fantasy ideas that we think are new... Read more
Published 6 months ago by Victoria H
4.0 out of 5 stars
Vintage Wells
I read "Country Of The Blind" first and have read about 1/3 of the other stories. If you like Wells but have only read his more popular stuff, check these out.
Published 12 months ago by D. Copler
5.0 out of 5 stars
Just what I wanted
Clean, new, and everything it promised to be. When I was 14, in 8th grade English class, I'd read a short story that had had a message that had stayed with me through life. Read more
Published on June 30, 2008 by Annie Pope
4.0 out of 5 stars
Free SF Reader
A fairly substantial chunk of Wells' short stories, and it appears that basically they have included all of the best, here, so a good option if you don't want to wade through the... Read more
Published on January 20, 2008 by Blue Tyson
3.0 out of 5 stars
33 short stories of mixed quality
COUNTRY OF THE BLIND is a collection of 33 short stories hand picked by H.G. Wells as his best. The stories were written first published between 1894 and 1906 in both magazines... Read more
Published on August 2, 1998
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Listmania!
|
|
