''Der Blindensturz'' (1985), translated as ''The Parable of the Blind'', is a short

novel A novel is an extended work of narrative fiction usually written in prose and published as a book. The word derives from the for 'new', 'news', or 'short story (of something new)', itself from the , a singular noun use of the neuter plural of ...

in ten chapters by

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

writer Gert Hofmann. Inspired by '' Parabel der Blinden'' (1568), a

painting Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

Netherlandish The Low Countries comprise the coastal Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta region in Western Europe, whose definition usually includes the modern countries of Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands and parts of Northern France. Both Belgium and the ...

artist Pieter Bruegel, the novel tells the story of the work's creation from the point of view of the six blind men depicted in the painting. The story is recounted in the present tense,

first person plural ''First Person Plural: My Life As A Multiple'' is a psychology-related autobiography written by Cameron West, who developed dissociative identity disorder (DID) as a result of childhood sexual abuse. In it, West describes his diagnosis, treatmen ...

. The "we" that comprises the six blind men often seems to consist of one entity; however, most of the men have separate names and identities and will sometimes say or do things that distinguish them from the group. ''Der Blindensturz'' has been translated into English by Christopher Middleton for Fromm International in 1989.

Synopsis

The action of the story is concerned with the six blind men who are hired to be painted by an unnamed painter (whom the reader will come to realize is Bruegel) and their confused journey to the painter's house. After becoming lost, nearly drowned, and attacked by a dog, the men finally arrive at the painter's house where they are fed and warmed (and nearly burned by the fire). The blind men are then led to a bridge and are told to repeatedly walk across it in a line as they hold on to each other and fall into the stream, while the painter paints them from inside his open window.

Reception

In ''

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'', Edmund Hardy writes: "Hofmann’s prose is so concentrated and unrelenting that claustrophobia turns to terrible awareness . . . henovel is a joke on metaphor—which, classically, bridges the inward mental activity to the world of appearances, left in this novel as a swing bridge hanging over the water—making the parable, 'in this light', a parable of the parables." In his review, Hardy also praises Middleton's translation. An anonymous reviewer in ''

Kirkus Reviews ''Kirkus Reviews'' is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus. The magazine's publisher, Kirkus Media, is headquartered in New York City. ''Kirkus Reviews'' confers the annual Kirkus Prize to authors of fiction, no ...

'' writes: "Hofmann . . . has written a spare, surprisingly electric novella . . . lean, effective, and subtle work, the best by Hofmann to be translated here so far." ''

Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of ...

'' describes the novel as an "implacably bleak

fable Fable is a literary genre defined as a succinct fictional story, in prose or verse, that features animals, legendary creatures, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature that are anthropomorphized, and that illustrates or leads to a parti ...

References

External links

* ''The Parable of the Blind'' by Gert Hofmann on the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Parable of the Blind (novel), The 1985 German novels Novels about blindness