DIY History | Transcribe | Hevelin Fanzines | Fantasy Commentator, v. 1, issue 5, Winter 1944-1945

Transcribe
Translate

Fantasy Commentator, v. 1, issue 5, Winter 1944-1945

Page 74

74
FANTASY COMMENTATOR

Concerning "The Country of the Blind"

by
A. Langley Searles

Although H. G. Wells' short fantasy "The Country of the Blind" has been reprinted frequently since its original appearance early in the century, few readers are apparently aware of the fact that there are two different versions of the story extant. It is almost universally remembered in its first form, which saw print originally in the April 1904 number of the English Strand Magazine, and which has since been included in The Door in the Wall, and Other Stories (1911), The Country of the Blind and Other Stories (1913) and The Short Stories of H. G. Wells (1927)---as well as in E. R. Mirrielees' collection Significant Contemporary Stories (1929), and also Amazing Stories magazine (vol. 2 no. 9, December 1927).

In this version, one Nunez---an expert mountain-climber and guide---enters an isolated Andean valley which has been completely cut off from outer civilization for fifteen generations. The ancestors of the present inhabitants had suffered from a rare malady that caused them gradually to lose their sight---a loss of faculty which proved to be hereditary, for their children were also born blind. Yet so gradual was this process that over a period of decades the people managed to evolve an existence that was not dependant on seeing for its continuance. And as generations were born, lived, and died the other four senses managed to sustain the civilization of the group. The old concepts of reality were changed; traditions were weighed, and molded to fit seemingly more rational concepts; the very universe, to these blind people, shrank to the area of their tiny valley, their hollow between all but unscalable rocky cliffs. And at the time Nunez arrives, the very names for all things connected with sight have faded from the language.

Nunez remembers that "in the country of the blind the one-eyed man is king," but soon discovers that this aphorism is not valid. With their highly-developed sense of hearing and keen dog-like sense of smell the inhabitants have him always at their mercy; and since they regard his talk of "seeing" as a symptom of insanity he is kept under strict surveillance. In the end, not wishing to continue at hard manual labor for his subsistence to the end of his days, Nunez abandons the Country of the Blind and Medina-sarote, a girl there who has come to love him, and manages to climb out of the valley by the same dangerously precipitous way he entered it many days before.

In 1939 Wells revised the story extensively. This revised version was published in a limited edition by the well-known Golden Cockerel Press of London. Only 280 numbered copies were printed, which makes the volume virtually unobtainable as far as the average collector is concerned. This is indeed unfortunate, for along with the new version is also included the original one, and both are embellished with numerous engravings by Clifford Webb. Luckily, however, the tale has been reprinted in its 1939 form in one other volume: The College Survey of English Literature (1942), edited by B. J. Whiting and others.

The author has added about 3000 words in the revised version, thus increasing the story's original length by approximately one-third. The difference lies solely in the ending. Here, instead of abandoning Medina-sarote and her people, Nunez at this point in the narration suddenly notices that a great section of the precipices surrounding the valley has developed a serious fault-line since his arrival. This can mean only one thing: the ultimate collapse of a portion of the rock into the Country of the Blind, which would of course cause its complete destruction. All attempts to warn the people prove useless; they regard his excitement over this imminent danger as a final proof of incurable insanity, and in the end, their patience exhausted, drive him from the village.

Saving...

74 FANTASY COMMENTATOR Concerning "The Country of the Blind" by A. Langley Searles Although H. G. Wells' short fantasy "The Country of the Blind" has been reprinted frequently since its original appearance early in the century, few readers are apparently aware of the fact that there are two different versions of the story extant. It is almost universally remembered in its first form, which saw print originally in the April 1904 number of the English Strand Magazine, and which has since been included in The Door in the Wall, and Other Stories (1911), The Country of the Blind and Other Stories (1913) and The Short Stories of H. G. Wells (1927)---as well as in E. R. Mirrielees' collection Significant Contemporary Stories (1929), and also Amazing Stories magazine (vol. 2 no. 9, December 1927). In this version, one Nunez---an expert mountain-climber and guide---enters an isolated Andean valley which has been completely cut off from outer civilization for fifteen generations. The ancestors of the present inhabitants had suffered from a rare malady that caused them gradually to lose their sight---a loss of faculty which proved to be hereditary, for their children were also born blind. Yet so gradual was this process that over a period of decades the people managed to evolve an existence that was not dependant on seeing for its continuance. And as generations were born, lived, and died the other four senses managed to sustain the civilization of the group. The old concepts of reality were changed; traditions were weighed, and molded to fit seemingly more rational concepts; the very universe, to these blind people, shrank to the area of their tiny valley, their hollow between all but unscalable rocky cliffs. And at the time Nunez arrives, the very names for all things connected with sight have faded from the language. Nunez remembers that "in the country of the blind the one-eyed man is king," but soon discovers that this aphorism is not valid. With their highly-developed sense of hearing and keen dog-like sense of smell the inhabitants have him always at their mercy; and since they regard his talk of "seeing" as a symptom of insanity he is kept under strict surveillance. In the end, not wishing to continue at hard manual labor for his subsistence to the end of his days, Nunez abandons the Country of the Blind and Medina-sarote, a girl there who has come to love him, and manages to climb out of the valley by the same dangerously precipitous way he entered it many days before. In 1939 Wells revised the story extensively. This revised version was published in a limited edition by the well-known Golden Cockerel Press of London. Only 280 numbered copies were printed, which makes the volume virtually unobtainable as far as the average collector is concerned. This is indeed unfortunate, for along with the new version is also included the original one, and both are embellished with numerous engravings by Clifford Webb. Luckily, however, the tale has been reprinted in its 1939 form in one other volume: The College Survey of English Literature (1942), edited by B. J. Whiting and others. The author has added about 3000 words in the revised version, thus increasing the story's original length by approximately one-third. The difference lies solely in the ending. Here, instead of abandoning Medina-sarote and her people, Nunez at this point in the narration suddenly notices that a great section of the precipices surrounding the valley has developed a serious fault-line since his arrival. This can mean only one thing: the ultimate collapse of a portion of the rock into the Country of the Blind, which would of course cause its complete destruction. All attempts to warn the people prove useless; they regard his excitement over this imminent danger as a final proof of incurable insanity, and in the end, their patience exhausted, drive him from the village.