The World Through Blunted Sight

Book excerpt: How did faulty or failing eyesight affect the style and technique of writers and artists. How did it affect the way they convey their visual impressions. In a classic study, first published in 1970 and thoroughly revised in 1988, Patrick Trevor-Roper combines his professional knowledge of ophthalmology with his extensive familiarity with art and literature to fascinatingly examine the work of painters, sculptors, poets and prose writers. Looking at the effects of myopia, cataracts, colour blindness, squints and total blindness he speculates on what the impact would have been on artists had they worn glasses. Illustrated with colour reproductions and a wealth of black and white photos, this was a true labour of love from a highly cultured man, erudite and stimulating.