Chapter I: Preface

In this sketch, called by Korolenko “a psychological study,” the author has attempted to analyze the inner life of the blind. He has undertaken to lay before the reader not only the psychological processes in the mind of the blind, but their suffering from the lack of sight as well, uncomplicated by any untoward circumstances.

To accomplish this he has placed his hero in most favorable, nay, almost exceptional conditions. The subjects for this study are a blind girl, whom the author had known as a child; a boy, a pupil of his, who was gradually losing his sight; and a professional musician, blind from his birth, intellectually gifted, scholarly, and refined.

Upon the completion of my translation, I submitted it to Mr. M. Anagnos, of the Perkins Institution for the blind, and received from him the following note, which he has kindly permitted me to make public:—

MY DEAR MADAM,—I have read, with due care and deep interest,
your translation of Vladimir Korolenko’s book, entitled “The
Blind Musician,” and I take great pleasure in being able to
say that the story, although very simple both in form and
substance, is conceived and elaborated with a masterly skill.
It is ingenious in construction, artistic in execution, and
full of imaginative vigor. The author shows a keen appreciation
of what is charming and beautiful in Nature and a fine power
of analysis. His ideas on the intellectual development and
physical training of the blind are correct, and cannot but
deepen the interest of the reader in the various phases of
the story. That some of his psychological observations,
derived from the study of a limited number of cases, represent
individual characteristics or idiosyncrasies which cannot be
applied to all persons bereft of the visual sense, in no wise
detracts from the value of the work....

Sincerely yours,