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The Bridge of San Luis Rey
- A Novel
- Narrated by: Thom Rivera
- Length: 4 hrs and 17 mins
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Publisher's summary
“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This edition includes a foreword by acclaimed author Russell Banks and features previously unpublished notes and other illuminating documentary material about the novel and author.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.
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- By: Nathaniel Hawthorne
- Narrated by: Anthony Heald
- Length: 11 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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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.
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A Classic Thriller
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Swann's Way
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- Length: 21 hrs and 33 mins
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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.
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Not a book one reads but inhabits & floats through
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The Insulted and the Injured
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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.
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Excellent
- By Joel A. Griska on 07-26-17
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The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas
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- Narrated by: Edoardo Camponeschi
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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.
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A hidden masterpiece
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A Hero of Our Time
- By: Mikhail Lermontov
- Narrated by: Nicholas Boulton
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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.
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Sarcastic Title
- By SmartShopper on 04-23-24
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Ruth
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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.
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Fallen Woman Finds Redemption
- By Susan on 12-06-12
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The Mill on the Floss
- By: George Eliot
- Narrated by: Laura Paton
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Performance
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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
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Great compassion
- By nina lalumia on 12-26-16
By: George Eliot
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Dombey and Son
- By: Charles Dickens
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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.
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Utterly incredible!
- By Amazon Customer on 03-12-12
By: Charles Dickens
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Where Angels Fear to Tread
- Penguin English Library
- By: E. M. Forster
- Narrated by: Stephen Fry
- Length: 2 hrs and 51 mins
- Abridged
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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.
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Stephen Fry + E.M. Forster = Audio Kismet
- By Megasaurus on 08-20-12
By: E. M. Forster
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I loved the message.
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What listeners say about The Bridge of San Luis Rey
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- 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.
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1 person found this helpful
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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2 people found this helpful
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- 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.
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4 people found this helpful
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- 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.
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2 people found this helpful
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- 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.
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