Wilder, Thornton (Niven). The bridge of San Luis Rey. London, Westminster Press for Longmans, Green and Co. 1927. 8°. VII, 139, (2) p. Original cloth binding with gold-stamped spine title and cover signature, and dust jacket.

Burke/Howe p. 826. Johnson/Blanck p. 541. – First English edition; „English trade edition issued a few days before American trade edition.“ (Johnson/Blanck). – T. N. Wilder (1897-1975) won his first Pulitzer Price for this novel in 1928, and it was the best-selling work of fiction that year. – „The Bridge of San Luis Rey tells the story of people who die in the collapse of an Inca rope bridge in Peru, and the events that lead up to their being on the bridge. A friar who witnesses the accident then goes about inquiring into the lives of the victims, seeking some sort of cosmic answer to the question of why each had to die. – Wilder explained that the plot was inspired in its external action by a one-act play [Le Carrosse du Saint-Sacrement] by [the French playwright] Prosper Mérimée, which takes place in Latin America and one of whose characters is a courtesan. However, the central idea of the work, the justification for a number of human lives that comes up as a result of the sudden collapse of a bridge, stems from friendly arguments with my father, a strict Calvinist. Strict Puritans imagine God all too easily as a petty schoolmaster who minutely weights guilt against merit, and they overlook God’s ‚Caritas‘ which is more all-encompassing and powerful. God’s love has to transcend his just retribution. But in my novel I have left this question unanswered. As I said earlier, we can only pose the question correctly and clearly, and have faith one will ask the question in the right way“ (Wikipedia). – Dust jacket inconspicuously restored at the top, near fine copy of Wilder’s most famous novel.

• Kategorie: Literatur und Literaturwissenschaft / Illustrierte Bücher / Pressendrucke
• Sprache: Englisch
• Schutzumschlag
• Erstausgabe
• Bestellnummer: 108775BB

Unser Preis: EUR 320,--