by Risa Wolf

Created on: September 13, 2009   Last Updated: April 25, 2012

Albert & Charles Boni, Inc., the publishers of The Bridge of San Luis Rey, by the then unknown Thornton Wilder, did not expect to make money on this little book. The subject was not the type that would appeal to the disillusioned in those hectic days after World War I. Who would want to read about the fall of a bridge in some obscure place in Peru or about some little priest, named Brother Juniper, and his wish to place theology among the exact sciences? No, they published the book for the beauty of its writing and said so in the preface.

The premise of The Bridge is the basis of all strong fictional literature: what if? In this case, what if a bridge, a symbol of the everlasting, breaks and five people die? Why these five? And so begins Chapter 1: Perhaps an Accident.

"On Friday noon, July the twentieth, 1714, the finest bridge in all Peru broke and precipitated five travelers into the gulf below. . . . Anyone else would have said to himself with secret joy: 'within ten minutes myself !' But it was another thought that visited Brother Juniper: 'Why did this happen to those five?' . . . Either we live by accident and we die by accident, or we live by plan and we die by plan. And on that instant Brother Juniper made the resolve to inquire into the secret lives of those five persons, that moment falling through the air, and to surprise the reason of their taking off."

Among the five who die are the Marquesa de Montemayor and her suffering companion, Pepita, a young orphan who was the hope of Madre Maria del Pilar, abbess of Santa Maria Rosa de las Rosas, a convent and orphanage. The third is Estaban, one of twin boys raised at the same orphanage. The fourth and fifth are Uncle Pio and Don Jaime. Uncle Pio is the teacher of La Perichole and Don Jaime is the beautiful (and seizure prone) illegitimate son of the Viceroy of Peru and his mistress, the famous actress, La Perichole.

In many ways, the Bridge is similar to a play. Although each chapter is named after a victim, there is continuous on and off center stage interaction between the victims and the skillfully drawn large supporting cast of characters. One supporting cast member, La Perichole, touches upon the life of every victim. All the major characters touch each other's lives in an expertly controlled central plot-line that weaves in and out toward the final resolution in the last chapter: Perhaps an Intention.

The Marquesa interacts with her daughter, Clara, Pepita, La Perichole, the Viceroy, and Uncle

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