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Blindness: A Haunting Literary Horror of Humanity's Survival and Social Breakdown – Nobel Prize Winner (Harvest Book)

Nobel Prize in Literature

Blindness: A Haunting Literary Horror of Humanity's Survival and Social Breakdown – Nobel Prize Winner (Harvest Book)

José Saramago

Blindness is José Saramago’s novel about a city collapsing under an unexplained epidemic of sudden blindness.

dystopiaallegorysocial collapseethics

Work Information

A wave of white blindness erodes order, trust, and morality.

One of Saramago’s signature novels, it examines human frailty and solidarity under extreme conditions.

Book Information

Publisher
Mariner Books
Published
1999-10-04
Pages
352 pages
Language
英語
Size
13.49 x 2.06 x 20.32 cm
ISBN-13
9780156007757
ISBN-10
0156007754
Price
3360 JPY
Category
洋書/Literature & Fiction/Genre Fiction/Horror/Occult

International Bestseller | A stunningly powerful novel of humanity's will to survive against all odds during an epidemic by a winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature. "This is a shattering work by a literary master.”— Boston Globe A city is hit by an epidemic of "white blindness" which spares no one. Authorities confine the blind to an empty mental hospital, but there the criminal element holds everyone captive, stealing food rations and raping women. There is one eyewitness to this nightmare who guides seven strangers—among them a boy with no mother, a girl with dark glasses, a dog of tears—through the barren streets, and the procession becomes as uncanny as the surroundings are harrowing. A magnificent parable of loss and disorientation, Blindness has swept the reading public with its powerful portrayal of our worst appetites and weaknesses—and humanity's ultimately exhilarating spirit. "This is an important book, one that is unafraid to face all of the horror of the century."— Washington Post

JOSÉ SARAMAGO (1922–2010) was the author of many novels, among them Blindness, All the Names, Baltasar and Blimunda, and The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis. In 1998 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Reviews

  • A modern classic about plagues and men

    The novel deals with the chaos a country may reach when it is affected by a sight-depriving epidemy and the frailty of our the modern institutions against the our animal needs of a panic stricken population. But it also shows the struggle to preserve our humanity, as the only person inmune to the blindness strives to protect a group of people she adopts as a family. A true twentieth-century classic.

  • A horrible but exciting story being a blind

    It is a story of letting me feel how horrible it is to become a blind but how gracious it is to see. If it suddenly happens to me, I definitely can not bear being so. It is just a hairline between seeing and not seeing. How can I survive?

  • 非情の盲目サバイバル小説

    突然自分の目が見えなくなったら。自分が失明することさえ恐ろしくて考えられないのに、本書はある国の国民全員が一斉に失明するという極限状態を冷酷に描いた衝撃作です。 電気ガス水道通信は全て止り、体力のある人間から暴徒と化し略奪を繰り返します。町は汚わいで溢れかえり、人は地球上のどの動物よりも汚れた弱い生物と化していきます。その描写はあまりにもリアルで、現実離れした内容にもかかわらず途中何度もノンフィクションを読んでいるような錯覚に陥りました。 読書に安らぎや楽しさを求めている人にはお勧めできませんが、人間の極限状態を描いた最高にスリリングな小説です。

  • シンプルな仮定から導出される極限状況

    感染すると突然に視力を失うという、途轍もなく感染力の強く治療法の不明な伝染病に襲われた街。登場人物らは初期の感染者として施設に隔離されるが、感染力があまりに強いために施設内には盲目の感染者のみが閉じ込められただけで晴眼の看護者は誰もいない。施設には外部から食事も十分に提供されず、施設の外で何が起こっているのかも不明。そのような極限状況で起こるドラマを描いており、SF性、娯楽性、文学性が高いレベルで兼ね備えられている小説、と感じました。著者はノーベル文学賞を受賞しています。本作は映画化もされています( ブラインドネス [DVD ])。 本書の大部分はこの極限状況とそこで起こるドラマの描写ですが、衛生的にも道徳的にもとにかく汚いです。不快感は昔の大江健三郎のようかもしれません。一種、ゾンビの側から描いたゾンビ映画の趣きがあります。ゾンビの立場になるとゾンビの暮らしはここまでひどいのかという変な驚きがありました。見せてくるイメージとか閉塞感とかが強くて、読んでいると時折、自分も周りの人ももう視力を失って閉じ込められているかと錯覚させられることがあるくらいでした。これまで想像したこともない悲惨な世界を見せてくれたSF小説でした。 一方で本書は、そのような極限状況でも残った暖かい人間性をも描いています。そのような描写にさしかかるとほっとしました。自分の弱さなのか人間性を信じたい気持ちがあるのか、温かみのあるエピソードを無意識に心待ちにしながら読んでいる自分に気づきました。

  • sağlam geldi

  • Blindness is a fantastic book, the best I have read in a long time. It's difficult to explain without giving too much of the plot away, so I'll stick to generalisations. One of the most enjoyable features of Blindness is the writing style, which is at one both personal and almost documentary. The best way I can explain the style is inclusive. The main characters, who are thrown together in desperate circumstances, all give voice to their thoughts through the text - that is to say without traditional qoutemarks. Each character's thoughts are accounted for the same way, but the way the writer avoids confusion is by subtle narration. It's as if you are a bystander in the scenes where, every so often, the author pops up like a guide and whispers in your ear: this is why he thought this thing was important; aren't you wondering what she will say about that? I found myself totally absorbed in the action. The narrative of the book is harrowing but not to the point of hyperbole. There are descriptions of violence, destitution and sadness, but all are faced or dealt with in a way that most would find realistic or likely if indeed it were to happen to them. In are the selfish choices, uncertain actions and tearful failures; out are the Hollywood-style one liners or heroic speeches. Ultimately the book is almost a study of the modern human coping with as much dignity as possible in a world where contemporary comforts no longer apply. I thoroughly enjoyed Blindness and its story of getting by as best as you can.

  • A entrega é bastante rápida.

  • Best

  • This is a translation with no conversation punctuation but the narrative is so strong I couldn’t stop thinking about it.

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