SOURCE: Searles, A. Langley. “Concerning ‘The Country of the Blind.’” The Wellsian, no. 14 (summer 1991): 29-33.

In the following essay, Searles examines the two different versions of “The Country of the Blind.”

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 (1911) and The Short Stories of H. G. Wells (1927).

In this version, one Núñez—an expert mountain-climber and guide—enters an isolated Andean valley which has been completely cut off from...