The Cabala

by Thornton Wilder

Overview

Ironic and self-ironic, unapologetically literary, urbane and heady. Reads, for the most part, like Woolf or Forster, occasionally reaching wry delights: "When the bourgeoisie discovered that she was accepting invitations there was a tumult as of many waters."

This is a book where you get the feeling that the trees, as it were, are more important than the forest. And then, after weaving this glittering verbal spell, the story pounces from behind it and flexes: does things that I not only haven't seen done but still can't imagine being done in serious literature.

This is absolutely a hidden gem of American lit.

I think you should read it and see what I mean. (J. Alfred)

Bio

Thornton Wilder, in full Thornton Niven Wilder, (born April 17, 1897, Madison, Wisconsin, U.S.-died December 7, 1975, Hamden, Connecticut), American writer whose innovative novels and plays reflect his views of the universal truths in human nature. He is probably best known for his plays.

After graduating from Yale University in 1920, Wilder studied archaeology in Rome. From 1930 to 1937 he taught dramatic literature and the classics at the University of Chicago.

His first novel, The Cabala (1926), set in 20th-century Rome, is essentially a fantasy about the death of the pagan gods. His most popular novel, The Bridge of San Luis Rey (1927; Pulitzer Prize), which was adapted for film and television, examines the lives of five people who died in the collapse of a bridge in 18th-century Peru. The Woman of Andros (1930) is an interpretation of Terence's Andria. Accused of being a "Greek" rather than an American writer, Wilder in Heaven's My Destination (1934) wrote about a quixotically good hero in a contemporary setting. His later novels are The Ides of March (1948), The Eighth Day (1967), and Theophilus North (1973).

Wilder's plays engage the audience in make-believe by having the actors address the spectators directly and by discarding props and scenery. The Stage Manager in Our Town (1938) talks to the audience, as do the characters in the farcical The Matchmaker (1954). Wilder won a Pulitzer Prize for Our Town, becoming the only person to receive the award in both the fiction and drama categories. The Matchmaker was made into a film in 1958 and adapted in 1964 into the immensely successful musical Hello, Dolly!, which was also made into a film.

Wilder's other plays include The Skin of Our Teeth (1942; Pulitzer Prize), which employs deliberate anachronisms and the use of the same characters in various geological and historical periods to show that human experience is much the same whatever the time or place. Posthumous publications include The Journals of Thornton Wilder, 1939-1961, edited by Donald Gallup, and Wilder's correspondence with Gertrude Stein, The Letters of Gertrude Stein and Thornton Wilder (1996), edited by Edward Burns and Ulla E. Dydo. (britannica)

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9789360469993
Publisher:	Double 9 Books
Publication date:	01/01/2024
Pages:	102
Sales rank:	764,404
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.24(d)

About the Author

Thornton Niven Wilder was an American author and writer who was born April 17, 1897, and died December 7, 1975. His books "The Bridge of San Luis Rey," "Our Town," and "The Skin of Our Teeth" won him three Pulitzer Prizes. His book "The Eighth Day" won him a U.S. National Book Award. Wilder was born in Madison, Wisconsin. His father, Amos Parker Wilder, was a newspaper editor and later a U.S. minister, and his mother, Isabella Thornton Niven, was a teacher. Wilder had five brothers, plus a twin who died before it was born. All of the Wilder children who are still alive spent some of their childhood in China while their father was U.S. Consul General in Hong Kong and Shanghai. The elder Wilder brother of Thornton became the Hollis Professor of Divinity at Harvard Divinity School. The field of theopoetics grew with the help of his work as a famous author. Isabel Wilder, their sister, was a great writer. It was their third sister; Charlotte Wilder was an artist and Janet Wilder Dakin was a zoologist.

Editorial Reviews

Narrator Tristan Morris brings a youthful confidence to this wonderfully gentle, erudite, and satirical tour of a fanciful early-twentieth-century Rome. An American student of the classics spends a year abroad and happens upon a secretive mystical society of aristocratic misfits called “The Cabala.” Morris is at his best providing broad comic Italian accents to a menagerie of eccentric characters ranging from the sweet Duchess d’Aquilanera to the lovesick Princess Alix d’Espoli and the spiritually challenged Cardinal Vaini. First published in 1926, Wilder’s debut novel is a fine mix of send-ups of classical myth, high society, and Puritan values. Plus, the book acted as the opening fanfare of an author who would be beloved and celebrated for years to come. B.P. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine

JULY 2020 - AudioFile

Narrator Tristan Morris brings a youthful confidence to this wonderfully gentle, erudite, and satirical tour of a fanciful early-twentieth-century Rome. An American student of the classics spends a year abroad and happens upon a secretive mystical society of aristocratic misfits called “The Cabala.” Morris is at his best providing broad comic Italian accents to a menagerie of eccentric characters ranging from the sweet Duchess d’Aquilanera to the lovesick Princess Alix d’Espoli and the spiritually challenged Cardinal Vaini. First published in 1926, Wilder’s debut novel is a fine mix of send-ups of classical myth, high society, and Puritan values. Plus, the book acted as the opening fanfare of an author who would be beloved and celebrated for years to come. B.P. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine

JULY 2020 - AudioFile