{{Short description|1991 novel by Ismail Kadare}} {{Use dmy dates|date=May 2021}} {{Infobox book | name = The Blinding Order | title_orig = Qorrfermani | image = File:Qorrfermani.jpg | image_size = First edition | caption = | author = Ismail Kadare | country = Albania | language = Albanian | genre = Dystopian fiction, political fiction | publisher = Onufri | pub_date = 1991 | english_pub_date = 2005 | media_type = | pages = 90 | isbn = 978-1611451085 | oclc = | preceded_by = }} '''''The Blinding Order ''''' ({{langx|sq|Qorrfermani|lit=Curse It}}) is a short novel written by Ismail Kadare in 1984 and published in 1991, shortly after the collapse of the hoxhaist regime in Albania.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Röhm |first1=Joachim|title= Anmerkungen zur Entstehung der einzelnen Texte des Sammelbands "Der Raub des königlichen Schlafs"|url= http://www.joachim-roehm.info/schlaf_daten.pdf|website=Joachim Rohm|accessdate=15 September 2017|language= german}}</ref> Set in the 19th-century Ottoman Empire, ''The Blinding Order'' is a parable about the use of terror by authoritarian regimes,<ref name="WashingtonTimes">{{cite web|title=Chilling tales of Albania|url=http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2006/dec/2/20061202-102121-6820r/|website=The Washington Times|accessdate=15 September 2017|date=2 December 2006}}</ref> and it is linked through its main subplot to the author's banned 1981 novel ''The Palace of Dreams''.<ref name="Kirkus Reviews">{{cite web|title=Agamemnon's Daughter|url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/ismail-kadare/agamemnons-daughter/|website=Kirkus Reviews|accessdate=15 September 2017|date=13 November 2006}}</ref>
== Background == Kadare wrote ''The Blinding Order'' in the aftermath of a terror campaign in Communist Albania.{{citation needed|date=September 2017}}
== Plot == The plot centres on a religious order issued by a Sultan, calling for all people with the "dubious power"<ref>{{cite web|last1=Thomas|first1=Christine|title=REVIEW / Tyranny's death grip reaches all|url=http://www.sfgate.com/books/article/REVIEW-Tyranny-s-death-grip-reaches-all-2467049.php|website=SFGATE|accessdate=18 September 2017}}</ref> of the evil eye to be blinded, and the subsequent terror campaign that follows. All this is narrated in a "fable tone of one thousand and one nightmare nights".<ref name="FrankfurterAllgemeine"/>
== Reception == Describing the novel as "superbly plotted" and "charged with bitter black humor," ''Kirkus Reviews'' praised it as "a masterly parable worthy of comparison with José Saramago's Nobel-anointed fiction.<ref name="Kirkus Reviews"/> Boyd Tonkin from ''The Independent'' described it as "a chilling fable of inscrutable tyranny and collective surrender".<ref>{{cite web|last1=Tonkin|first1=Boyd|title=Paperbacks: Agamemnon's Daughter, by Ismail Kadare|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/paperbacks-agamemnons-daughter-by-ismail-kadare-785330.html|website=The Independent|date=22 February 2008|accessdate=15 September 2017}}</ref> Wolfgang Schneider from ''Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung'', while reviewing ''Der Raub des Königlichen Schlafs'' – a volume of 12 stories, novellas and short novels by Kadare, published in German –singled out ''The Blinding Order'' as the best one, describing it as a "grandiose story". According to him, it gives "literary form" to the "horror of the sabotage-accusation"-which numerous people in socialist countries fell victim to.<ref name="FrankfurterAllgemeine">{{cite web|last1=Schneider|first1=Wolfgang|title=Blicke ins offene Hirn|url=https://www.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/buecher/rezensionen/belletristik/ismail-kadare-der-raub-des-koeniglichen-schlafs-blicke-ins-offene-hirn-1829917-p2.html |website= Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung|date=30 July 2009|accessdate=15 September 2017|language= german}}</ref>
==See also== *Albanian literature
==References== {{reflist}}
{{Ismail Kadare}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Blinding Order}} Category:1991 novels Category:20th-century Albanian novels Category:Novels by Ismail Kadare Category:Novels set in the Ottoman Empire Category:Novels set in the 19th century Category:Onufri Publishing House books