Is this book part of a series?

This novel is the first in a thematic pair and is followed by the book titled Seeing, which revisits the same unnamed country and some of the same characters years later.

Are there any film adaptations of this book?

A film adaptation directed by Fernando Meirelles was released in 2008, featuring an international cast including Julianne Moore and Mark Ruffalo.

What is unique about the writing style in this novel?

The narrative is written with a distinctive lack of conventional punctuation and paragraph breaks, often blending dialogue directly into the prose to create a continuous, stream-of-consciousness flow.

Ensaio Sobre a Cegueira by José Saramago

Reader reviews of Ensaio Sobre a Cegueira

Tara Nelson · 2026-07-09T01:53:50.000000Z

I decided to read this book after one of the men in my book club told me about it. I thought the plot was extremely fascinating so I figured it was worth a read. I wasn't disappointed. Blindess is about the sudden white-blindness a city descends into and the madness and inhumanity that follows. Only one person out of the hundreds can see, the wife of a doctor. The doctor is also one of the victims of the sudeen white blindness. It's a white blindness because the victims see nothing but white light when they go blind (as opposed to sudden blackness or darkness). There is no explanation for the sudden onset of this blindness and there appears to be no cure. One minute, you can see and the next, you can't. The story focuses on the wife who can see, the doctor, another husband/wife couple, a young woman who wears dark glasses, an old man with an eye patch, a little boy and a dog who befriends the "seeing" wife. In the early days of the blindness, the government locks away all of the victims, hoping that the "epidemic" can be contained. Blind victims are sent to the empty mental hospital and kept there with little food, water and clean bedding. The Government has placed soldiers, with orders to kill, around the perimeter of the hospital, and those soldiers follow orders closely. As the hospital fills with the blind, a society of terror and torture develops, when a handful of blind internees decides to horde the meager food rations and make the other blind internees pay for small portions. First the payments are made with valuables the internees brought with them, then, the payments are made with the women. The small group of men demand that the women serve as payment for the meager food supplies. The doctor's wife, devises a plan to stop the atrocities the other women in the building suffer at the hands of these men (monsters more like) and sneaks in with a group of women from another ward. She quickly kills the leader and fighting ensues, with several more men dying while the women escape the brutality of rape and humiliation. Then, the fighting goes outside, where all is still. The Government has finally fallen to the same fate as its citizens, it has gone blind. The doctor's wife leads the group out of the hospital and manages to get them safely to the home her and her husband shared before being sent to the hospital for quarantine. She figures out ways to feed the blind group with her, all while crying into the matted fur of the dog, who met up with them as they walked the streets. Then, one day, things begin to change. Slowly, people begin to regain their sight. The sight comes on as unexpectedly as the blindness and the whole time, the doctor's wife has been the only person to witness the descent and subsequent ascent of humanity. This book is written without names and without quotation marks. That was one thing that irritated me. I had a time figuring out who was talking as there were no quotations to show that a person was talking and when numerous characters talked, their speeches ran together and it was easy to get lost in who was talking. Other than that minor grammatical nuisance, I found this story very enjoyable and chilling. It was an excellent "what if" type of story, examining what people would become if they lost "way" and by losing the way, were given the freedom to do whatever they wanted. It showed how illness and the unexplained, can lead to fear, loathing and rash judgments by those in power. It also showed how truly powerful love is and possibly, that through blindness can we truly see who our allies and enemies are. There is a sequel to this book and I'm looking forward to reading it. It is called "Seeing" and picks up 4 years after society has regained its eyesight. This is not the kind of book that should be read quickly, but rather slowly so it can truly be absorbed. It is a good book and I really enjoyed it.

Without warning, a man stopped at a traffic light goes blind, his vision swallowed not by darkness but by a blank, milky white. The affliction spreads like contagion, and a terrified government herds the first victims into a derelict asylum under armed guard, hoping to contain what it cannot understand.

Inside, as more and more of the city loses its sight, the thin structures of civilization collapse. Food, sanitation, and dignity give way to squalor, violence, and the tyranny of the cruel over the helpless. Through it all moves the doctor's wife, the one person who inexplicably keeps her sight and hides it, bearing witness to the worst and best of what people become when no one believes they can be seen.

José Saramago's Nobel-honored novel is a stark allegory of how quickly society can unravel, and a hard-won argument for compassion, told in his distinctive flowing, near-unpunctuated prose.

Prose complexity: 7/10

Dark Tense Thought-Provoking

J

José Saramago

José de Sousa Saramago, GColSE ComSE GColCa (Portuguese: [ʒuˈzɛ ðɨ ˈso(w).zɐ sɐɾɐˈmaɣu]; 16 November 1922 – 18 June 2010), was a Portuguese writer and recipient of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Literature for his "parables sustained by imagination, compassion and irony [with which he] continually enables us once again to apprehend an elusory reality." His works, some of which can be seen as allegories, commonly present subversive perspectives on historic events, emphasizing the theopoetic human factor...

The Man with the Black Eye PatchAntagonist

A character who emerges as a leader of the criminal element within the mental hospital, exploiting and terrorizing the other blind internees.

The Boy with No MotherSupporting

One of the seven strangers guided by the eyewitness, he is part of the group navigating the city's barren streets.

The doctor (Blindness)Supporting

The girl with the dark glassesSupporting

The first blind manSupporting

All characters in Ensaio Sobre a Cegueira

Frequently asked questions

Is this book part of a series?
This novel is the first in a thematic pair and is followed by the book titled Seeing, which revisits the same unnamed country and some of the same characters years later.
Are there any film adaptations of this book?
A film adaptation directed by Fernando Meirelles was released in 2008, featuring an international cast including Julianne Moore and Mark Ruffalo.
What is unique about the writing style in this novel?
The narrative is written with a distinctive lack of conventional punctuation and paragraph breaks, often blending dialogue directly into the prose to create a continuous, stream-of-consciousness flow.

Ensaio Sobre a Cegueira

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About the author

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Blindness

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Ensaio Sobre a Cegueira

Synopsis

Vibe

Genres

About the author

Characters

Subjects 11

Places 3

Awards 2

Frequently asked questions

Blindness

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