The Bridge of San Luis Rey

The Bridge of San Luis Rey ( Original title: The Bridge of San Luis Rey ) was Thornton Wilder's second novel. The book, first published in 1927 won the 1928 Pulitzer Prize and was filmed several times.

The book tells the story of several people who find the death occurred during the 1714 collapse of an old suspension bridge in Lima, and their chroniclers, a Franciscan monk, who was present at the accident and suffers death by fire for his research ultimately as heretics. As model according to the author, the one-act drama Le Carrosse du Saint- Sacrement by Prosper Mérimée. As a central philosophical question is about the representability of a supra-individual meaning of life.

Two historical figures are integrated into the plot: Manuel de Amat y Juniet, 1761-1776 Viceroy of Peru, and his mistress, the actress and singer La Perricholi, whose real name is Micaela Villegas ( 1748-1819 ) and the title role of Offenbach operetta La Périchole. As a model of the bridge Merimée as well as Wilder was about 1350, built by the Incas bridge over the Río Apurimac, which was still in use around 1864.

• Literary work
• Literature ( 20th century)
• Literature ( English )
• Literature (United States)
• Historical novel
• Thornton Wilder