The Bridge of San Luis Rey (1927) tells the story of several unrelated people who happen to be on a bridge in Peru when it collapses, killing them. Philosophically, the book explores the problem of evil, or the question, of why unfortunate events occur to people who seem "innocent" or "undeserving". It won the Pulitzer Prize in 1928, and in 1998 it was selected by the editorial board of the American Modern Library as one of the 100 best novels of the twentieth century. The book was quoted by British Prime Minister Tony Blair during the memorial service for victims of the September 11 attacks in 2001. Since then its popularity has grown enormously. The book is the progenitor of the modern disaster epic in literature and film-making, where a single disaster intertwines the victims, whose lives are then explored by means of flashbacks to events before the disaster.
Subjects
People
Places
Times
Links (outside Open Library)
53 editions First published in 1927
| Edition | Read | Borrow | Buy |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
eBook PDF, ePub or in browser from Internet Archive |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
eBook PDF, ePub or in browser from Internet Archive |
||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
eBook PDF, ePub or in browser from Internet Archive |
||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
History Created December 8, 2009 · 18 revisions
| November 23, 2012 | Edited by Anand Chitipothu | Reverted spam |
| November 21, 2012 | Edited by 188.190.127.68 | Edited without comment. |
| November 4, 2011 | Edited by EdwardBot | remove 'in fiction' subjects |
| April 11, 2011 | Edited by Philip Tidman | Edited without comment. |
| December 8, 2009 | Created by ImportBot | add works page |