He determined to investigate their lives and their value to society. The incident provided for him both experimental subjects who died, and “controls” who did not. The accident was witnessed by a Franciscan priest, Brother Juniper, who needed real-life material to support his hypothesis that theology could be a hard science and the will of God could be explained statistically. The author then goes back in time to relate the personal histories of these victims and what later became of their surviving relatives and associates. Having previously been considered totally reliable, the failure of this bridge of San Luis Rey severely shocked the people of the capital city, Lima. The book opens with a blunt statement describing a fictitious incident that occurred in 1714 in the mountainous region of Peru when a bridge made of primitive materials collapsed, causing the death of five travelers. Rather than put forward his own views, he poses questions. He is also thought to have instilled into it discussions with his parents who held fundamentalist Protestant views on the nature of God. Wilder is reported to have based his plot on a play by Prosper Mérimée involving a courtesan in South America.

The strength of the book lies not only in the fundamental issues posed, but also in the beauty of Thornton Wilder’s expressive writing.

His pursuit of this question, for which he could find no answer, led to his own execution. He wished to determine scientifically why those particular individuals were chosen for such a fate, and he devoted the following six years to the compilation of a book of his studies of their lives. The story takes place in the 18th century, where a Franciscan priest, Brother Juniper, witnessed the fall of a bridge over a mountain pass in Peru and the consequent death of five people who were on this bridge when it fell. It is postulated Wilder’s work was a forerunner of the genre in which a disaster draws together the lives of otherwise unrelated persons. It has been included in the American Modern Library’s list of the best 20th century novels and in TIME magazine’s list of 100 Best English-Language Novels from 1923 to 2005. The Bridge of San Luis Rey, by Thornton Wilder, was published in 1927 and awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1928.

The bridge of luis rey