From the Publisher
In their youth, Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza fall passionately
in love. When Fermina eventually chooses to marry a wealthy,
well-born doctor, Florentino is devastated, but he is a romantic.
As he rises in his business career he whiles away the years in 622
affairs--yet he reserves his heart for Fermina. Her husband dies at
last, and Florentino purposefully attends the funeral. Fifty years,
nine months, and four days after he first declared his love for
Fermina, he will do so again.
With humorous sagacity and consummate craft, García Márquez traces
an exceptional half-century story of unrequited love. Though it
seems never to be conveniently contained, love flows through the
novel in many wonderful guises--joyful, melancholy, enriching, ever
surprising.
From the Jacket
In their youth, Florentino Ariza and Fermino Daza fall passionately
in love. When Fermina eventually chooses to marry a wealthy,
well-born doctor, Florentino is devastated, but he is a romantic.
As he rises in his business career he whiles away the years in 622
affairs--yet he reserves his heart for Fermina. Her husband dies at
last, and Florentino purposefully attends the funeral. Fifty years,
nine months, and four days after he first declared his love for
Fermina, he will do so again.
With humorous sagacity and consummate craft, Garcia Marquez traces
an exceptional half-century story of unrequited love. Though it
seems never to be conveniently contained, love flows through the
novel in many wonderful guises--joyful, melancholy, enriching, ever
surprising.
About the Author
García Márquez was born in Aracataca, Colombia, in 1928. He
attended the University of Bogotá and went on to become a reporter
for the Colombian newspaper El Espectador. He later served
as a foreign correspondent in Rome, Paris, Barcelona, Caracas, and
New York. Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1982, he is
the author of several novels and collections, including No One
Writes to the Colonel and Other Stories, The Autumn of the
Patriarch, Innocent Erendira and Other Stories,
Chronicle of a Death Foretold, The General in His
Labyrinth, Strange Pilgrims, and Love and Other
Demons.
From the Hardcover edition.
Bookclub Guide
"A rich, commodious novle whose narrative power is matched only by
its generosity of vision." -
The New York Times
The introduction, discussion questions, suggested reading list, and
author biography that follow are intended to enhance your group's
reading of
Love in the Time of Cholera, Gabriel
García Márquez masterful novel of unrequited love.
1. Why does García Márquez use similar terms to describe the
effects of love and cholera?
2. Plagues figure prominently in many of García Márquez's
novels. What literal and metaphoric functions does the cholera
plague serve in this novel? What light does it shed on Latin
American society of the nineteenth century? How does it change its
characters' attitudes toward life? How are the symptoms of love
equated in the novel with the symptoms of cholera?
3. What does the conflict between Dr. Juvenal Urbino and
Florentino Ariza reveal about the customs of Europe and the ways of
Caribbean life? How is Fermina Daza torn between the two?
4. Dr. Urbino reads only what is considered fine literature,
while Fermina Daza immerses herself in contemporary romances or
soap operas. What does this reveal about the author's attitude
toward the distinction between "high" and "low" literature. Does
his story line and style remind you more of a soap opera or a
classical drama?
5. After rejecting Florentino's declaration of love following
her husband's funeral, why is Fermina eventually won over by
him?
6. Why does a change in Florentino's writing style make Fermina
more receptive to him?
7. What does Florentino mean when he tells Fermina, before they
make love for the first time, "I've remained a virgin for you" (p.
339)?
8. Why does Florentino tell each of his lovers that she is the
only one he has had?
9. What does Florentino's uncle mean when he says, "without
river navigation there is no love" (p. 168)?
10. Do Fermina and Dr. Urbino succeed at "inventing true love"
(p. 159)?
11. Set against the backdrop of recurring civil wars and cholera
epidemics, the novel explores death and decay, as well as love. How
does Dr. Urbino's refusal to grow old gracefully affect the other
two characters? What does it say about fulfillment and beauty in
their society? Does the fear of aging or death change Florentino
Ariza's feelings toward Fermina Daza?
12. Compare the suicide of Jeremiah de Saint-Amour at the
beginning of the book with that of Florentino's former lover,
América Vicuña at the end. How do their motives differ? Why does
the author frame the book with these two events?
13. Why is Leona Cassiani "the true woman in [Florentino's] life
although neither of them ever knew it and they never made love" (p.
182)?
14. 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" (p. 65)?
(Used by permission of Penguin Books.)
