To be discussed August 5, 2009 at 6:30 p.m.
Love in the Time of Cholera (Spanish: El amor en los tiempos del cólera) is a novel by Nobel Prize winning Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez that was first published in Spanish in 1985, with an English translation released in 1988 This book is set in an unnamed Colombian city on the Caribbean coast between 1870 and 1930, and a portion of the plot, especially later in the book, takes place in the riverboat docks. It tells the story of a man who waits fifty-one years, nine months, and four days to be with the woman he loves. The main female character in the novel is Fermina Daza. Florentino Azira is telegraph operator and eventually works his way to working side-by-side with his uncle in operating a riverboat company. Fermina and Florentino spend months in secret contact as her father tries to keep them apart, and eventually after a trip through the country, Fermina comes to the surprising realization that she doesn't care for Florentino. Fermina easily rejects Florentino in their youth when she realizes the naïveté of their first romance, and she weds Juvenal Urbino at the age of 21, the "deadline" she had set for herself. Juvenal is a doctor in medicine devoted to science, modernity, and is committed to the eradication of cholera. He is a rational man whose life is organized precisely and who values his importance and reputation in society.
Florentino makes a vow of eternal love for Fermina and never married, waiting as he was for the day when he could pursue Fermina, though he had many romps with young women in his many single years.
It is 51 years, nine months and four days after Fermina’s original wedding, the night of Juvenal's funeral, that Florentino arrives on Fermina's doorstep to repeat to her his vow of eternal love and fidelity.
"Love in the Time of Cholera" builds a timeless but always surprising story on the age-old basis of unrequited love. This is a story that will be with you always. Garcia Marquez's story of life, love, and lust in a convention-bound provincial city on the Caribbean coast of Colombia displays great imaginative and narrative freedom.
1. Why does García Márquez use similar terms to describe the effects of love and cholera?
2. After rejecting Florentino's declaration of love following her husband's funeral, why is Fermina eventually won over by him?
3. Why does a change in Florentino's writing style make Fermina more receptive to him?
4. What does Florentino mean when he tells Fermina, before they make love for the first time, “I've remained a virgin for you” ?
5. Why does Florentino tell each of his lovers that she is the only one he has had?
6. What does Florentino's uncle mean when he says, "without river navigation there is no love"?
7. Do Fermina and Dr. Urbino succeed at "inventing true love"?
8. Does Dr. Urbino die a happy man?
9. Why does García Márquez begin the novel with the suicide of Jeremiah de Saint-Amour?
10. Why is Leona Cassiani "the true woman in [Florentino's] life although neither of them ever knew it and they never made love"?
11. When Tránsito Ariza tells Florentino he looks as if he were going to a funeral when he is going to visit Fermina, why does he respond by saying, "It's almost the same thing"?
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