The Blinding Order

The Blinding Order (Albanian: Qorrfermani) is a short novel written by Ismail Kadare in 1984 and published in 1991, shortly after the collapse of the hoxhaist regime in Albania.[1] Set in the 19th-century Ottoman Empire, The Blinding Order is a parable about the use of terror by authoritarian regimes,[2] and it is linked through its main subplot to the author's banned 1981 novel The Palace of Dreams.[3]

The Blinding Order
First edition
AuthorIsmail Kadare
Original titleQorrfermani
CountryAlbania
LanguageAlbanian
GenreDystopian fiction, political fiction
PublisherOnufri
Publication date
1991
Published in English
2005
Pages90
ISBN978-1611451085

Background

Kadare wrote The Blinding Order in the aftermath of a terror campaign in Communist Albania.

Plot

The plot centres on a religious order issued by a Sultan, calling for all people with the "dubious power"[4] of the evil eye to be blinded, and the subsequent terror campaign that follows. All this is narrated in a "fable tone of one thousand and one nightmare nights" [5]

Reception

Describing the novel as "superbly plotted" and "charged with bitter black humor," Kirkus Reviews praised it as "a masterly parable worthy of comparison with José Saramago’s Nobel-anointed fiction.[3] Boyd Tonkin from The Independent described it as "a chilling fable of inscrutable tyranny and collective surrender".[6] Wolfgang Schneider from Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, while reviewing Der Raub des Königlichen Schlafs – a volume of 12 stories, novellas and short novels by Kadare, published in German –singled out The Blinding Order as the best one, describing it as a "grandiose story". According to him, it gives "literary form" to the "horror of the sabotage-accusation"-which numerous people in socialist countries fell victim to.[5]

See also

References
  1. Röhm, Joachim. "Anmerkungen zur Entstehung der einzelnen Texte des Sammelbands "Der Raub des königlichen Schlafs"" (PDF). Joachim Rohm (in German). Retrieved 15 September 2017.
  2. "Chilling tales of Albania". The Washington Times. 2 December 2006. Retrieved 15 September 2017.
  3. "Agamemnon's Daughter". Kirkus Reviews. 13 November 2006. Retrieved 15 September 2017.
  4. Thomas, Christine. "REVIEW / Tyranny's death grip reaches all". SFGATE. Retrieved 18 September 2017.
  5. Schneider, Wolfgang (30 July 2009). "Blicke ins offene Hirn". Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (in German). Retrieved 15 September 2017.
  6. Tonkin, Boyd (22 February 2008). "Paperbacks: Agamemnon's Daughter, by Ismail Kadare". The Independent. Retrieved 15 September 2017.
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