summary of '' The bridges of Madison county''

The Bridges of Madison Country

The Bridges of Madison country, which is written by Robert James Waller, is a bestselling novel of the century. It tells us a romantic love story between a photographer, Robert Kincaid, and a farm wife, Francesca Johnson.

The novel begins with an interview between a writer and Francesca’ children (Michael and Carolyn), the latter reveal their mother’s unusual story with photos, magazine clippings and a set of journals written by their mother.

The story happened in August of 1965, Robert, the photographer, was on his way to find the bridges of Madison country in order to take photos for the journal, National Geographic, and he met Francesca in the front porch of her house when he wanted to ask the way to a covered bridge. They fell in love at the first glance. At that time, Francesca’s husband, Richard, and their children were at the Illinois State Fair. Francesca went with Robert to find the Roseman Bridge and took photos; she also invited him to have dinner at her home. They loved each other deeply and spent the happiest time of their lives. Although Francesca found her true love with Robert, she still chose the responsibility and stayed with her husband as well as her children; therefore, she refused to go with Robert when he left Lowa farm before Friday when her husband came back. After that, they all missed each other. Robert sent a letter with some photos, which he took for her, to Francesca. Francesca did not contact with him until 1979, when her husband died; however, she could not find Robert. She received a package after Robert passed away. In it, there were a letter from Robert and some items which Robert wanted to left to her. Robert also asked to scatter his ashes at the Roseman Bridge.

Finally, Francesca died in 1989 when she was sixty-nine years old and her ashes were also scatter at the same place as her requested in her letter to her attorney. She left a letter to her children in order to tell them her love story. In this reason, there is an interview between a writer and Francesca’ children as described in the beginning.