The Bridge of San Luis Rey

A Novel

By: Thornton Wilder

Narrated by: Thom Rivera

Length: 4 hrs and 17 mins

Publisher's summary

“The essence of Mr. Wilder’s book is really the feeling in it; it is a ‘notation of the heart’ with sympathy. Gaily or sadly, but always with understanding, a belief in the miracle of love runs through it all.” (Times Literary Supplement (London))

"On Friday noon, July the twentieth, 1714, the finest bridge in all Peru broke and precipitated five travelers into the gulf below." With this celebrated sentence Thornton Wilder begins The Bridge of San Luis Rey, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, one of the towering achievements in American fiction, and a novel beloved throughout the world.

By chance, a monk witnesses the tragedy. Brother Juniper then embarks on a quest to prove that it was divine intervention rather than chance that led to the deaths of those who perished in the tragedy. His search leads to his own death - and to Wilder’s timeless investigation into the nature of love and the meaning of the human condition.

This edition includes a foreword by acclaimed author Russell Banks and features previously unpublished notes and other illuminating documentary material about the novel and author.

Copyright (c) 1927 by Albert & Charles Boni, Inc. Copyright renewed (c) 1955 by Thornton Wilder. Copyright 2002 by the Wilder Family LLC. Foreword copyright (c) 2003 by Russell Banks. Afterword copyright (c) 2003, 2014 by Tappan Wilder.

©1955 Thornton Wilder (P)2020 HarperCollins Publishers

powerful novel, mediocre narration

A story that is worth multiple readings, and may require more than one reading to fully appreciate. Unfortunately this narrator does not do the novel justice. His voices are not believable, and in many cases are lifeless. The afterword states that the novel has yet to be transformed into a compelling stage or film production. I would say this narration needs to be added to the list of disappointing performances.

Excellently done

I have never had the class where this was read. It was sad, but each story was part of the village tragedy. Great for a rainy day.

The Metaphysics of Learning To Fly

On Friday, July 20, 1714, a century old rope bridge woven by Inca builders that spanned a gap on the road between Lima and Cusco, Peru suddenly collapsed, carrying five people to their death in the chasm hundreds of feet below. Witnessed by a priest, he became obsessed with trying to ascertain the ecclesiastical message to be derived from the claiming of these specific victims.

Such is the premise as Father Juniper sets about interviewing those who best knew those involved to determine why they happened to be at that specific time, a crossing Father Juniper himself would have been making just a few minutes later.

As Thornton Wilder's second novel, his poignant story was very short in comparison to contemporary novels but an immediate best seller which has been in continuous print since its premier in 1927. It earned him the Pulitzer in 1928 and found him on the short list for the Nobel Prize for years following.

The novel is often required reading for American Literature classes but many have come to love the work until they read it again in the full bloom of adulthood. It is included on the list of the Modern Library's Top 100 novels but has received a resurging interest in the 20th Century since 9/11 as the imagery of those who plunged to their deaths from the World Trade Center drew parallels to those in the story. In tributes following this and the Mississippi River Bridge Minnesota, speakers have referenced the novel specifically the last four lines, as particularly poignant.

It's an excellent novel, amazing in its sensitivity in an era when novels by male writers of the time were drenched in bravado.

Female narratives

Female narratives sound unnatural. Performance and the underlining dramatic characters are completely different. Dona Maria’s letters sound like Mary Poppins.

More like a religious sermon than a novel

This is one of the shortest books I've listened to, yet it seemed interminably long and painfully dull.