
Blind Owl
Sadeq Hedayat(Author)
Penguin Classics (Publisher)
Published on 6. October 2022
Book
Paperback/Softback
112 pages
978-0-14-313658-3 (ISBN)
Description
Blind Owl, Sadeq Hedayat's masterpiece, tells the story of a young pen-case painter and his heartbreak. Isolated and alone, he mourns the loss of a mysterious love while descending into recollections and dreams frosted over by opium and alcohol, and imbued with the images he paints: an old man, a cypress tree, a beautiful woman, a waterlily. In stark, lyrical terms, the puzzle of the pen-case painter's grief is slowly unveiled ...
As inscrutable as it is universal, Blind Owl is the seminal work of Persian modernism, and one of the great novels of the twentieth century.
As inscrutable as it is universal, Blind Owl is the seminal work of Persian modernism, and one of the great novels of the twentieth century.
Reviews / Votes
"a much-needed and clear translation"-Amir-Hussein Radjy, The New York Times
"The eerie, phantasmal Blind Owl...possesses the fully dimensional oddness of a vivid dream, which one can mine for interpretations, analyze for influences or simply submit to."
-Sam Sacks, Wall Street Journal
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Penguin Books Ltd
Product notice
Paperback (UK-B)
Dimensions
Height: 196 mm
Width: 131 mm
Thickness: 10 mm
Weight
103 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-14-313658-3 (9780143136583)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Persons
Sadeq Hedayat (Author)
Sadegh Hedayat (1903 - 1951) was an Iranian writer and translator. Born in Tehran to an aristocratic Iranian family, Hedayat - after a brief period studying in France - became a devotee of Western literature and an exponent of Iranian folklore and history. He is credited with introducing many modern European writers to Iran, translating works from now-seminal authors such as Franz Kafka, Anton Chekhov and Jean-Paul Sartre. His novel Blind Owl is considered to be the earliest modernist work written in Persian and one of the great Iranian novels of twentieth century. He later returned to France, where, in 1951, he died by suicide.
Sassan Tabatabai (Translator)
Sassan Tabatabai is a poet, translator, editor, and lecturer of Persian literature at Boston University.
Sadegh Hedayat (1903 - 1951) was an Iranian writer and translator. Born in Tehran to an aristocratic Iranian family, Hedayat - after a brief period studying in France - became a devotee of Western literature and an exponent of Iranian folklore and history. He is credited with introducing many modern European writers to Iran, translating works from now-seminal authors such as Franz Kafka, Anton Chekhov and Jean-Paul Sartre. His novel Blind Owl is considered to be the earliest modernist work written in Persian and one of the great Iranian novels of twentieth century. He later returned to France, where, in 1951, he died by suicide.
Sassan Tabatabai (Translator)
Sassan Tabatabai is a poet, translator, editor, and lecturer of Persian literature at Boston University.