The Country of the Blind and Other Stories [Hardcover]

H. G. Wells (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 2004

Anyone could say of any short story, "A mere anecdote," just as anyone can say "Incoherent!" of any novel or of any sonata that isn't studiously monotonous. The recession of enthusiasm for this compact, amusing form is closely associated in my mind with that discouraging imputation. One felt hopelessly open to a paralyzing and unanswerable charge, and one's ease and happiness in the garden of one's fancies was more and more marred by the dread of it. It crept into one's mind, a distress as vague and inexpugnable as a sea fog on a spring morning, and presently one shivered and wanted to go indoors . . . It is the absurd fate of the imaginative writer that he should be thus sensitive to atmospheric conditions. But after one has died as a maker one may still live as a critic, and I will confess I am all for laxness and variety in this as in every field of art. Insistence upon rigid forms and austere unities seems to me the instinctive reaction of the sterile against the fecund. It is the tired man with a headache who values a work of art for what it does not contain. I suppose it is the lot of every critic nowadays to suffer from indigestion and a fatigued appreciation, and to develop a self-protective tendency towards rules that will reject, as it were, automatically the more abundant and irregular forms. But this world is not for the weary, and in the long-run it is the new and variant that matter. -- From Wells's introduction to THE COUNTRY OF THE BLIND AND OTHER STORIES.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

H. G. Wells (1866-1946) is one of the founding voices of visionary science fiction.
Patrick Parrinder has written on H. G. Wells, science fiction, James Joyce, and the history of the English novel.
Neil Gaiman is the award-winning creator of the Sandman series of graphic novels and the bestselling author of such novels as Anansi Boys, American Gods, and Neverwhere. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 380 pages
• Publisher: Wildside Press (July 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0809587599
• ISBN-13: 978-0809587599
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,603,882 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superbly chosen introduction to the short work of the master, September 9, 2009

By 

Muzzlehatch (the walls of Gormenghast) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Country of the Blind and Other Stories (Oxford World's Classics) (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.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Just what I wanted, June 30, 2008

By 

Annie Pope (Pasadena) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Country of the Blind and Other Stories (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

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. Though I'd forgotten the author and title of it, I'd referred to it many times in my thoughts, and in telling other people the message, too. I've been searching for it for about 30 years or so, and finally found it on Amazon's search engine. (I'd tried before, but nothing ever surfaced.) Anyway, here it is: The Country of the Blind by H.G. Wells. It's a wonderful story with great metaphors and, unfortunately, it contains a message about what happens to special people with unusual insights while they are alive, and the narrowmindedness and blindness of us all, and the strength of peer pressure. I'm so grateful to have it now.

5.0 out of 5 stars THE COUNTRY OF THE BLIND AND OTHER STORIES, February 1, 2012

By 

Marcus Twain (Hudson Valley, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Country of the Blind, and Other Stories (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.