A Thornton Wilder trio: The cabala, The bridge of San Luis Rey, The woman of Andros

From the back cover: Each of the novels is a special achievement, different in its own fashion from any other novels written at the time, or since-The Woman of Andros is a Greek pastoral as beautifully handled as the figures on a Greek vase. It contrasts with The Bridge of San Luis Rey, which is a fable (perhaps more Buddhist than Christian in its feeling), as much as with The Cabala, which is an album of boldly depicted characters. All three novels, different as they are from one another, have something in common besides their economy of statement and their felicity of style. Perhaps it is the quality that was praised by Henry James in his little book on Hawthorne. There he said, speaking of The Scarlet Letter, 'It has about it that charm, very hard to express, which we find in an artist's work the first time he has touched his highest mark-a sort of straightness and naturalness of execution, and unconsciousness of his public, and freshness of interest in his theme.' These books have that quality too, and they ask to be reread."