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Blindness (Ensaio sobre a cegueira in Portuguese), Jose Saramago's novel, first published in Portuguese in 1995 and in English in 1997, concerns a plague of white blindness which strikes a man sitting in traffic, and soon begins to spread across the country. As the blind are quarantined and civil services begin to break down, and the story follows a doctor's wife, the only person free of the blindess which afflicts all others. More than simply commenting on the basest facets of human nature as they emerge in a crisis of epidemic, (as can also be seen in Albert Camus's The Plague) Blindness shows the deep humanity of those who are forced to rely on one another when their natural senses have left them. The white glare of the blindness illuminates the perceptions of the main characters, and the tale becomes not only a record of the physical survival of the blind masses, but also of their spiritual lives and the dignity to which they cling. The novel itself is written in long sentences, with absolutely no quotation marks. Rather, the back-and-forth dialogue is separated only by commas, with sentences typically lasting at least half a page, and sometimes exceeding a page. While awkward at first, this technique also allows fluid reading of the novel and a good understanding of the interchange and tempo of the conversations between the characters. Another article of note is the lack of any names in the book; the characters are referred to by appellations such as "the doctor's wife," "the car thief," or "the girl with the dark glasses." In fact, the country afflicted by the blindess is not named, and very few references to present-day technologies add some element of timelessness as well as universality to the novel. Some elements of Portuguese culture are evident, however, including a reference to the familiar "tu" form as well as chorizo, a spicy sausage.
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