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Edward Wheatley’s historical survey of blindness opens with the account of an ‘‘entertainment’’ that took place in Paris in 1425. Located in a park, this ‘‘amusement’’ was performed by four blind men and a pig, which the former would obtain if they managed to kill the animal with the sticks given to them. This expensive and carefully planned event was staged for the enjoyment of the sighted, who rejoiced in observing the blind men giving each other great blows, thereby inflicting more injuries on each other than they actually gave to the pig. As Wheatley’s book makes clear, the cruel attitude toward the blind demonstrated by this event is especially characteristic of the general attitude toward blind people in medieval France. By comparing cultural constructions of blindness in France and England over some two hundred years, Wheatley arrives at the surprising conclusion that the reactions to visual impairment displayed in these two countries differed considerably. His comparative approach to the religious and social practices that shaped medieval attitudes to blindness thus proves very rewarding and will be highly useful for scholars dealing both with social history and with the theoretical aspects of vision in this period. In the introductory chapter, ‘‘Cripping the Middle Ages, Medievalizing Disability Theory,’’ Wheatley delineates the theoretical approach he adopts in this book. As the title of this chapter suggests, disability theory is paramount to the consideration of medieval religious, literary, and artistic representations of blindness pursued by the author. However, because the field of disability studies has tended to focus on the present and rather

modern philology

<i>Edward Wheatley</i> Stumbling Blocks before the Blind: Medieval Constructions of a Disability<i>Stumbling Blocks before the Blind: Medieval Constructions of a Disability</i>. Edward Wheatley. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2010. Pp. xiii+284.

Edward Wheatley Stumbling Blocks before the Blind: Medieval Constructions of a DisabilityStumbling Blocks before the Blind: Medieval Constructions of a Disability. Edward Wheatley. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2010. Pp. xiii+284.