The Bridge of San Luis Rey is American author Thornton Wilder's second novel, first published in 1927 to worldwide acclaim. It tells the story of several interrelated people who die in the collapse of an Inca rope-fiber suspension bridge in Peru, and the events that lead up to their being on the bridge. A friar who has witnessed the tragic accident then goes about inquiring into the lives of the victims, seeking some sort of cosmic answer to the question of why each had to die. The novel won the Pulitzer Prize in 1928.
Themes and sources
Philosophically, Thornton Wilder said that he was posing a question: "Is there a direction and meaning in lives beyond the individual's own will?" Describing the sources of his novel, Wilder explained that the plot was inspired
"in its external action by a one-act play by Prosper Mérimée, which takes place in Latin America and one of whose characters is a courtesan. However, the central idea of the work, the justification for a number of human lives that comes up as a result of the sudden collapse of a bridge, stems from friendly arguments with my father, a strict Calvinist. Strict Puritans imagine God all too easily as a petty schoolmaster who minutely weights guilt against merit, and they overlook God's 'Caritas' which is more all-encompassing and powerful. God's love has to transcend his just retribution. But in my novel I have left this question unanswered. As I said earlier, we can only pose the question correctly and clearly, and have faith one will ask the question in the right way."
When asked if his characters were historical or imagined, Wilder replied, "The Perichole and the Viceroy are real people, under the names they had in history . Most of the events were invented by me, including the fall of the bridge." He based the Marquesa's habit of writing letters to her daughter on his knowledge of the great French letter-writer, Madame de Sévigné.
Recognition and influence
In addition to its 1928 Pulitzer Prize for fiction, this novel has also been honored in other ways:
- In 1998, the book was rated #37 by the editorial board of the American Modern Library on the list of the 100 best 20th-Century novels.
- Time Magazine included the novel in its TIME 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005 .
Influences
- This book was cited by John Hersey as a direct inspiration for his nonfiction work Hiroshima (1946).
- Qui non riposano , a 1945 novel by Indro Montanelli takes inspiration from the novel.
- David Mitchell's novel, Cloud Atlas , echoes the story in many ways, most explicitly through the character Luisa Rey.
- Ayn Rand references the theme in Atlas Shrugged , her epic of a fictional USA's decline into an impoverished kleptocracy. In the aftermath of a disastrous collision in a railroad tunnel, she highlights train passengers who, in one way or another, promoted the moral climate that made the accident likely.
- The book is mentioned in passing by a character in The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands , the third book in Stephen King's Dark Tower series.
- The book is referred to in the Monk television episode, "Mr. Monk and the Earthquake", when an Australian criminal claims to have written a Pulitzer Prize nominated article about five people who died in a bridge collapse.
- The story is quoted on the cover of British Sea Power's album, The Decline of British Sea Power .
Inspirational
- The book was quoted by Tony Blair during the memorial service for victims of the September 11 attacks in 2001.
- The book was cited during the 2007 Minneapolis bridge collapse by Brian Williams of NBC News as well as Charlie Gibson of ABC News.
Film adaptations
Three films have been based on the novel:
- The Bridge of San Luis Rey (1929)
- The Bridge of San Luis Rey (1944)
- The Bridge of San Luis Rey (2004)
See also
- List of bridge disasters
- Modern Library 100 Best Novels of the 20th Century
- Photos of the first edition of Bridge of San Luis Rey
References
- ^ John Noble Wilford (2007-05-08). "How the Inca Leapt Canyons". The New York Times . http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/08/science/08bridg.html?ei=5087%0A&em=&en=387989ff3aaa8379&ex=1178856000&pagewanted=all . Retrieved 2007-05-09 .
- ^ a b c d "The Bridge of San Luis Rey (1927)", Thornton Wilder Society.
- ^ http:
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The Bridge of San Luis Rey - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Bridge of San Luis Rey is American author Thornton Wilder 's second novel, first published in 1927 to worldwide acclaim. It tells the story of several interrelated people who ...
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The Bridge of San Luis Rey movie reviews, trailers - Check out Rotten Tomatoes The Bridge of San Luis Rey clips, pictures, critic and user reviews, forums and the Tomatometer!
The Bridge of San Luis Rey - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME
The Bridge of San Luis Rey: The delicacies of Author Wilder's prose cannot be intimated in so rude a summary of the material of his book
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This item: The Bridge of San Luis Rey (Perennial Classics) by Thornton Niven Wilder
New Line Cinema : Bridge of San Luis Rey
Set in Peru during the 18th century, five people, on separate journeys for different reasons, cross the bridge at San Luis Rey by happenstance at the same time on the fateful day ...
Amazon.com: The Bridge of San Luis Rey (Perennial Classics ...
"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 ...
Penguin Books Australia - The Bridge of San Luis Rey: Pocket Penguin ...
The Bridge of San Luis Rey: Pocket Penguin Classics by Wilder Thornton - An ancient bridge collapses over a gorge in Peru, hurling five people into the abyss. It seems a ...
The Bridge of San Luis Rey (2004)
advertisement. Overview. User Rating: 5.0/10 1,695 votes. MOVIEmeter: Down 2% in popularity this week. See why on IMDbPro. Director: Mary McGuckian. Writers:
The Bridge of San Luis Rey (1944)
advertisement. Overview. User Rating: 6.2/10 69 votes. MOVIEmeter: Down 25% in popularity this week. See why on IMDbPro. Director: Rowland V. Lee. Writers: