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The Bridge of San Luis Rey
- Narrated by: Sam Waterston
- Length: 3 hrs and 42 mins
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Publisher's summary
Pulitzer Prize Winner, The Novel, 1928
The Bridge of San Luis Rey, first published in 1927, was Thornton Wilder's first major work and won him instant international recognition. The story concerns the lives of five people who fall to their deaths on July 20, 1714, when a rope bridge breaks on a road near Lima, Peru. 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.
Again and again, the novelist and playwright Thornton Wilder explores in his works the connections between the commonplace and cosmic dimensions of human experience, always returning to fundamental questions about the meaning of life.
The Bridge of San Luis Rey, one of the true great American classics, has been translated into more than 30 languages. The book won Wilder the first of his three Pulitzer Prizes.
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- Narrated by: Neville Jason
- Length: 21 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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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
- By Darwin8u on 02-24-13
By: Marcel Proust
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The Insulted and the Injured
- By: Fyodor Dostoyevsky
- Narrated by: Alastair Cameron
- Length: 13 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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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
- By: Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis
- Narrated by: Edoardo Camponeschi
- Length: 7 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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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
- By C. Park on 08-09-18
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A Hero of Our Time
- By: Mikhail Lermontov
- Narrated by: Nicholas Boulton
- Length: 6 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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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
- By: Elizabeth Gaskell
- Narrated by: Eve Matheson
- Length: 16 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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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
- Length: 20 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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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
- Narrated by: David Timson
- Length: 39 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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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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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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- Elizabeth
- 10-13-13
Better read than listened to?
Maybe this book is better taken in via reading it, rather than listening, for it lacked a compelling reason to stay with it. While I did complete the novel, I was left wanting more, wishing it was better, wishing for the profound.
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- Barry
- 08-14-13
Short but profound
This is a short but profound meditation on the moments that can bring a sense of reconciliation and redemption to our lives, and how we misunderstand or misinterpret even those we are closest to. I remain somewhat mystified as to why he chose to base this, however loosely, on actual historical persons, or why he dislocated them in time from their actual historical dates. For that matter, I remain mystified as to why the book's internal timeline refuses to behave itself. None of this detracts from the beauty and concision of this gem of a book.
The recording has mysteries of its own. Sam Waterston is a fine actor and his reading is full of expressive nuances, but for some reason the sound is muddy. I can't tell if this is because it's an old transfer from tape, or if Mr. Waterston's voice is pitched oddly, or because he lacks that special clipped diction that makes other readers more listenable. Maybe my hearing is just suffering from old age.
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6 people found this helpful
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- Keith
- 11-08-17
Really fabulous read, brilliant narrator.
It was one of those rare reads where I didn't want the book to end.
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- Felicity Fabulous
- 03-28-18
Love is the only survivor
I read this in high school I think. I liked it then, but after listening to it today, I'm astonished how much stuck with me, and how much IS me.
A timeless story that changes with time. I #LoVE
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- Katie
- 04-02-19
The narration is poor.
Enjoyed the story, but this audiobook has very poor narration quality. There is alot of background static and the narrator speaks so low and quietly that I had to turn my volume up significantly just to hear him.
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- Padma devi
- 05-08-12
narrator mumbled
I might have enjoyed this book more if I could have understood more of the words. The narrator mumbled and swallowed his words. Seemed like he was running out of breath at the end of a sentence so one could not hear what he was saying.
Difficult to enjoy the story the reading was so poor.
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12 people found this helpful
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- Kansas Mom
- 11-29-11
A very compelling story performed well.
A very thought provoking story. Incredibly enjoyable and well performed. Characters have depth and are realistic.
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- R. Klein
- 10-27-12
The sound quality drags this one down
What did you like best about The Bridge of San Luis Rey? What did you like least?
I didn't like the sound quality at all. It's muffled, which, combined with the somewhat flat reading, makes the story just drone on and on. The story goes into significant depth about the characters, but I simply gave up on starting the second of five stories. While the stories might be interesting, I don't recommend this audiobook on the simple lack of audio quality. You can get a good idea of it in the audio sample.
What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?
The concept of the story seems interesting, but ultimately, I was finding the details, coupled with the difficulty in hearing it just not worth the effort.
How could the performance have been better?
Certainly a clearer recording - that didn't sound like it was made on a cassette recorder 35 years ago. It must be a rather old recording, transferred from tape.
And as much as I've always liked Sam Waterson as an actor, I found his reading flat to the point of becoming a drone.
Did The Bridge of San Luis Rey inspire you to do anything?
Only to try to return the book.
Any additional comments?
The recording quality is probably a disservice to the writing. Sorry to write such a negative review. I think this might be a book better read off the printed page than this recording.
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- Lisa B. Hamilton
- 04-24-18
Lackluster reading
Narrator sounded bored. Ruined a wonderful book. It sounded as if he neither cared about nor understood what he was reading.
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- Anita Herrick
- 03-21-19
Great story, poor quality audio, mediocre reading
The story was excellent. However, the audio quality was very poor. It was too quiet, and there was a distracting hiss in the background. Two of the parts played out of order, which was very frustrating. And the reading was mediocre as well. The reader rushed and mumbled at times and sometimes spoke with very little inflection, especially when reading dialogue. I've listened to a lot of books on Audible, and they are uniformly well done. This was a pretty stunning departure from the quality I expect.
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