ABSTRACT
Thornton Wilder has to his credit one of the greatest novels "The Bridge of San Luis Rey" and one of the greatest plays "Our Town" in this century's American writing. Due to a socioeconomic accident, Wilder was slighted by most critics practicing in the thirties and, accordingly, has not received attention since that time to any extent commensurate with his importance as a novelist. There is an immense spread between the sophistication of The Cabala and the homely simplicity of Our Town, and Wilder is comfortably at home in both. In one of the most luminous passages of The Bridge, Wilder looks into the secret heart of the Perichole, who is marred by smallpox and convinced that love is forever lost to her. In speaking of the experiments in time and space, Wilder defined the purpose that informs all of his work in all media—the attempt "to capture not verisimilitude but reality".
