THE
BLIND MUSICIAN
BY
VLADIMIR KOROLENKO
TRANSLATED FROM THE RUSSIAN
By ALINE DELANO
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY GEORGE KENNAN
Illustrations by Edmund H. Garrett
BOSTON
LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY
1891
Copyright, 1890
By Little, Brown, and Company
THIRD EDITION
University Press
John Wilson and Son, Cambridge
PREFACE.
In this sketch, called by Korolenko “apsychological study,” the author has attemptedto analyze the inner life of theblind. He has undertaken to lay beforethe reader not only the psychologicalprocesses in the mind of the blind,but their suffering from the lack of sightas well, uncomplicated by any untowardcircumstances.
To accomplish this he has placed hishero in most favorable, nay, almost exceptionalconditions. The subjects for thisstudy are a blind girl, whom the authorhad known as a child; a boy, a pupil ofhis, who was gradually losing his sight;[iv]and a professional musician, blind fromhis birth, intellectually gifted, scholarly,and refined.
Upon the completion of my translation, Isubmitted it to Mr. M. Anagnos, of the PerkinsInstitution for the blind, and receivedfrom him the following note, which he haskindly permitted me to make public:—
My Dear Madam,—I have read, with duecare and deep interest, your translation ofVladimir Korolenko’s book, entitled “The BlindMusician,” and I take great pleasure in beingable to say that the story, although very simpleboth in form and substance, is conceived andelaborated with a masterly skill. It is ingeniousin construction, artistic in execution, and full ofimaginative vigor. The author shows a keenappreciation of what is charming and beautifulin Nature and a fine power of analysis. Hisideas on the intellectual development and physicaltraining of the blind are correct, and cannot[v]but deepen the interest of the reader in thevarious phases of the story. That some of hispsychological observations, derived from thestudy of a limited number of cases, representindividual characteristics or idiosyncrasies whichcannot be applied to all persons bereft of thevisual sense, in no wise detracts from the valueof the work....
Sincerely yours,
M. Anagnos.
May this simple story, written fromthe heart, reach the heart of him whoreads it!
Aline Delano.
Boston, Mass. June, 1890.
CONTENTS
