The Bridges of Madison County

A world-traveling photographer and a farmer’s wife connect in a sudden, impossible romance in The Bridges of Madison County, a 1992 novel by Robert James Waller. Lauded by critics as a soaring, spiritual story of true love thwarted, but ridiculed by others for greeting-card sentimentality, Bridges became a #1 New York Times bestseller and stayed on the list for three years. With theater and film adaptations, it is one of the most widely read books of the 20th century. This study guide references the second ebook edition, published in December 2013.

Plot Summary

While the novel is entirely fictional, the narrative presents itself as the documentation of a true story, with the fictional character of the narrator assumed as the author.

The narrator receives a visit from a man and a woman, siblings with one another, who ask him to write the story of their mother, Francesca Johnson, and her brief love affair with a photographer, Robert Kincaid. The narrator agrees, does extensive research, and discovers an intensely romantic tale that he fears some people will dismiss as claptrap. He asks the reader to keep an open mind.

Long since divorced, the solitary, lonely Robert Kincaid finds solace in his work as an international photographer. In 1965, he drives his old pickup from his home in Washington state to Iowa to photograph the covered bridges there for a feature in National Geographic. He finds six of the bridges, but the seventh, Roseman Bridge, eludes him. He stops at a farmhouse to ask for directions and meets Francesca Johnson, an attractive, middle-aged housewife alone for the week, her husband and children away at a state fair. Hers is a durable if loveless marriage, but something about the tall, wiry stranger inspires Francesca, and she offers to show him the bridge herself.

They find Roseman Bridge, and Robert surveys the area for the best shooting angles. They return to the farmhouse, where Francesca invites him to dinner. He accepts, washes up out back, and they enjoy a meal, good conversation, beers from his travel cooler, and a brief after-dinner walk. They’re drawn to each other, and it’s more than merely physical. He thanks her for the evening and departs.

The next day at dawn, Robert shoots several rolls of film at Roseman Bridge, where he removes someone’s note from the bridge housing and visits a second bridge, where he takes more pictures. Later, he reads the note: It’s from Francesca, inviting him to return for dinner that evening. In town, he finds her phone number and calls to accept, and he asks her to accompany him to Cedar Bridge for sunset shots. She agrees.

She drives to Des Moines, where she buys a summer dress, earrings, brandy, and candles. They meet at the bridge, and Francesca volunteers to assist him. He shoots several rolls, including some candid shots of her. They return to her house, where this time she suggests he use the upstairs bath to clean up. Then she bathes, puts on makeup and jewelry, and comes downstairs wearing the new dress. Stunned by her beauty, Robert realizes he’s falling in love with her. She feels the same way about him.

They prepare dinner together over beers, then dance to radio music, and soon they’re kissing. She leads him upstairs, where they make love over and over for hours.

They spend the next few days together, talking or making love. Robert takes more photos of her. He tells her he’s one of the last cowboys, a dying breed swept aside by modern life. They realize theirs is a very special, and extremely rare, connection. Robert asks her to run away with him, and though her heart now belongs to him, she turns him down because it would ruin her family.

Robert understands. Before Francesca’s family returns, he packs up and they part, tears flowing. A few days later, driving through the village with her husband, Francesca sees Robert as he drives out of town. She wants to run to him but can’t and bursts into tears. She offers no explanation to her puzzled husband.

Months later, Francesca receives a package from Robert that contains the covered-bridge magazine article that features his photos, along with copies of pictures he took of her. To preserve their privacy, he never writes again. Years pass; after Francesca’s husband dies, she tries to contact Robert, but his old phone number no longer works. In 1982, she receives a letter from Robert’s estate—he has died, his ashes scattered at Roseman Bridge—along with a package containing his cameras, mementos of their time together, and a short letter from him.

Francesca writes about their affair; it takes up three volumes. When she dies, her children find the journals, cameras, and mementos, along with a letter from her that confesses the secret love affair.

The narrator goes to the Seattle area in search of more answers and finds an old musician, Nighthawk Cummings, who had befriended Robert shortly before the photographer’s death. Robert told Cummings the heartrending story of his brief encounter with Francesca, and Cummings composed a beautiful jazz piece called “Francesca” that Robert loved to hear during the last months of his life.