The Country of the Blind

The Country of the Blind is a short story written by H. G. Wells and originally published in 1904.

Nuñez is a mountaineer who is climbing the fictitious mountain called Parascotopetl in Ecuador. However, after slipping, he falls down the mountain until he reaches a valley isolated from the world where he discovers the "Country of the Blind," which is inhabited by settlers who had fled their rulers and thrived in isolation.

The problem is that a disease ravaged the community and caused all the babies to be born completely blind, so that after several generations all the inhabitants were blind. This disability caused the rest of the senses such as hearing and touch to develop and they adapted perfectly to the new life.

There, Nuñez will try to understand their way of life and try to teach them his way of life and governance, although it will not be easy for them to understand with their vision problem. Nuñez will discover the wisdom of the people despite his blindness and will change his first impression of them.

"Three hundred miles and more from Chimborazo, one hundred from the snows of Cotopaxi, in the wildest wastes of Ecuador’s Andes, there lies that mysterious mountain valley, cut off from all the world of men, the Country of the Blind."