LibriVox Forum

Yes, Helen Keller is obvious - but we do have others, no? Fiction?

I'm afraid, I don't understand the secret garden reference?

Availle wrote: ↑September 1st, 2022, 9:45 pm I'm afraid, I don't understand the secret garden reference?

I guess Mary’s cousin recovers from his disability (long-term inability to walk due to illness) over the course of the book, so if that doesn’t fit the requirement, that’s fine.

Besides Helen Keller, it was just my first thought (even though I haven’t read the book for decades!).

Stephanie

stepheather wrote: ↑September 1st, 2022, 10:00 pm

Availle wrote: ↑September 1st, 2022, 9:45 pm I'm afraid, I don't understand the secret garden reference?

I guess Mary’s cousin recovers from his disability (long-term inability to walk due to illness) over the course of the book, so if that doesn’t fit the requirement, that’s fine.

Oh, I see. No, him recovering would be fine (who doesn't love a happy ending ) - but how central is he to the plot? If he's just a side-character with not much to do, then I don't know...
Also, I'm pretty sure this book was already chosen, and I prefer not to repeat anything.

Ah, okay.

If I recall correctly, he’s pretty central to the plot.

Stephanie

if you want fiction
https://librivox.org/the-light-that-failed-by-rudyard-kipling/ about a painter who lost his sight. It may have been his first novel.
Rochester loses his sight in Jane Eyre but it isn't a major part of the plot

Anne

Laura's sister Mary loses her sight via scarlet fever? On the Shores of Silver Lake I think

annise wrote: ↑September 1st, 2022, 11:46 pm Laura's sister Mary loses her sight via scarlet fever? On the Shores of Silver Lake I think

Yes - but sadly not PD just yet:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/By_the_Shores_of_Silver_Lake

Owen's poems "mental cases" and "disabled" are included in this collection https://librivox.org/poems-by-wilfred-owen/


Fiction about a musician, blind from birth https://librivox.org/the-blind-musician-by-vladimir-korolenko/

Thank you - those are powerful poems!

I had read an article, which I really liked as a text/story, but it's part of the non-fiction collection so not appropriate for a staff pick, but I'd like to just mention it here:

"The William Terry Touch Alphabet (for Use By the Deaf and the Deaf-and-Blind)" in https://librivox.org/short-nonfiction-collection-vol-082-by-various/
text: https://archive.org/details/williamterrytouc0000haro/mode/2up

It's inspiring how this person who gradually loses sight and hearing, still finds ways to enjoy life. It's not so with everyone...

George MacDonald features characters with disabilities in almost every one of his adult novels. Most of them are important supporting characters, but in Sir Gibbie, the title character is himself mute (though not deaf): https://librivox.org/sir-gibbie-by-george-macdonald/ Autism was not yet a concept, but I happen to think that Gibbie is in fact autistic. Later in the novel, he learns to communicate through sign language, but both before and after this, he is constantly misunderstood and disrespected.

There's a happy ending though!

Section 17 of https://librivox.org/how-they-succeeded-by-orison-swett-marden/ is about the blind John B. Herreshoff, who was a Yacht Builder. He and his sighted brother Nate designed and built the US defenders for the America's Cup yacht races. (I was a boat designer/builder - he's a legendary figure in that field.)

There may be other chapters in that book about folks with disabilities or working to ameliorate them: Section 2 is about Bell.

Thanks, Todd

If you wanted a fictional "success story" rather than "noble suffering" there is Max Carrados the blind detective https://librivox.org/search?q=max%20Carrados&search_form=advanced.

Anne

Great suggestions, thank you!

I hope it's not poor form to suggest something I coordinated, but Mountain Idylls, and Other Poems by Alfred Castner King might be appropriate - "the blind poet of the San Juans"; he permanently lost his sight in a mining accident, and compiled this collection while recovering. Many of the poems were drafted prior to the accident and later revised, others were written while receiving treatment in hopes of regaining his sight.