Chapter 4 Summary

Ursula provisions and decorates her newly-expanded house. One of the items she purchases is a pianola which arrives disassembled. An expert musician, Pietro Crespi, arrives to assemble the self-playing instrument. He spends several weeks during which time both Rebeca and Amaranta find him irresistible, even though he is entirely correct and proper. When Pietro leaves Jose Arcadio Buendia disassembles the pianola to see how it functions and cannot get it properly back together again. Meanwhile Amaranta sends unanswered love letters to Pietro, and in turn Pietro sends love letters to Rebeca - fortunately for Pietro the mails in Macondo are now as regular as twice every month.

Aureliano is driven to distraction by his unrequited desire for the infant Remedios and thus one day while drunk he visits Pilar Ternera and demands satisfaction which is freely offered. A few days later Aureliano publicly...