The Bridge of San Luis Rey
A Novel
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $16.19
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Thom Rivera
-
By:
-
Thornton Wilder
About this listen
“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This edition includes a foreword by acclaimed author Russell Banks and features previously unpublished notes and other illuminating documentary material about the novel and author.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 PublishersListeners also enjoyed...
-
The Ides of March
- A Novel
- By: Thornton Wilder
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins, Piper Goodeve, Jane Copland, and others
- Length: 8 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
First published in 1948, The Ides of March is a brilliant epistolary novel of the Rome of Julius Caesar. Through imaginary letters and documents, Wilder brings to life a dramatic period of world history and one of its magnetic personalities. In this novel, the Caesar of history becomes Caesar the human being as he appeared to his family, his legions, his Rome, and his empire in the months just before his death.
-
-
Strong Recommend
- By Anonymous User on 11-16-23
By: Thornton Wilder
-
Theophilus North
- A Novel
- By: Thornton Wilder
- Narrated by: Richard Poe
- Length: 14 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The last of Thornton Wilder’s works published during his lifetime, Theophilus North is part autobiographical and part the imagined adventures of Wilder’s twin brother who died at birth. Setting out to see the world in the summer of 1926, Theophilus North gets as far as Newport, Rhode Island, before his car breaks down. To support himself, Theophilus takes jobs in the elegant mansions along Ocean Drive, just as Wilder himself did in the same decade.
-
-
I Absolutely Loved It!
- By SandyK on 06-10-24
By: Thornton Wilder
-
The Eighth Day
- A Novel
- By: Thornton Wilder
- Narrated by: Adam Lazarre-White
- Length: 18 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1962 and 1963, Thornton Wilder spent 20 months in hibernation, away from family and friends, in the town of Douglas, Arizona. While there, he launched The Eighth Day, a tale set in a mining town in Southern Illinois about two families blasted apart by the apparent murder of one father by the other. The miraculous escape of the accused killer, John Ashley, on the eve of his execution and his flight to freedom triggers a powerful story tracing the fate of his and the victim’s wife and children.
-
-
Uneven
- By Albert Kendrick on 01-15-21
By: Thornton Wilder
-
The Ballad of the White Horse
- By: G. K. Chesterton
- Narrated by: Stewart Crank
- Length: 2 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Published in 1911, The Ballad of the White Horse by G. K. Chesterton is a poem about the deeds of King Alfred the Great. The epic ballad tells the story of how the King defeated the invading Danes at the Battle of Ethandun in the Valley of the White Horse, beneath an ancient equine image on the Berkshire hills. Chesterton employs this mysterious figure as a symbol of the traditions that guard and protect humanity.
-
-
Very Helpful
- By niki vavra on 01-19-21
By: G. K. Chesterton
-
Death Comes for the Archbishop
- By: Willa Cather
- Narrated by: David Ackroyd
- Length: 7 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1851, Father Jean Marie Latour comes to serve as the Apostolic Vicar to New Mexico. What he finds is a vast territory of red hills and tortuous arroyos, American by law but Mexican and Indian in custom and belief. In the almost forty years that follow, Latour spreads his faith in the only way he knows—gently, all the while contending with an unforgiving landscape, derelict and sometimes openly rebellious priests, and his own loneliness. Out of these events, Cather gives us an indelible vision of life unfolding in a place where time itself seems suspended.
-
-
A beautiful story, perfectly read
- By Eugene on 01-25-17
By: Willa Cather
-
Appointment in Samarra
- Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition
- By: John O'Hara, Charles McGrath - introduction
- Narrated by: Christian Camargo
- Length: 6 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In December 1930, just before Christmas, the Gibbsville, Pennsylvania, social circuit is electrified with parties and dances. At the center of the social elite stand Julian and Caroline English. But in one rash moment born inside a highball glass, Julian breaks with polite society and begins a rapid descent toward self-destruction.
-
-
Quite good, but not a classic
- By Michael on 04-25-15
By: John O'Hara, and others
-
The Ides of March
- A Novel
- By: Thornton Wilder
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins, Piper Goodeve, Jane Copland, and others
- Length: 8 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
First published in 1948, The Ides of March is a brilliant epistolary novel of the Rome of Julius Caesar. Through imaginary letters and documents, Wilder brings to life a dramatic period of world history and one of its magnetic personalities. In this novel, the Caesar of history becomes Caesar the human being as he appeared to his family, his legions, his Rome, and his empire in the months just before his death.
-
-
Strong Recommend
- By Anonymous User on 11-16-23
By: Thornton Wilder
-
Theophilus North
- A Novel
- By: Thornton Wilder
- Narrated by: Richard Poe
- Length: 14 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The last of Thornton Wilder’s works published during his lifetime, Theophilus North is part autobiographical and part the imagined adventures of Wilder’s twin brother who died at birth. Setting out to see the world in the summer of 1926, Theophilus North gets as far as Newport, Rhode Island, before his car breaks down. To support himself, Theophilus takes jobs in the elegant mansions along Ocean Drive, just as Wilder himself did in the same decade.
-
-
I Absolutely Loved It!
- By SandyK on 06-10-24
By: Thornton Wilder
-
The Eighth Day
- A Novel
- By: Thornton Wilder
- Narrated by: Adam Lazarre-White
- Length: 18 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1962 and 1963, Thornton Wilder spent 20 months in hibernation, away from family and friends, in the town of Douglas, Arizona. While there, he launched The Eighth Day, a tale set in a mining town in Southern Illinois about two families blasted apart by the apparent murder of one father by the other. The miraculous escape of the accused killer, John Ashley, on the eve of his execution and his flight to freedom triggers a powerful story tracing the fate of his and the victim’s wife and children.
-
-
Uneven
- By Albert Kendrick on 01-15-21
By: Thornton Wilder
-
The Ballad of the White Horse
- By: G. K. Chesterton
- Narrated by: Stewart Crank
- Length: 2 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Published in 1911, The Ballad of the White Horse by G. K. Chesterton is a poem about the deeds of King Alfred the Great. The epic ballad tells the story of how the King defeated the invading Danes at the Battle of Ethandun in the Valley of the White Horse, beneath an ancient equine image on the Berkshire hills. Chesterton employs this mysterious figure as a symbol of the traditions that guard and protect humanity.
-
-
Very Helpful
- By niki vavra on 01-19-21
By: G. K. Chesterton
-
Death Comes for the Archbishop
- By: Willa Cather
- Narrated by: David Ackroyd
- Length: 7 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1851, Father Jean Marie Latour comes to serve as the Apostolic Vicar to New Mexico. What he finds is a vast territory of red hills and tortuous arroyos, American by law but Mexican and Indian in custom and belief. In the almost forty years that follow, Latour spreads his faith in the only way he knows—gently, all the while contending with an unforgiving landscape, derelict and sometimes openly rebellious priests, and his own loneliness. Out of these events, Cather gives us an indelible vision of life unfolding in a place where time itself seems suspended.
-
-
A beautiful story, perfectly read
- By Eugene on 01-25-17
By: Willa Cather
-
Appointment in Samarra
- Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition
- By: John O'Hara, Charles McGrath - introduction
- Narrated by: Christian Camargo
- Length: 6 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In December 1930, just before Christmas, the Gibbsville, Pennsylvania, social circuit is electrified with parties and dances. At the center of the social elite stand Julian and Caroline English. But in one rash moment born inside a highball glass, Julian breaks with polite society and begins a rapid descent toward self-destruction.
-
-
Quite good, but not a classic
- By Michael on 04-25-15
By: John O'Hara, and others
-
The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter
- By: Carson McCullers
- Narrated by: Cherry Jones
- Length: 12 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Carson McCullers was all of 23 when she published her first novel, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter. She became an overnight literary sensation, and soon such authors as Tennessee Williams were calling her "the greatest prose writer that the South [has] produced." The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter tells an unforgettable tale of moral isolation in a small southern mill town in the 1930s.
-
-
Do yourself a favor
- By Barbara on 06-08-05
By: Carson McCullers
-
The Yearling
- By: Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
- Narrated by: Tom Stechschulte
- Length: 13 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Young Jody lives with his ma and pa on a farm in backwoods Florida. Life is hard there: cutting wood, planting fields, hauling water from a distant sinkhole. It is dangerous: wolves and bears roam the night. It’s also lonely for a young boy. One spring day, Jody’s pa kills a deer for meat. When Jody sees her spotted fawn in the brush, he convinces his father they should bring the fawn home. Thus begins a year when deer and boy are never far from each other. But the day will come when Jody must make a terrible choice between his beloved pet and his family’s survival.
-
-
Gorgeous
- By P. Giorgio on 10-22-13
-
All the King's Men
- By: Robert Penn Warren
- Narrated by: Michael Emerson
- Length: 20 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The fictionalized account of Louisiana's colorful and notorious governor, Huey Pierce Long, All the King's Men follows the startling rise and fall of Willie Stark, a country lawyer in the Deep South of the 1930s. Beset by political enemies, Stark seeks aid from his right-hand man Jack Burden, who will bear witness to the cataclysmic unfolding of this very American tragedy.
-
-
Beautifully presented
- By Cheimon on 10-12-08
-
Lucky Jim
- By: Kingsley Amis
- Narrated by: James Lailey
- Length: 9 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is the story of Jim Dixon, a hapless lecturer in medieval history at a provincial university who knows better than most that “there was no end to the ways in which nice things are nicer than nasty ones.” Kingsley Amis’s scabrous debut leads the audience through a gallery of emphatically English bores, cranks, frauds, and neurotics with whom Dixon must contend in one way or another in order to hold on to his cushy academic perch and win the girl of his fancy.
-
-
An old favorite!
- By Helen53 on 05-29-23
By: Kingsley Amis
-
The Heart of the Matter
- By: Graham Greene
- Narrated by: Michael Kitchen
- Length: 10 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Scobie, a police officer in a West African colony, is a good and honest man. But when he falls in love, he is forced into a betrayal of everything that he has ever believed in, and his struggle to maintain the happiness of two women destroys him.
-
-
Starts Very Slowly then Boom!
- By Michael on 05-21-17
By: Graham Greene
-
Giant
- A Novel
- By: Edna Ferber
- Narrated by: Courtney Patterson
- Length: 15 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When larger-than-life cattle rancher Jordan "Bick" Benedict arrives at the family home of sharp-witted but genteel Virginia socialite Leslie Lynnton to purchase a racehorse, the two are instantly drawn to each other. But for Leslie, falling in love with a Texan was a lot simpler than falling in love with Texas. Upon their arrival at Bick's ranch, Leslie is confronted not only with the oppressive heat and vastness of Texas but also by the disturbing inequity between runaway riches and the poverty and racism suffered by the Mexican workers on the ranch.
-
-
Giant
- By Kathy Johannes on 02-17-21
By: Edna Ferber
-
The Sound and the Fury
- By: William Faulkner
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 8 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Sound and the Fury is the tragedy of the Compson family, featuring some of the most memorable characters in literature: beautiful, rebellious Caddy; the manchild Benjy; haunted, neurotic Quentin; Jason, the brutal cynic; and Dilsey, their black servant. Their lives fragmented and harrowed by history and legacy, the character’s voices and actions mesh to create what is arguably Faulkner’s masterpiece and one of the greatest novels of the twentieth century.
-
-
Hang in
- By W.Denis on 07-11-05
By: William Faulkner
-
The Optimist's Daughter
- By: Eudora Welty
- Narrated by: Eudora Welty
- Length: 3 hrs and 59 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This story of a young woman's confrontation with death and her past is a poetic study of human relations.
-
-
Beautiful writing
- By Teresa on 07-15-13
By: Eudora Welty
-
Villette
- By: Charlotte Brontë
- Narrated by: Davina Porter
- Length: 22 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hailed as Charlotte Brontë’s “finest novel” by Virginia Woolf, Villette is the timeless semi-autobiographical tale of Lucy Snowe. Left with no family and no money, Lucy goes against her own timid nature and travels to the small city of Villette, France, where she becomes a school teacher in Madame Beck’s school for girls. During her stay, she falls in love—twice—and discovers an independent, inner strength rarely seen in women of her time.
-
-
The Divine Ms. Porter delivers as always
- By peachnmario on 03-17-15
By: Charlotte Brontë
-
Sons and Lovers
- By: D. H. Lawrence
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 16 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sons and Lovers, D. H. Lawrence's first major novel, was also the first in the English language to explore ordinary working-class life from the inside. No writer before or since has written so well about the intimacies enforced by a tightly knit mining community and by a family where feelings are never hidden for long. When the marriage between Walter Morel and his sensitive, high-minded wife begins to break down, the bitterness of their frustration seeps into their children's lives.
-
-
Momma's Boy (The Dangers of Overbearing Parenting)
- By W Perry Hall on 02-01-14
By: D. H. Lawrence
-
Abe
- Abraham Lincoln in His Times
- By: David S. Reynolds
- Narrated by: Leon Nixon
- Length: 33 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Abraham Lincoln did not come out of nowhere. But if he was shaped by his times, he also managed at his life's fateful hour to shape them to an extent few could have foreseen. Ultimately, this is the great drama that astonishes us still, and that Abe brings to fresh and vivid life. The measure of that life will always be part of our American education.
-
-
A Cultural History is not a biography
- By Marc M. Sager on 11-09-20
-
The Complete Novels : Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion
- By: Jane Austen
- Narrated by: Alison Larkin
- Length: 81 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ever since Colin Firth's Mr Darcy emerged from the lake in the BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, the novels of Jane Austen have become more popular than ever, delighting millions of fans all over the world. Now, Alison Larkin's critically acclaimed narrations of Austen's six completed novels are brought together in this very special 200th anniversary audio edition. "Alison Larkin's narration will captivate listeners from the first sentence" raves AudioFile magazine about the Earphones Award-winning recording of Sense and Sensibility, which starts the collection.
-
-
Table of Contents/Navigation Guide!
- By Jim on 02-23-18
By: Jane Austen
Related to this topic
-
Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas
- A Novel
- By: Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, Jull Costa Margaret - translator, Robin Patterson - translator
- Narrated by: Ramon De Ocampo
- Length: 8 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Machado de Assis’ classic novel, the precursor of Latin American fiction, is finally rendered as a stunningly relevant work for 21st-century audiences. In eloquent, contemporary prose, Costa and Patterson breathe new life into the dynamic character of Brás Cubas and reveal the vivid, tempestuous Rio de Janeiro of his time. The recently deceased Cubas narrates his life story, admitting glibly: “I am not so much a writer who has died, as a dead man who has decided to write.”
-
-
Incredible story from an incredible author
- By Anonymous User on 01-01-21
By: Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, and others
-
Villette
- By: Charlotte Brontë
- Narrated by: Davina Porter
- Length: 22 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hailed as Charlotte Brontë’s “finest novel” by Virginia Woolf, Villette is the timeless semi-autobiographical tale of Lucy Snowe. Left with no family and no money, Lucy goes against her own timid nature and travels to the small city of Villette, France, where she becomes a school teacher in Madame Beck’s school for girls. During her stay, she falls in love—twice—and discovers an independent, inner strength rarely seen in women of her time.
-
-
The Divine Ms. Porter delivers as always
- By peachnmario on 03-17-15
By: Charlotte Brontë
-
Poor People
- By: Fyodor Dostoevsky
- Narrated by: Patrick Cullen, Julia Emlen
- Length: 5 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Written as a series of letters, Poor People tells the tragic tale of a petty clerk and his impossible love for a young girl. Longing to help her and her family, he sells everything he can, but his kindness leads him only into more desperate poverty, and ultimately into debauchery. As a typical "man of the underground", he serves as the embodiment of the belief that happiness can only be achieved with riches.
-
-
Background before listening recommended!
- By Rebecarol on 10-02-08
-
Le Pere Goriot
- By: Honoré de Balzac
- Narrated by: Paul Hecht
- Length: 10 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At the shabby boarding house in the rue Neuve-Sainte-Geneviève, petty Madame Vauquer and her tenants wonder at the plight of the aging resident Goriot. Once a well-heeled merchant, Goriot was, at first, afforded special treatment from the Madame. But now something is clearly amiss in his financial affairs, and his increasingly tawdry appearance makes him a subject of ridicule in the household.
-
-
balzac rocks
- By beatrice on 03-12-10
By: Honoré de Balzac
-
Shirley
- By: Charlotte Brontë
- Narrated by: Anna Bentinck
- Length: 25 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Set in the industrialising England of the Napoleonic wars, a period of bad harvests, Luddite riots, and economic unrest, Shirley is the story of two contrasting heroines and the men they love. One is the shy Caroline Helstone, trapped in the oppressive atmosphere of a Yorkshire rectory, whose life represents the plight of single women in the 19th century. The other is the vivacious Shirley Keeldar, who inherits a local estate and whose wealth liberates her from convention.
-
-
"As Romantic As Monday Morning"
- By Joseph R on 09-15-09
By: Charlotte Brontë
-
A Woman of No Importance
- By: Oscar Wilde
- Narrated by: Miriam Margolyes, Samantha Mathis, Rosalind Ayres, and others
- Length: 1 hr and 34 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Devilishly attractive Lord Illingworth is notorious for his skill as a seducer. But he is still invited to all the "best" houses, while his female conquests must hide their shame in seclusion. In this devastating drawing-room comedy, Oscar Wilde uses his celebrated wit to expose English society's narrow view of everything from sexual mores to Americans.
-
-
Pitch Perfect Performance
- By Cheryl on 08-26-12
By: Oscar Wilde
-
Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas
- A Novel
- By: Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, Jull Costa Margaret - translator, Robin Patterson - translator
- Narrated by: Ramon De Ocampo
- Length: 8 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Machado de Assis’ classic novel, the precursor of Latin American fiction, is finally rendered as a stunningly relevant work for 21st-century audiences. In eloquent, contemporary prose, Costa and Patterson breathe new life into the dynamic character of Brás Cubas and reveal the vivid, tempestuous Rio de Janeiro of his time. The recently deceased Cubas narrates his life story, admitting glibly: “I am not so much a writer who has died, as a dead man who has decided to write.”
-
-
Incredible story from an incredible author
- By Anonymous User on 01-01-21
By: Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, and others
-
Villette
- By: Charlotte Brontë
- Narrated by: Davina Porter
- Length: 22 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hailed as Charlotte Brontë’s “finest novel” by Virginia Woolf, Villette is the timeless semi-autobiographical tale of Lucy Snowe. Left with no family and no money, Lucy goes against her own timid nature and travels to the small city of Villette, France, where she becomes a school teacher in Madame Beck’s school for girls. During her stay, she falls in love—twice—and discovers an independent, inner strength rarely seen in women of her time.
-
-
The Divine Ms. Porter delivers as always
- By peachnmario on 03-17-15
By: Charlotte Brontë
-
Poor People
- By: Fyodor Dostoevsky
- Narrated by: Patrick Cullen, Julia Emlen
- Length: 5 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Written as a series of letters, Poor People tells the tragic tale of a petty clerk and his impossible love for a young girl. Longing to help her and her family, he sells everything he can, but his kindness leads him only into more desperate poverty, and ultimately into debauchery. As a typical "man of the underground", he serves as the embodiment of the belief that happiness can only be achieved with riches.
-
-
Background before listening recommended!
- By Rebecarol on 10-02-08
-
Le Pere Goriot
- By: Honoré de Balzac
- Narrated by: Paul Hecht
- Length: 10 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At the shabby boarding house in the rue Neuve-Sainte-Geneviève, petty Madame Vauquer and her tenants wonder at the plight of the aging resident Goriot. Once a well-heeled merchant, Goriot was, at first, afforded special treatment from the Madame. But now something is clearly amiss in his financial affairs, and his increasingly tawdry appearance makes him a subject of ridicule in the household.
-
-
balzac rocks
- By beatrice on 03-12-10
By: Honoré de Balzac
-
Shirley
- By: Charlotte Brontë
- Narrated by: Anna Bentinck
- Length: 25 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Set in the industrialising England of the Napoleonic wars, a period of bad harvests, Luddite riots, and economic unrest, Shirley is the story of two contrasting heroines and the men they love. One is the shy Caroline Helstone, trapped in the oppressive atmosphere of a Yorkshire rectory, whose life represents the plight of single women in the 19th century. The other is the vivacious Shirley Keeldar, who inherits a local estate and whose wealth liberates her from convention.
-
-
"As Romantic As Monday Morning"
- By Joseph R on 09-15-09
By: Charlotte Brontë
-
A Woman of No Importance
- By: Oscar Wilde
- Narrated by: Miriam Margolyes, Samantha Mathis, Rosalind Ayres, and others
- Length: 1 hr and 34 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Devilishly attractive Lord Illingworth is notorious for his skill as a seducer. But he is still invited to all the "best" houses, while his female conquests must hide their shame in seclusion. In this devastating drawing-room comedy, Oscar Wilde uses his celebrated wit to expose English society's narrow view of everything from sexual mores to Americans.
-
-
Pitch Perfect Performance
- By Cheryl on 08-26-12
By: Oscar Wilde
-
White Nights
- By: Fyodor Dostoyevsky
- Narrated by: Simon Hester
- Length: 2 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
"White Nights" is one of Dostoyevsky's shorter works told from the standpoint of an ultimate introvert, brought briefly out of his shell by love. It might have been written 170 years ago, but certain aspects of it are very relatable to the modern listener, especially to those of us who gravitate toward solitude and introversion.
-
-
Incredible Romance Novel
- By Matthew Marks on 10-13-24
-
Death in Venice
- By: Thomas Mann
- Narrated by: Peter Batchelor
- Length: 3 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A stunningly beautiful youth and the city of Venice set the stage for Thomas Mann’s introspective examination of erotic love and philosophical wisdom.
-
-
A problem with the narration
- By Erez on 03-19-12
By: Thomas Mann
-
Siddhartha
- By: Hermann Hesse
- Narrated by: Harish Bhimani
- Length: 4 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hermann Hesse’s classic novel Siddhartha, takes place in ancient India around the time of the Buddha (6th century BC). Siddhartha and his companion Govinda set out in search of enlightenment. Siddhartha goes through a series of changes and realizations as he attempts to achieve this goal. Siddhartha joins the ascetics, visits Gotama, embraces his earthly desires, and finally communes with nature, all in an attempt to attain Nirvana.
-
-
Sounds rushed
- By Viviane on 10-17-11
By: Hermann Hesse
-
The House of the Seven Gables
- By: Nathaniel Hawthorne
- Narrated by: Anthony Heald
- Length: 11 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a sleepy little New England village stands a dark, weather-beaten, many-gabled house. This brooding mansion is haunted by a centuries-old curse that casts the shadow of ancestral sin upon the last four members of the distinctive Pyncheon family of Salem.
-
-
A Classic Thriller
- By E. Pearson on 12-03-10
-
Swann's Way
- By: Marcel Proust
- Narrated by: Neville Jason
- Length: 21 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Swann’s Way is the first of seven volumes in Remembrance of Things Past. It sets the scene with the narrator’s memories being famously provoked by the taste of that little cake, the madeleine, accompanied by a cup of lime-flowered tea. It is an unmatched portrait of fin-de-siècle France.
-
-
Not a book one reads but inhabits & floats through
- By Darwin8u on 02-24-13
By: Marcel Proust
-
The Insulted and the Injured
- By: Fyodor Dostoyevsky
- Narrated by: Alastair Cameron
- Length: 13 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At its heart, The Insulted and the Injured is a story of human tragedy and suffering, but it is also a love story. Narrated by a fictitious young author, Vanya, this book tells the story of Natasha and her lover, Alyosha, who also happens to be the son of the cruel Prince Valkovsky.
-
-
Excellent
- By Joel A. Griska on 07-26-17
-
The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas
- By: Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis
- Narrated by: Edoardo Camponeschi
- Length: 7 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis (1839-1908) was the greatest writer ever to come from Brazil and one of the masters of nineteenth-century fiction. Susan Sontag calls him "the greatest writer ever produced in Latin America", surpassing even Borges. Harold Bloom says that Machado is "the supreme black literary artist to date". And Allen Ginsburg calls him "another Kafka". And The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas is his masterpiece, a dazzling, tragic, and profound novel that belongs next to the greatest works of his contemporaries Melville and Dostoevsky.
-
-
A hidden masterpiece
- By C. Park on 08-09-18
-
A Hero of Our Time
- By: Mikhail Lermontov
- Narrated by: Nicholas Boulton
- Length: 6 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Grigori Aleksandrovich Pechorin is an enigma: arrogant, cocky, melancholic, brave, cynic, romantic, loner, socialite, soldier, free soul, and yet, victim of the world, he eludes definition and remains a mystery to those who know him. Just who is he? And what does he hope to achieve? Evolving from first person to third person, and then into a diary, A Hero of Our Time takes on a variety of forms to interrogate Pechorin's cryptic character and his unusual philosophy, providing breathtaking descriptions of the Caucasus along the way.
-
-
Sarcastic Title
- By SmartShopper on 04-23-24
-
Ruth
- By: Elizabeth Gaskell
- Narrated by: Eve Matheson
- Length: 16 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The orphaned heroine Ruth, apprenticed to a dressmaker, is seduced by wealthy Henry Bellingham who is captivated by her simplicity and beauty. Their affair causes her to lose her home and job to which he offers her shelter, only to cruelly abandon her soon after. She is offered a chance of a new life though shamed in the eyes of society by her illegitimate son. When Henry reappears offering marriage she must choose between social acceptance and her own pride.
-
-
Fallen Woman Finds Redemption
- By Susan on 12-06-12
-
The Mill on the Floss
- By: George Eliot
- Narrated by: Laura Paton
- Length: 20 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Maggie Tulliver has two lovers: Philip Wakem, son of her father’s enemy, and Stephen Guest, already promised to her cousin. But the love she wants most in the world is that of her brother Tom. Maggie’s struggle against her passionate and sensual nature leads her to a deeper understanding and to eventual tragedy
-
-
Great compassion
- By nina lalumia on 12-26-16
By: George Eliot
-
Dombey and Son
- By: Charles Dickens
- Narrated by: David Timson
- Length: 39 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dombey and Son is vintage Dickens and explores the classic themes of betrayal, cruelty and deceit. Dombey's dysfunctional relationships are painted against a backdrop of social unrest in industrialized London, which is populated by a host of fascinating and memorable secondary characters. The complete and unabridged novel is brought spectacularly to life by veteran reader David Timson.
-
-
Utterly incredible!
- By Amazon Customer on 03-12-12
By: Charles Dickens
-
Where Angels Fear to Tread
- Penguin English Library
- By: E. M. Forster
- Narrated by: Stephen Fry
- Length: 2 hrs and 51 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
E. M. Forster's first novel is a witty comedy of manners that is tinged with tragedy. It tells the story of Lilia Herriton, who proves to be an embarrassment to her late husband's family as, in the small Tuscan town of Monteriano, she begins a relationship with a much younger Italian man - classless, uncouth, and highly unsuitable. A subtle attack on Edwardian values and a humanely sympathetic portrayal of the clash of two cultures, Where Angels Fear to Tread is also a profound exploration of character and virtue.
-
-
Stephen Fry + E.M. Forster = Audio Kismet
- By Megasaurus on 08-20-12
By: E. M. Forster
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
The Bridge of San Luis Rey
- By: Thornton Wilder
- Narrated by: Sam Waterston
- Length: 3 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Wilder's stories consistently explored the connections between the commonplace and cosmic dimensions of human experience, always returning to fundamental questions about the meaning of life. This Pulitzer Prize-winning tale concerns the lives of five people who fall to their deaths from a Peruvian rope bridge in 1714. A humble Franciscan, Brother Juniper, witnesses the accident and determines to learn about the lives of the victims in order to find out whether this accident happened by chance or by plan.
-
-
Excellent Story, But Poor Audiobook Technically
- By RKL on 11-15-13
By: Thornton Wilder
-
The Bridge of San Luis Rey
- By: Thornton Wilder
- Narrated by: Timothy Andrés Pabon
- Length: 3 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In eighteenth-century Peru, a rope bridge collapses, dropping five people to tragic deaths in the gorge below. In the aftermath, Brother Juniper, a Franciscan friar and a witness to the disaster, strives to comprehend why these five people were fated to die in this way. Was it, he wonders, some form of divine Providence, or was it arbitrary and unrelated to the manner in which these people had led their lives?
By: Thornton Wilder
-
The Lovers
- A Novel
- By: Paolo Cognetti
- Narrated by: Will Damron
- Length: 4 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Fausto moves to Fontana Fredda—Cold Fountain—a small, remote village high in the mountains, having left Milan and an old love behind. Out of the way and off the beaten path, Fontana Fredda is a town that operates by its own rules, sense of time, and movement of seasons. Its citizens lead quiet but complex lives—and Fausto is attracted to that contrast. There’s Santorso, the former forest ranger who prefers the company of wolves to humans. Babette, the elegant ex-urbanite who, after a brief fling with a mountain man, opened a permanent fixture in the village.
-
-
Ernest and sincere
- By Michelle on 11-22-22
By: Paolo Cognetti
-
Book of Longing
- By: Leonard Cohen
- Narrated by: Leonard Cohen
- Length: 3 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Leonard Cohen wrote the poems in Book of Longing - his first book of poetry in more than 20 years after 1984's Book of Mercy - during his five-year stay at a Zen monastery on Southern California's Mount Baldy, and in Los Angeles, Montreal, and Mumbai. This dazzling collection of poetry is timeless, meditative, and often darkly humorous.
-
-
Cohen reading his own poetry is exquisite
- By Cheryl on 06-18-19
By: Leonard Cohen
-
The Bridge of San Luis Rey
- By: Thornton Wilder
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
- Length: 2 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Set in Peru in the summer of 1714, this novel tells the tale of a group of interrelated people who perish following the collapse of an Inca rope bridge. A Franciscan friar, Brother Juniper, witnesses the accident and sets out to find out more about each victim, seeking answers—cosmic or otherwise—as to why they had to die. In his quest, Brother Juniper spends six years trying to interview as many people that knew the victims as he can, seeking to prove that both their beginning and their end was part of God's plan for each victim.
-
-
The Bridge of San Luis Rey
- By Steve Tone on 11-09-24
By: Thornton Wilder
-
Thornton Wilder: Our Town, The Bridge of San Luis Rey & More
- A BBC Radio Full-Cast Drama Collection
- By: Thornton Wilder
- Narrated by: Full Cast, Robert Glenister, Annette Badland, and others
- Length: 4 hrs and 32 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Thornton Wilder is one of America's most important literary figures. He won the Pulitzer Prize three times - for his novel The Bridge of San Luis Rey and the plays Our Town and The Skin of Our Teeth - and is the only person to be awarded the Pulitzer for both fiction and drama. Included here are four of his key works, set in different times and places, but sharing the same fundamental motifs - the universality of human experience and our search for life's meaning.
By: Thornton Wilder
-
The Bridge of San Luis Rey
- By: Thornton Wilder
- Narrated by: Sam Waterston
- Length: 3 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Wilder's stories consistently explored the connections between the commonplace and cosmic dimensions of human experience, always returning to fundamental questions about the meaning of life. This Pulitzer Prize-winning tale concerns the lives of five people who fall to their deaths from a Peruvian rope bridge in 1714. A humble Franciscan, Brother Juniper, witnesses the accident and determines to learn about the lives of the victims in order to find out whether this accident happened by chance or by plan.
-
-
Excellent Story, But Poor Audiobook Technically
- By RKL on 11-15-13
By: Thornton Wilder
-
The Bridge of San Luis Rey
- By: Thornton Wilder
- Narrated by: Timothy Andrés Pabon
- Length: 3 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In eighteenth-century Peru, a rope bridge collapses, dropping five people to tragic deaths in the gorge below. In the aftermath, Brother Juniper, a Franciscan friar and a witness to the disaster, strives to comprehend why these five people were fated to die in this way. Was it, he wonders, some form of divine Providence, or was it arbitrary and unrelated to the manner in which these people had led their lives?
By: Thornton Wilder
-
The Lovers
- A Novel
- By: Paolo Cognetti
- Narrated by: Will Damron
- Length: 4 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Fausto moves to Fontana Fredda—Cold Fountain—a small, remote village high in the mountains, having left Milan and an old love behind. Out of the way and off the beaten path, Fontana Fredda is a town that operates by its own rules, sense of time, and movement of seasons. Its citizens lead quiet but complex lives—and Fausto is attracted to that contrast. There’s Santorso, the former forest ranger who prefers the company of wolves to humans. Babette, the elegant ex-urbanite who, after a brief fling with a mountain man, opened a permanent fixture in the village.
-
-
Ernest and sincere
- By Michelle on 11-22-22
By: Paolo Cognetti
-
Book of Longing
- By: Leonard Cohen
- Narrated by: Leonard Cohen
- Length: 3 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Leonard Cohen wrote the poems in Book of Longing - his first book of poetry in more than 20 years after 1984's Book of Mercy - during his five-year stay at a Zen monastery on Southern California's Mount Baldy, and in Los Angeles, Montreal, and Mumbai. This dazzling collection of poetry is timeless, meditative, and often darkly humorous.
-
-
Cohen reading his own poetry is exquisite
- By Cheryl on 06-18-19
By: Leonard Cohen
-
The Bridge of San Luis Rey
- By: Thornton Wilder
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
- Length: 2 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Set in Peru in the summer of 1714, this novel tells the tale of a group of interrelated people who perish following the collapse of an Inca rope bridge. A Franciscan friar, Brother Juniper, witnesses the accident and sets out to find out more about each victim, seeking answers—cosmic or otherwise—as to why they had to die. In his quest, Brother Juniper spends six years trying to interview as many people that knew the victims as he can, seeking to prove that both their beginning and their end was part of God's plan for each victim.
-
-
The Bridge of San Luis Rey
- By Steve Tone on 11-09-24
By: Thornton Wilder
-
Thornton Wilder: Our Town, The Bridge of San Luis Rey & More
- A BBC Radio Full-Cast Drama Collection
- By: Thornton Wilder
- Narrated by: Full Cast, Robert Glenister, Annette Badland, and others
- Length: 4 hrs and 32 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Thornton Wilder is one of America's most important literary figures. He won the Pulitzer Prize three times - for his novel The Bridge of San Luis Rey and the plays Our Town and The Skin of Our Teeth - and is the only person to be awarded the Pulitzer for both fiction and drama. Included here are four of his key works, set in different times and places, but sharing the same fundamental motifs - the universality of human experience and our search for life's meaning.
By: Thornton Wilder
-
The Taking of Jemima Boone
- Colonial Settlers, Tribal Nations, and the Kidnap That Shaped America
- By: Matthew Pearl
- Narrated by: Jeremy Arthur
- Length: 6 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this enthralling narrative in the tradition of Candice Millard and David Grann, Matthew Pearl unearths a forgotten and dramatic series of events from early in the Revolutionary War that opens a window into America’s transition from colony to nation, with the heavy moral costs incurred amid shocking new alliances and betrayals.
-
-
An American story with variety of perspectives
- By James on 11-12-21
By: Matthew Pearl
-
Leaves of Grass
- The Original 1855 Edition
- By: Walt Whitman, American Renaissance Books
- Narrated by: Sam Torode
- Length: 4 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Walt Whitman self-published "Leaves of Grass" in 1855, he rocked the literary world and forever changed the course of poetry. In subsequent editions, Whitman continued to revise and expand his poems - but none matched the raw power and immediacy of the first edition. This volume presents the 1855 "Leaves of Grass" in its entirety, unchanged, along with Ralph Waldo Emerson's famous letter to Whitman.
-
-
A brilliant classic
- By M.Biblioswine on 12-02-18
By: Walt Whitman, and others
-
Trailerpark
- By: Russell Banks
- Narrated by: Kevin Kenerly
- Length: 8 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Get to know the colorful cast of characters at the Granite State Trailerpark, where Flora in number 11 keeps more than a hundred guinea pigs and screams at people to stay away from her babies, Claudel in number 5 thinks he is lucky until his wife burns down their trailer and runs off with Howie Leeke, and Noni in number 7 has telephone conversations with Jesus and tells the police about them. Russell Banks offers gripping, realistic portrayals of individual Americans and paints a portrait of New England life that is at once dark, witty, and revealing.
By: Russell Banks
-
The Price of Time
- By: Tim Tigner
- Narrated by: Paul Michael
- Length: 10 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
There’s a secret in Silicon Valley. A discovery. An invention. One so startling and surprisingly sinister that it needs to be kept - at any price. Tim Tigner takes a step back from his best-selling Kyle Achilles series to introduce Zachary Chase and Skylar Fawkes in a fresh stand-alone novel that’s bound to keep you glued and guessing. With secret meetings, sudden disappearances and strange murders, secret agents, skillful assassins, and sexy locations, The Price of Time is packed with fast-paced action and first-class intellectual intrigue.
-
-
Thrilling and Thought Provoking
- By Brad on 05-02-19
By: Tim Tigner
-
Labyrinths
- Selected Stories & Other Writings
- By: Jorge Luis Borges
- Narrated by: Dominic Keating
- Length: 10 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The groundbreaking trans-genre work of Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986) has been insinuating itself into the structure, stance, and very breath of world literature for well over half a century. Multi-layered, self-referential, elusive, and allusive writing is now frequently labelled Borgesian.
-
-
Look, this is Borges
- By Lars Spuybroek on 05-27-20
-
The Trial of the Chicago 7: The Official Transcript
- By: Mark L. Levine - editor, George C. McNamee - editor, Daniel Greenberg - editor, and others
- Narrated by: J. K. Simmons, Jeff Daniels, Chris Jackson, and others
- Length: 10 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the fall of 1969 eight prominent anti-Vietnam War activists were put on trial for conspiring to riot at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. One of the eight, Black Panther cofounder Bobby Seale, was literally bound and gagged in court by order of the judge, Julius Hoffman, and his case was separated from that of the others.
-
-
Reminiscent of current discourse
- By Stephen Snead on 01-16-21
By: Mark L. Levine - editor, and others
-
The Hero of This Book
- A Novel
- By: Elizabeth McCracken
- Narrated by: Elizabeth McCracken
- Length: 4 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ten months after her mother’s death, the narrator of The Hero of This Book takes a trip to London. The city was a favorite of her mother’s, and as the narrator wanders the streets, she finds herself reflecting on her mother’s life and their relationship. Thoughts of the past meld with questions of the future: Back in New England, the family home is now up for sale, its considerable contents already winnowed.
-
-
Just lovely + perfect in the author's own voice
- By westernMA on 03-28-24
-
Getting Good with Money
- Pay Off Your Debt and Find a Life of Freedom - Without Losing Your Mind
- By: Jessi Fearon
- Narrated by: Jessi Fearon
- Length: 3 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Managing your money and finances can be stressful and can take a toll on your relationships and well-being. But it doesn't have to be that way. Join certified financial coach and mom Jessi Fearon as she helps you get a handle on your finances and lays out the doable steps her family took to pay off all their debts--including their mortgage!--and pursue their dreams, all on a $47,000-a-year salary.
-
-
Great book! Really got me thinking.
- By Malachi on 01-30-22
By: Jessi Fearon
-
The Trackers
- A Novel
- By: Charles Frazier
- Narrated by: Will Patton
- Length: 9 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hurtling past the downtrodden communities of Depression-era America, painter Val Welch travels westward to the rural town of Dawes, Wyoming. Through a stroke of luck, he’s landed a New Deal assignment to create a mural representing the region for their new Post Office.
-
-
So Good
- By Ray Stewart on 04-28-23
By: Charles Frazier
-
Jedediah Smith
- No Ordinary Mountain Man
- By: Barton H. Barbour
- Narrated by: Douglas R Pratt
- Length: 10 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Mountain man and fur trader Jedediah Smith casts a heroic shadow. He was the first Anglo-American to travel overland to California via the Southwest, and he roamed through more of the West than anyone else of his era. His adventures quickly became the stuff of legend. Using new information and sifting fact from folklore, Barton H. Barbour now offers a fresh look at this dynamic figure.
-
-
Narrator could use a pronunciation guide
- By Ralph M. Vaga on 03-16-20
-
Daughter of Fortune
- By: Isabel Allende
- Narrated by: Blair Brown, Isabel Allende
- Length: 13 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Orphaned at birth, Eliza Sommers is raised in the British colony of Valparaíso, Chile, by the well-intentioned Victorian spinster Miss Rose and her more rigid brother Jeremy. Just as she meets and falls in love with the wildly inappropriate Joaquín Andieta, a lowly clerk who works for Jeremy, gold is discovered in the hills of northern California. By 1849, Chileans of every stripe have fallen prey to feverish dreams of wealth. Joaquín takes off for San Francisco to seek his fortune, and Eliza, pregnant with his child, decides to follow him.
-
-
An adventure to the California Gold Fields of 1849
- By Jean on 07-20-20
By: Isabel Allende
-
Between the Mountain and the Sky
- A Mother’s Story of Love, Loss, Healing, and Hope
- By: Maggie Doyne
- Narrated by: Maggie Doyne
- Length: 7 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Maggie’s story begins in suburban New Jersey, in a comfortable middle-class family that supports her decision to travel the world during a gap year before starting college. During her travels, the trajectory of her life alters when she has a surprise encounter with a Nepali girl breaking rocks in a quarry. Maggie decides to invest her life savings of 5,000 dollars to buy a piece of land and open a children’s home in Nepal.
-
-
I loved the message.
- By lovetheocean on 05-05-24
By: Maggie Doyne
What listeners say about The Bridge of San Luis Rey
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Mountain K9iner
- 04-10-23
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.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Peter W. Kalnin
- 08-12-24
Wisdom Literature
A classic from the 1920s, this novel presents the reader with philosophic questions regarding God, life and how to live a fulfilled life.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- SandyK
- 09-06-24
A Classic
What a great story!
Wilder remains one of my favorite American writers. I enjoyed reading the book that made him famous.
He loses all the most fundamental questions in this story.
Why do certain people face unexpected and tragic death?
Is it that they were evil and deserved the fate from God? Of were they rewarded in a way with an early pathway to heaven? Or is it all random?
Actually, I think the setup of the stories, which take up the vast majority of the book was by far the most interesting part. And the discussion of the existential questions was too short and a bit unsatisfying.
But it was well more than adequate. Indeed it was fine.
The reading was very good.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Laura Blanco
- 01-21-23
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.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- David C.
- 09-06-20
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.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Erik Mambetakunov
- 05-31-20
Female narratives
Female narratives sound unnatural. Performance and the underlining dramatic characters are completely different. Dona Maria’s letters sound like Mary Poppins.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- kmilesmcleod
- 12-07-23
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.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!