The Bridge of San Luis Rey [Hardcover]

"A masterpiece" -- -- New York Herald Tribune

"A remarkably confident evocation of the secret springs of half a dozen men, women, and children...A very beautiful book." -- -- Clifton Fadiman, The Nation

"One of the greatest reading novels in this century's American writing...Wonderfully lucid reading." -- -- Edmund Fuller

"A masterpiece" -- New York Herald Tribune

"A remarkably confident evocation of the secret springs of half a dozen men, women, and children...A very beautiful book." -- Clifton Fadiman, The Nation

"One of the greatest reading novels in this century's American writing...Wonderfully lucid reading." -- Edmund Fuller --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

"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, one of the towering achievements in American fiction and a novel read throughout the world.

By chance, a monk witnesses the tragedy. Brother Juniper seeks to prove that it was divine intervention rather than chance that led to the deaths of those who perished in the tragedy. His study leads to his own death -- and to the author's timeless investigation into the nature of love and the meaning of the human condition.

The Bridge of San Luis Rey is now reissued in this handsome hardcover edition featuring a new foreword by Russell Banks. Tappan Wilder has written an engaging and thought-provoking afterword, which includes unpublished notes for the Pulitzer Prize–winning novel, illuminating photographs, and other remarkable documentary material. Granville Hicks's insightful comment about Wilder suggests an inveterate truth: "As a craftsman he is second to none, and there are few who have looked deeper into the human heart."

--This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Thornton Wilder (1897–1975) is an accomplished novelist and playwright whose works, exploring the connection between the commonplace and cosmic dimensions of human experience, continue to be read and produced around the world. His Bridge of San Luis Rey, one of seven novels, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1928, as did two of his four full-length dramas, Our Town (1938) and The Skin of Our Teeth (1943). Wilder's Matchmaker was adapted as the musical Hello, Dolly! He also enjoyed enormous success with many other forms of the written and spoken word, among them teaching, acting, opera, and film. His screenplay for Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt (1943) remains a classic psychological thriller to this day. Wilder's many honors include the Gold Medal for Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the National Book Committee's Medal for Literature.

--This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

In this Pulitzer Prize winner, a bridge collapses in eighteenth-century Peru; five die. Who were they? In the answer to that question lie numerous cosmic ironies, which are related in a melancholy narrative of great power, simplicity and beauty. Waterston, star of NBC's "Law and Order," never possessed a strong voice. Time has made it hoarse and scratchy. Nonetheless, he reads intelligently with just the right sombre tone. As is usual with HighBridge titles, the sound quality is pristine. Y.R. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.