The Bridge of San Luis Rey

By: Thornton Wilder

Narrated by: Sam Waterston

Length: 3 hrs and 42 mins

Publisher's summary

Pulitzer Prize Winner, The Novel, 1928

The Bridge of San Luis Rey, first published in 1927, was Thornton Wilder's first major work and won him instant international recognition. The story concerns the lives of five people who fall to their deaths on July 20, 1714, when a rope bridge breaks on a road near Lima, Peru. A humble Franciscan, Brother Juniper, witnesses the accident and determines to learn about the lives of the victims in order to find out whether this accident happened by chance or by plan.

Again and again, the novelist and playwright Thornton Wilder explores in his works the connections between the commonplace and cosmic dimensions of human experience, always returning to fundamental questions about the meaning of life.

The Bridge of San Luis Rey, one of the true great American classics, has been translated into more than 30 languages. The book won Wilder the first of his three Pulitzer Prizes.

©1927 Albert and Charles Boni Inc., 1955 renewed by Thornton Wilder (P)1997 HighBridge Company

Critic reviews

• Pulitzer Prize winner

"A masterpiece." (New York Herald Tribune)
"A melancholy narrative of great power, simplicity and beauty." (AudioFile)

Better read than listened to?

Maybe this book is better taken in via reading it, rather than listening, for it lacked a compelling reason to stay with it. While I did complete the novel, I was left wanting more, wishing it was better, wishing for the profound.

Short but profound

This is a short but profound meditation on the moments that can bring a sense of reconciliation and redemption to our lives, and how we misunderstand or misinterpret even those we are closest to. I remain somewhat mystified as to why he chose to base this, however loosely, on actual historical persons, or why he dislocated them in time from their actual historical dates. For that matter, I remain mystified as to why the book's internal timeline refuses to behave itself. None of this detracts from the beauty and concision of this gem of a book.

The recording has mysteries of its own. Sam Waterston is a fine actor and his reading is full of expressive nuances, but for some reason the sound is muddy. I can't tell if this is because it's an old transfer from tape, or if Mr. Waterston's voice is pitched oddly, or because he lacks that special clipped diction that makes other readers more listenable. Maybe my hearing is just suffering from old age.

Really fabulous read, brilliant narrator.

It was one of those rare reads where I didn't want the book to end.

Love is the only survivor

I read this in high school I think. I liked it then, but after listening to it today, I'm astonished how much stuck with me, and how much IS me.
A timeless story that changes with time. I #LoVE

The narration is poor.

Enjoyed the story, but this audiobook has very poor narration quality. There is alot of background static and the narrator speaks so low and quietly that I had to turn my volume up significantly just to hear him.

narrator mumbled

I might have enjoyed this book more if I could have understood more of the words. The narrator mumbled and swallowed his words. Seemed like he was running out of breath at the end of a sentence so one could not hear what he was saying.
Difficult to enjoy the story the reading was so poor.

A very compelling story performed well.

A very thought provoking story. Incredibly enjoyable and well performed. Characters have depth and are realistic.

The sound quality drags this one down

What did you like best about The Bridge of San Luis Rey? What did you like least?

I didn't like the sound quality at all. It's muffled, which, combined with the somewhat flat reading, makes the story just drone on and on. The story goes into significant depth about the characters, but I simply gave up on starting the second of five stories. While the stories might be interesting, I don't recommend this audiobook on the simple lack of audio quality. You can get a good idea of it in the audio sample.

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

The concept of the story seems interesting, but ultimately, I was finding the details, coupled with the difficulty in hearing it just not worth the effort.

How could the performance have been better?

Certainly a clearer recording - that didn't sound like it was made on a cassette recorder 35 years ago. It must be a rather old recording, transferred from tape.

And as much as I've always liked Sam Waterson as an actor, I found his reading flat to the point of becoming a drone.

Did The Bridge of San Luis Rey inspire you to do anything?

Only to try to return the book.

Any additional comments?

The recording quality is probably a disservice to the writing. Sorry to write such a negative review. I think this might be a book better read off the printed page than this recording.

Lackluster reading

Narrator sounded bored. Ruined a wonderful book. It sounded as if he neither cared about nor understood what he was reading.

Great story, poor quality audio, mediocre reading

The story was excellent. However, the audio quality was very poor. It was too quiet, and there was a distracting hiss in the background. Two of the parts played out of order, which was very frustrating. And the reading was mediocre as well. The reader rushed and mumbled at times and sometimes spoke with very little inflection, especially when reading dialogue. I've listened to a lot of books on Audible, and they are uniformly well done. This was a pretty stunning departure from the quality I expect.