The lost senses. Series II. - blindness.
London.
Charles Knight, 1845.
First edition.
12mo.
[2], iv, [1], 6-254pp. With a half-title. Partially unopened in original publisher's blind-stamped tan cloth, lettered in gilt. Heavily sunned, lightly rubbed and spotted. Internally clean and crisp.
The first edition of John Kitto's (1804-1854) study on blindness, second in the series of 'The Lost Senses', and described as a 'cultural history of deafness and blindness' (Stoddard Holmes). Wilkie Collins based his representation of disability in Hide and Seek (1854) on the contents of this volume and its predecessor on deafness.
Unlike the volume on deafness, Kitto's writing on blindness was not autobiographical, and instead drew on the testimonies of other blind people, such as the American Laura Bridgman, and works of blind poets, philosophers and musicians. For this reason, Kitto appears to be more open to the suggestion that the blind may not always desire the restoration of their sight, including the experience of a man who argued that he was 'deeply convinced that there are simple, proper and available means, by which the mind might be brought to feel blindness as no privation at all'.
£ 125.00
Antiquates Ref: 19732
Unlike the volume on deafness, Kitto's writing on blindness was not autobiographical, and instead drew on the testimonies of other blind people, such as the American Laura Bridgman, and works of blind poets, philosophers and musicians. For this reason, Kitto appears to be more open to the suggestion that the blind may not always desire the restoration of their sight, including the experience of a man who argued that he was 'deeply convinced that there are simple, proper and available means, by which the mind might be brought to feel blindness as no privation at all'.
