First published in 1927 and winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 1928, "The Bridge of San Luis Rey" is the moving story of a tragic accident and its aftermath by American author Thornton Wilder. The novel tells the fictional story of the victims of a horrific collapse of an Incan rope bridge in Peru and how they came to be on the bridge on that fateful day. Set in the early 18th century, the novel begins with a description of the bridge's collapse, which claimed the lives of all five people who were crossing it, by the tragedy's ...
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First published in 1927 and winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 1928, "The Bridge of San Luis Rey" is the moving story of a tragic accident and its aftermath by American author Thornton Wilder. The novel tells the fictional story of the victims of a horrific collapse of an Incan rope bridge in Peru and how they came to be on the bridge on that fateful day. Set in the early 18th century, the novel begins with a description of the bridge's collapse, which claimed the lives of all five people who were crossing it, by the tragedy's sole witness: a Franciscan friar, Brother Juniper, who was almost crossing the bridge himself when it collapsed. Brother Juniper wishes to make sense of the day's events and hopes to understand how the tragedy relates to Divine Providence by finding out all that he can about the victims. The friar begins a philosophical and introspective journey that will last him several years and takes him thousands of miles. Critically acclaimed and deeply thoughtful, "The Bridge of San Luis Rey" endures as a timeless story of loss, tragedy, and man's eternal search for meaning in a cruel world.
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...It was written by Thornton Wilder. For anyone interested in technique, look what Wilder achieves in novella length. Remarkable!
Mythos
May 25, 2007
Bridge of San Luis Rey
This is the first time I've ever read Thornton Wilder and I was unprepared for such a masterpiece. In The Bridge of San Luis Rey Wilder is able to simplify, like Voltaire, forms that other writers take pages or even chapters to convey as the most human, life wretching experiences, the suffering of love, of adoration that throws itself into the unwanting hands of those it's closest to. I will need to read this book over again and again to absorb it fully. I saw a piece of myself in all the characters and I'm very perplexed by such a power to distub and console my fear of letting go.