Thornton Wilder Books in Order: Complete Reading Guide
All Thornton Wilder novels in order — from The Cabala to Theophilus North. Complete guide to the Pulitzer Prize winner's fiction, with reading order and best starting points.
Thornton Wilder (1897–1975) won three Pulitzer Prizes and is one of the most formally inventive American writers of the 20th century. His seven novels span an extraordinary range — classical antiquity, Depression-era America, colonial Peru — and all share a quality of philosophical seriousness that asks, always, what it means to be a good person in an indifferent universe.
He is best known for the plays Our Town and The Skin of Our Teeth, but his fiction is equally remarkable and considerably underread.
Start with The Bridge of San Luis Rey — his most famous novel, and the one that established him as a major voice.
All Novels in Order
The Novels
The Bridge of San Luis Rey ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ — Start here
In 18th-century Peru, a bridge collapses and five people die. A monk spends twenty years trying to understand whether their deaths were an accident or the act of providence. A short, perfect novel about love and chance. Read the full review →
The Ides of March ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
The final months of Julius Caesar’s life, told entirely through invented documents — letters, journals, dispatches. One of the finest historical novels of the 20th century, and Caesar’s most complex literary portrait. Read the full review →
The Eighth Day ⭐⭐⭐⭐
A multigenerational American saga about two families and the question of what it means to be a good person. Wilder’s most ambitious novel — National Book Award winner, 1967. Read the full review →
Heaven’s My Destination ⭐⭐⭐⭐
George Brush, travelling textbook salesman, sincere fundamentalist Christian, and constant source of comic disaster — one of the great comic characters of American fiction. Read the full review →
The Woman of Andros ⭐⭐⭐⭐
On a small Greek island before the birth of Christ, a courtesan’s wisdom shapes all around her. Wilder’s most lyrical novel — spare, classical, and beautifully written. Read the full review →
Theophilus North ⭐⭐⭐
A young man arrives in 1920s Newport to teach tennis and finds himself drawn into the lives of its wealthy families. A warm, episodic late novel. Read the full review →
The Cabala ⭐⭐⭐
A young American in 1920s Rome is drawn into a secretive aristocratic circle whose members may be the old gods of Olympus. An elegant debut. Read the full review →
Also see
For the full Thornton Wilder bibliography, reviews, and biography, visit the Thornton Wilder author page on Editors Reads.
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many Pulitzer Prizes did Thornton Wilder win?
Thornton Wilder won three Pulitzer Prizes — for the novel The Bridge of San Luis Rey (1928), the play Our Town (1938), and the play The Skin of Our Teeth (1943). He is one of the very few writers to have won the Pulitzer in both fiction and drama.
Is The Bridge of San Luis Rey his best novel?
The Bridge of San Luis Rey is his most famous novel and the best starting point for most readers. The Ides of March is considered his most technically accomplished, and The Eighth Day is his most philosophically ambitious. Different readers tend to rank them differently.
