Jump to ratings and reviews
Rate this book

The Cabala and The Woman of Andros: Two Classic American Literature Novels – Beautiful Writing from Rome to Ancient Greece

Rate this book
"For much of the twentieth century, these remarkable early novels were hidden in the great shadow of The Bridge of San Luis Rey. Now we can examine them in the spotlight for the gifts that they are--memorable monuments to style and keys to understanding Wilder's genius." - Penelope Niven, Thornton Wilder Biographer

Featuring a foreword by Penelope Niven and a revealing afterword by Wilder's nephew, Tappan, this reissue reintroduces the reader to the Thornton Wilder's first novel, The Cabala, and to The Woman of Andros, one of the inspirations for his Pulitzer Prize-winning play Our Town.

A young American student spends a year in the exotic world of post-World War I Rome. While there, he experiences firsthand the waning days of a secret community (a cabala) of decaying royalty, a great cardinal of the Roman Church, and an assortment of memorable American ex-pats. The Cabala, a semiautobiographical novel of unforgettable characters and human passions, launched Wilder's career as a celebrated storyteller and dramatist.

The Woman of Andros, set on the obscure Greek island of Brynos before the birth of Christ, explores universal questions of what is precious about life and how we live, love, and die. Eight years later, Wilder would pose the same questions on the stage in a play titled Our Town, also set in an obscure location, this time a village in New Hampshire. The Woman of Andros is celebrated for some of the most beautiful writing in American literature.

301 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1968

61 people are currently reading
112 people want to read

About the author

Thornton Wilder

229 books511 followers
Thornton Niven Wilder was an American playwright and novelist. He received three Pulitzer Prizes, one for his novel The Bridge of San Luis Rey and two for his plays Our Town and The Skin of Our Teeth, and a National Book Award for his novel The Eighth Day.

For more see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thornton...

Ratings & Reviews

What do you think?
Rate this book

Friends & Following

Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!

Community Reviews

5 stars
19 (21%)
4 stars
36 (41%)
3 stars
23 (26%)
2 stars
8 (9%)
1 star
1 (1%)
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
Profile Image for Ostap Bender.
997 reviews18 followers
October 13, 2021
This edition includes Wilder’s first and third novels, those that bookend ‘The Bridge of San Luis Rey’, the classic which launched him to fame. Like that novel, the settings are somewhat artificial; in ‘The Cabala’ it’s the old guard aristocratic society in Rome, which Wilder visited as a young man but largely invents here, and in ‘The Woman of Andros’, it’s a made up Greek island at the time of Christ. They are simply backdrops for Wilder’s character sketches, and for his exploration into the deep questions of life and the angst of the human condition, which he does in a quiet, economical way.

These books are somewhat intellectual, and will not be for everyone, but I found the writing to be beautiful, and admire Wilder’s craft as an author. As an example, the last clause of this passage really struck me: “They longed to see one another again, but it would have been impossible. They dreamed of one of those long conversations that one never has on earth, but which one projects so easily at midnight, alone and wise; words are not rich enough nor kisses sufficiently compelling to repair all our havoc.”

Here are some other quotes:
On Dante, from ‘The Cabala’; I couldn’t agree more:
“Where, where is he, that soul of vinegar, that chose to assign the souls of the dead more harshly than God? Tell him that though a pagan I too shall see bliss. It is nothing that I must first pay the penalty of ten thousand years. Behold the moment I exhibit the sin of anger; where is he in pain for the sin of pride?”

On knowledge, from ‘The Cabala’:
“Who can understand religion unless he has sinned? who can understand literature unless he has suffered? who can understand love unless he has loved without response?”

On life and love, from ‘The Woman of Andros’:
“Suddenly the hero saw that the living too are dead and that we can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasure; for our hearts are not strong enough to love every moment.”

On love, from ‘The Cabala’, I loved the compression of the parenthetical summary:
“Nature had decided to torment this woman by causing her to fall in love (that succession of febrile interviews, searches, feints at indifference, nightlong solitary monologues, ridiculous vision of remote happiness) with the very type of youth that could not be attracted by her…”

And this one from ‘The Woman of Andros’:
“The caress of hands in first love, and never so simply again, seems to be a sharing of courage, an alliance of two courages against a confusing world.”

On men and women, from ‘The Cabala’:
“Suddenly his eyes had been opened to a world he had not dreamed of. So it was true that men and women were never really engaged in what they appeared to be doing, but lived in a world of secret invitations, signals, and escapes! Now he understood the raised eyebrows of waitresses and the brush of the usher’s hand as she unlocks the loge. It is not an accident that the wind draws the great lady’s scarf across your face as you emerge from the door of the hotel. Your mother’s friends happen to be passing in the corridor outside the drawing-room, but not by chance. Now he discovered that all women are devils, but foolish ones, and that he had entered into the true and only satisfactory activity in living – the pursuit of them.”

On solitude, from ‘The Woman of Andros’:
“Indeed the profession she followed was one of those that emphasize the dim notion that lies at the back of many minds: the notion that we are not necessary to anyone, that attachments weave and unweave at the mercy of separation, satiety and experience. The loneliest associations are those that pretend to intimacy.”

On stoicism and expressing oneself, from ‘The Woman of Andros’, on her deathbed:
“’No, no. I am very happy that you have come.’ To herself she thought: ‘Time is passing, and what are we saying! Is there not something heartfelt that I can find to say to him, something to remember, for him and for me?’ But she distrusted the emotion that filled her heart. It was perhaps mere excitement and pain; or a vague and false sentiment. Probably the best thing to do was to be stoic; to be brave and inarticulate; to talk of trivial things. Or was it a greater bravery to surmount this shame and to say whatever obvious words the heart dictated? Which was right?”
Profile Image for Pascale.
1,370 reviews66 followers
August 15, 2023
"The Cabala" is definitely a young man's book, being semi-autobiographical and slightly over-written. That said, it is quite enjoyable as a variation on the theme of the American abroad. The narrator, later nicknamed "Samuele" by his Italian friends, is first introduced to Roman high society by a fellow expatriate named James Blair, a Harvard graduate of enormous but myopic erudition who throws himself into one faddish pursuit after another without ever publishing anything. Having had the chance of cataloguing the library of Elizabeth Grier, a wealthy expatriate, Blair introduces Samuele to her weird and eclectic social circle, composed of a cardinal who spent the bulk of his career doing unorthodox missionary work in China and various other oddballs. The Duchess d'Aquilanera begs Samuele to convince her teenage son to stop ruining his health with loose women, with the result that the high-strung youth first decides to train for the Pari Olympics, than blows his brains in self-hatred, possibly because of an incestuous infatuation with his half-sister. Samuele then attaches himself to Alix d'Espoli, who pines after the effete (and possibly gay) Blair. Finally Samuele bears witness to the dramatic loss of faith of Astrée-Luce de Mortfontaine, a befuddled soul who has made it her life's mission to obtain the promulgation of the Divine Right of Kings as a dogma of the Church. An honest but totally dim woman, Astrée-Luce becomes completely mad when Cardinal Vaini uspets her schematic conception of the world with complex dialectical arguments. It's not obvious what these disparate characters have in common except for antiquated ideas and a profound loneliness. They are well aware that people nickname them collectively as "the Cabala" and relish the name all the more because effectively they are neither rich nor powerful and score whatever small victories they achieve largely because of the aura of mystery attached to the name itself. The pleasure of the book for me derived largely from observing our callow narrator feasting on the debacles of these exotic creatures with the selfishness of youth.
While "The Woman of Andros" is much better know, I found it almost devoid of merit. A wimp of a boy called Pamphilus cannot make up his mind to marry the foreign girl he loves and has made pregnant, although his parents would actually be quite prepared to bend the rules and welcome her into the family. Eventually everybody does the right thing but Glycerium then goes and dies in childbirth. Bof.
Profile Image for Rebecca Martell.
63 reviews
October 2, 2025
Lovely modernist writing, albeit in nascent form, from one of the era's premier writers. The novels are very short.

_The Cabala_ is more a series of vignettes from a young American playwright visiting in Rome, observing the follies of some elite persons. At turns, humorous, probing, and slightly ironic without any cynicism. A fine, light touch.

_The Woman of Andros_ is better written, faster paced, but more fable-like in nature. It's hard to write Greek tragedy from the POV of a Puritan New Englander, but somehow Wilder pulls it off. A trifle melodramatic, and perhaps not as philosophically deep as it would like to be, but the descriptions are elegant and the prose is firm.
Profile Image for L..
1,505 reviews75 followers
July 5, 2024
It often happens that a reader will get a completely different message from the one the author originally intended, and there's nothing wrong with it in my almighty opinion. (BTW, I didn't read The Cabala part.)

Set in ancient Greece, Chrysis is a strong, independent, educated woman with control over her finances. All the old alpha males hate her because she's not a trad wife and all the young simps are fascinated by her because she's not a trad wife. Then everybody dies.

July 5, 2024
Profile Image for Jamie Lindemulder.
867 reviews2 followers
September 7, 2025
Full disclosure, I purchased this book at the Dollar Tree because I liked the cover. I never heard of Thornton Wilder. Come to find out, he's pretty much a famous author. Oops! This book is actually two book. I preferred "The Woman of Andros" over "The Cabala." But honestly, they were both pretty boring and I'm kind of too much of a dummy to follow along with it. It was a quick book to get through; and about 203 pages. The most interesting thing about this book is that he was friends with two of my favorite authors: F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway.
Profile Image for Russel Henderson.
728 reviews10 followers
May 1, 2024
Wilder is a master of short fiction, a genius at setting a scene and giving the measure of a character in doses. I did not enjoy them as much as The Bridge, but The Cabala in particular was delightful
Profile Image for Christina.
46 reviews2 followers
November 18, 2009
I've long wanted to read "The Cabala" because its characters are based on expatriates in Rome in 1920, when Thornton Wilder was a visiting student in archaeology at the American Academy in Rome. I know a little about that period but so far the only character I've been able to identify is John Keats, a hundred years too late! This was Wilder's first novel but I really wonder if anyone would publish it today, when being a Yale alumnus is less crucial to literary success. I could hardly finish the story, owing to the pretentious name-dropping and bizarre characters. I forced myself to keep going with "A Woman of Andros" and liked it a little better.
Profile Image for J. Lee Graham.
Author 8 books10 followers
March 6, 2013
It's one of Wilder's early novels, and it does come across pompous and it feels like Wilder was trying to impress us with his wit (lots of use of passive voice in this work) and he gets lost in trying to be clever. But, it does ring true about Wilder himself in the undercurrent and unstated bits if you know where to look. A writer can never hide himself entirely in his work, and bits of Wilder's own sexual orientation pop up in the 'homoerotic' moments.
If you're a Wilder fan, it's a must read: to simply ignore the mediocre writings of an author, for any true fan, is a mistake.
Profile Image for John O'Brien.
62 reviews114 followers
August 25, 2012
The Woman of Andros: Being a huge fan of Wilder, I had never found this more obscure novella until this year. Set in ancient Greece, like much of Wilder’s work, there is an exquisite tenderness for his characters, as they illustrate profound existential questions by their lives.

The Cabala: One of the first of Wilder's that I read, it sold me by his mesmerizing writing. The Great Gatsby but in Rome among the old aristocracy, nouveau riche, and ex-pat Americans.
Profile Image for Marvin chester.
21 reviews43 followers
January 19, 2013
Allegorical and compelling tales. About Italian aristocracy, a cabal; not jewish mysticism, Cabala. Andros deeply moving. 11 pages into piece have story of hero granted, on dieing, to be returned to earth one day. Finds people not conscious of the treasure of living. Other allegories in both 'books'.
Profile Image for Lory Hess.
Author 3 books29 followers
April 2, 2013
Both short early novels are inevitably compared to the bestselling The Bridge of San Luis Rey (which was published in between the two). The Cabala reads like a study for the Bridge, with similar episodic character sketches but less emotional impact. The Woman of Andros is beautifully written but also somehow emotionally distant. I'm glad I read both but not sure I would read them again.
Profile Image for Beth.
5 reviews7 followers
February 12, 2009
Really I give The Cabala 5 stars and The Woman of Andros 3.
Profile Image for Charles Dee Mitchell.
854 reviews68 followers
December 16, 2009
His first fiction effort is hardly a novel. A series of character studies of early 20th century Roman aristocracy and the expat community. Slight, well-written, and enjoyable.
Profile Image for Kenneth.
377 reviews1 follower
September 19, 2012
Only read The Woman Of Andros as that was the version I had.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews

Can't find what you're looking for?

Get help and learn more about the design.