The Country of the Blind and Other Stories (Oxford World's Classics) [Paperback]

H. G. Wells (Author), Michael Sherborne (Editor)

Book Description

Series: Oxford World's Classics | Publication Date: October 31, 1996

The Country of the Blind is Wells's own selection of his best short stories. They range from light-hearted comic tales like "The Obliterated Man" to breath-taking masterpieces of science fiction like "The Star." In this, the first annotated edition, a new Introduction and Notes place Wells's stories in their historical, biographical, and literary contexts. The text presented here was revised by Wells, and for the first time corrected with reference to earlier and later versions of the 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 Mass Market Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 576 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (October 31, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0192828274
• ISBN-13: 978-0192828279
• Product Dimensions: 7.3 x 4.6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,309,600 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) (Mass Market 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 Good Navigation, April 2, 2011

By 

James O. Smith (Minneapolis, Minnesota USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: The Country of the Blind, And Other Stories (with ClicBrowz navigation) (Kindle Edition)

This is what it says it is: a public domain text with navigation that allows the user to easily navigate the entire book, providing forward, backward and cross links to every section of the book. Most public domain texts (and far too many new texts) are just plain texts rendered into the Kindle format. This text was carefully constructed to fit the structure of this book.