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.