The Bridge of San Luis Rey
When the San Luis Rey rope bridge collapses in the year 1714 and kills five people, a Peruvian monk named Brother Juniper hastens to investigate the meaning of these senseless deaths. This short, classic novel explores the lives of the bridge's victims — including two children and a marquesa — and how each came to be on the bridge that fateful day.
Quote:
"Now he discovered that secret from which one never quite recovers, that even in the most perfect love one person loves less profoundly than the other. There may be two equally good, equally gifted, equally beautiful, but there may never be two that love one another equally well."
Author:
Thornton Wilder (1897-1975) was a playwright, novelist, and three-time Pulitzer Prize winner. Some of his most famous works include Our Town, The Bridge of San Luis Rey, and The Skin of Our Teeth.
Published: 1927
Length: 128 pages
Set in: Peru