''Love in the Time of Cholera'' ( es, El amor en los tiempos del cólera) is a novel written in Spanish by
Colombia
Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...
n Nobel Prize-winning author
Gabriel García Márquez
Gabriel José de la Concordia García Márquez (; 6 March 1927 – 17 April 2014) was a Colombian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter, and journalist, known affectionately as Gabo () or Gabito () throughout Latin America. Considered one ...
and published in 1985.
Edith Grossman
Edith Grossman (born March 22, 1936) is an American Spanish-to-English literary translator. One of the most important contemporary translators of Latin American and Spanish literature, she has translated the works of Nobel laureate Mario Vargas ...
's English translation was published by
Alfred A. Knopf
Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. () is an American publishing house that was founded by Alfred A. Knopf Sr. and Blanche Knopf in 1915. Blanche and Alfred traveled abroad regularly and were known for publishing European, Asian, and Latin American writers in ...
in 1988.
Plot summary
The main characters of the novel are Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza. Florentino and Fermina fall in love in their youth. A secret relationship blossoms between the two with the help of Fermina's Aunt Escolástica. They exchange love letters. But once Fermina's father, Lorenzo Daza, finds out about the two, he forces his daughter to stop seeing Florentino immediately. When she refuses, he and his daughter move in with his deceased wife's family in another city. Regardless of the distance, Fermina and Florentino continue to communicate via telegraph. Upon her return, Fermina realizes that her relationship with Florentino was nothing but a dream since they are practically strangers; she breaks off her engagement to Florentino and returns all his letters.
A young and accomplished national hero, Dr. Juvenal Urbino, meets Fermina and begins to court her. Despite her initial dislike of Urbino, Fermina gives in to her father's persuasion and the security and wealth Urbino offers, and they wed. Urbino is a physician devoted to science, modernity, and "order and progress". He is committed to the eradication of
cholera
Cholera is an infection of the small intestine by some strains of the bacterium ''Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea that lasts a few days. Vomiting and ...
and to the promotion of public works. He is a rational man whose life is organized precisely and who greatly values his importance and reputation in society. He is a herald of progress and modernization.
[Morana, Mabel (winter, 1990). "Modernity and Marginality in ''Love in the Time of Cholera''". ''Studies in Twentieth Century Literature'' 14:27–43.]
Even after Fermina's engagement and marriage, Florentino swore to stay faithful and wait for her; but his promiscuity gets the better of him and he has hundreds of affairs. Even with all the women he is with, he makes sure that Fermina will never find out. Meanwhile, Fermina and Urbino grow old together, going through happy years and unhappy ones and experiencing all the reality of marriage. Urbino proves in the end not to have been an entirely faithful husband, confessing one affair to Fermina many years into their marriage. Though the novel seems to suggest that Urbino's love for Fermina was never as spiritually chaste as Florentino's was, it also complicates Florentino's devotion by cataloging his many trysts as well as a few potentially genuine loves.
As an elderly man, Urbino attempts to get his pet parrot out of his mango tree, only to fall off the ladder he was standing on and die. After the funeral Florentino proclaims his love for Fermina once again and tells her he has stayed faithful to her all these years. Hesitant at first because she is only recently widowed, and finding his advances untoward, Fermina comes to recognize Florentino's wisdom and maturity, eventually gives him a second chance, and their love is allowed to blossom during their old age. They go on a steamship cruise up the river together.
Characters
*Fermina Daza – Florentino Ariza's object of affection, and wife of Dr. Urbino, very beautiful and intelligent.
*Dr. Juvenal Urbino – highly respected, wealthy doctor and husband of Fermina Daza.
*Florentino Ariza – businessman who is in love with Fermina Daza.
*Lorenzo Daza – Fermina Daza's father, a mule driver; he despised Florentino and forced him to stop meeting Fermina. He is revealed to have been involved in some illicit businesses to build his fortune.
*Jeremiah de Saint-Amour – The man whose suicide is introduced as the opening to the novel; a photographer and chess-player.
*Aunt Escolástica – The woman who attempts to aid Fermina in her early romance with Florentino by delivering their letters for them. She is ultimately sent away by Lorenzo Daza for this.
*Tránsito Ariza – Florentino's mother.
*Hildebranda Sánchez – Fermina's cousin.
*Miss Barbara Lynch – The woman with whom Urbino confesses having had an affair, the only one during his long marriage.
*Leona Cassiani – She starts out as the "personal assistant" to Uncle Leo XII at the R.C.C., the company which Florentino eventually controls. At one point, it is revealed that the two share a deep respect, possibly even love, for each other, but will never actually be together. She has a maternal love for him as a result of his "charity" in rescuing her from the streets and giving her a job.
*Diego Samaritano – The captain of the riverboat on which Fermina and Florentino ride at the end of the novel.
*América Vicuña – The 14-year-old girl who toward the end of the novel is sent to live with the elderly Florentino; he is her guardian while she is in school. They have a sexual relationship, and after being rejected by Florentino and failing her exams, she kills herself. Her grooming and subsequent suicide provides a counterpoint to the novel's grand romantic themes.
Setting
The story occurs mainly in an unnamed port city somewhere near the
Caribbean Sea
The Caribbean Sea ( es, Mar Caribe; french: Mer des Caraïbes; ht, Lanmè Karayib; jam, Kiaribiyan Sii; nl, Caraïbische Zee; pap, Laman Karibe) is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere. It is bounded by Mexico ...
and the
Magdalena River
The Magdalena River ( es, Río Magdalena, ; less commonly ) is the main river of Colombia, flowing northward about through the western half of the country. It takes its name from the biblical figure Mary Magdalene. It is navigable through much of ...
in Colombia. While the city remains unnamed throughout the novel, descriptions and names of places suggest it is based on an amalgam of
Cartagena and the nearby city of
Barranquilla
Barranquilla () is the capital district of Atlántico Department in Colombia. It is located near the Caribbean Sea and is the largest city and third port in the Caribbean Coast region; as of 2018 it had a population of 1,206,319, making it Col ...
. The fictional city is divided into such sections as "The District of the Viceroys" and "The Arcade of the Scribes." The novel takes place approximately between 1880 and the early 1930s.
[Simpson, Mona (September 1, 1988) "Love Letters". ''London Review of Books'' 10:22–24.] The city's "steamy and sleepy streets, rat-infested sewers, old slave quarter, decaying colonial architecture, and multifarious inhabitants" are mentioned variously in the text and mingle in the lives of the characters.
Major themes
Narrative as seduction
Some critics choose to consider ''Love in the Time of Cholera'' as a sentimental story about the enduring power of true love. Others criticize this opinion as being too simple.
[Booker, M. Keith (summer, 1993) "The Dangers of Gullible Reading: Narrative as Seduction in García Márquez's ''Love in the Time of Cholera''". ''Studies in Twentieth-Century Literature'' 17:181–95.]
This is manifested by Ariza's excessively romantic attitude toward life, and his
gullibility
Gullibility is a failure of social intelligence in which a person is easily tricked or manipulated into an ill-advised course of action. It is closely related to credulity, which is the tendency to believe unlikely propositions that are unsupp ...
in trying to retrieve the sunken treasure of a
shipwreck
A shipwreck is the wreckage of a ship that is located either beached on land or sunken to the bottom of a body of water. Shipwrecking may be intentional or unintentional. Angela Croome reported in January 1999 that there were approximately ...
. It is also made evident by the fact that society in the story believes that Fermina and Juvenal Urbino are perfectly happy in their marriage, while the reality of the situation is not so ideal. Critic Keith Booker compares Ariza's position to that of Humbert Humbert in
Vladimir Nabokov
Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov (russian: link=no, Владимир Владимирович Набоков ; 2 July 1977), also known by the pen name Vladimir Sirin (), was a Russian-American novelist, poet, translator, and entomologist. Bo ...
's ''
Lolita
''Lolita'' is a 1955 novel written by Russian-American novelist Vladimir Nabokov. The novel is notable for its controversial subject: the protagonist and unreliable narrator, a middle-aged literature professor under the pseudonym Humbert Humber ...
'', saying that just as Humbert is able to charm the reader into sympathizing with his situation with his first-person account,
even though he is a "pervert, a rapist, and a murderer," Ariza is able to garner the reader's sympathy, even though the reader is reminded repeatedly of his more sinister exploits through the charming third-person narration.
Relationship between love and passion
The term ''cholera'' as it is used in Spanish, , can also denote passion or
human rage and ire in its feminine form. (The English adjective has the same meaning.) Considering this meaning, the title is a pun: cholera as the disease, and cholera as passion, which raises the central question of the book: is love helped or hindered by extreme passion? The two men can be contrasted as the extremes of passion: one having too much, one too little; the central question of which is more conducive to love and happiness becomes the specific, personal choice that Fermina faces through her life. Florentino's passionate pursuit of nearly countless women stands in contrast to Urbino's clinical discussion of male anatomy on their wedding night. Urbino's eradication of cholera in the town takes on the additional symbolic meaning of ridding Fermina's life of rage, but also the passion.
It is this second meaning to the title that manifests itself in Florentino's hatred for Urbino's marriage to Fermina, as well as in the social strife and warfare that serves as a backdrop to the entire story.
Aging and death
Jeremiah Saint-Amour's death inspires Urbino to meditate on his own death, and especially on the infirmities that precede it. It is necessary for Fermina and Florentino to transcend not only the difficulties of love but also the societal opinion that love is a young person's prerogative (not to mention the physical difficulties of love when one is older).
Critical reception
The novel received critical acclaim. The literary critic
Michiko Kakutani
Michiko Kakutani (born January 9, 1955) is an American writer and retired literary critic, best known for reviewing books for ''The New York Times'' from 1983 to 2017. In that role, she won the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism in 1998.
Early life ...
praised the book in a review for ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', saying: "Instead of using myths and dreams to illuminate the imaginative life of a people as he's done so often in the past, Mr. Garcia Marquez has revealed how the extraordinary is contained in the ordinary ... The result is a rich, commodious novel, a novel whose narrative power is matched only by its generosity of vision." The writer
Thomas Pynchon
Thomas Ruggles Pynchon Jr. ( , ; born May 8, 1937) is an American novelist noted for his dense and complex novels. His fiction and non-fiction writings encompass a vast array of subject matter, genres and themes, including history, music, scie ...
, also for ''The New York Times'', argued: "This novel is also revolutionary in daring to suggest that vows of love made under a presumption of immortality – youthful idiocy, to some – may yet be honored, much later in life when we ought to know better, in the face of the undeniable. ... There is nothing I have read quite like this astonishing final chapter, symphonic, sure in its dynamics and tempo, moving like a riverboat too ... at the very best it results in works that can even return our worn souls to us, among which most certainly belongs ''Love in the Time of Cholera'', this shining and heartbreaking novel."
Film adaptation
Stone Village Pictures bought the movie rights from the author for US$3 million, and
Mike Newell was chosen to direct it, with
Ronald Harwood
Sir Ronald Harwood ( né Horwitz; 9 November 1934 – 8 September 2020) was a South African-born British author, playwright, and screenwriter, best known for his plays for the British stage as well as the screenplays for ''The Dresser'' (for w ...
writing the script. Filming started in
Cartagena, Colombia
Cartagena ( , also ), known since the colonial era as Cartagena de Indias (), is a city and one of the major ports on the northern coast of Colombia in the Caribbean Coast Region, bordering the Caribbean sea. Cartagena's past role as a link ...
, during September 2006.
The $50 million film, the first major foreign production filmed in the scenic walled city in twenty years,
was released on November 16, 2007, by
New Line Cinema
New Line Cinema is an American film production studio owned by Warner Bros. Discovery and is a film label of Warner Bros. It was founded in 1967 by Robert Shaye as an independent film distribution company; later becoming a film studio after acq ...
. On his own initiative, García Márquez persuaded singer
Shakira
Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll ( , ; born 2 February 1977), professionally known by the mononym Shakira, is a Colombian singer and songwriter. Born and raised in Barranquilla, she has been referred to as the " Queen of Latin Music" and is ...
, who is from the nearby city of
Barranquilla
Barranquilla () is the capital district of Atlántico Department in Colombia. It is located near the Caribbean Sea and is the largest city and third port in the Caribbean Coast region; as of 2018 it had a population of 1,206,319, making it Col ...
, to provide two songs for the film.
References in popular culture
In the 2000 film ''
High Fidelity'', the main character, Rob (played by
John Cusack
John Paul Cusack (; born June 28, 1966)(28 June 1996)Today's birthdays ''Santa Cruz Sentinel'', ("Actors John Cusack is 30") is an American actor, producer, screenwriter and political activist. He is a son of filmmaker Dick Cusack, and his ol ...
) owns a record store. While recounting tales of past lovers he says: "I'm not the smartest guy in the world, but I'm certainly not the dumbest. I mean, I've read books like ''
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
''The Unbearable Lightness of Being'' ( cs, Nesnesitelná lehkost bytí) is a 1984 novel by Milan Kundera, about two women, two men, a dog and their lives in the 1968 Prague Spring period of Czechoslovak history. Although written in 1982, the no ...
'' and ''Love in the Time of Cholera'', and I think I've understood them. They're about girls, right? Just kidding."
At the end of
Jeanine Cummins
Jeanine Cummins (born December 6, 1974) is an American author, of Irish and Puerto Rican heritage. She has written four books: a memoir titled ''A Rip in Heaven'' and three novels, ''The Outside Boy,'' ''The Crooked Branch'', and ''American Dir ...
' novel ''
American Dirt
''American Dirt'' is a 2020 novel by American author Jeanine Cummins, published by Flatiron Books. The book is about a Mexican bookseller who is forced to flee as an illegal immigrant to the United States, along with her son, after her journalist ...
'', the protagonist Lydia re-reads ''Amor en los tiempos del colera'', first in Spanish, then again in English. The final two sentences of the novel reference the protagonist's love of the book: "No one can take this from her. This book is hers alone."
In the British sitcom ''
Bad Education'', the text is used in the after school book club Rosie Gulliver attends, and Alfie Wickers decides to join them to impress Rosie and attempts to read the book in six hours. However, he finds the book boring and gets his class to read one chapter each and bring him their versions of the summary.
In the episode "Milk" of the first season of the American sitcom ''
How I Met Your Mother
''How I Met Your Mother'' (often abbreviated as ''HIMYM'') is an American sitcom, created by Craig Thomas and Carter Bays for CBS. The series, which aired from September 19, 2005 to March 31, 2014, follows the main character, Ted Mosby, and his ...
'', the novel is mentioned as being the favorite of the show's protagonist,
Ted Mosby
Theodore Evelyn Mosby is a fictional character and the protagonist in the American sitcom ''How I Met Your Mother'', portrayed by Josh Radnor. He serves as the show's narrator from the future, voiced by Bob Saget, as he tells his children the " ...
. He is also shown reading the book at the Farhamptom Train Station right before he meets the titular
Mother
]
A mother is the female parent of a child. A woman may be considered a mother by virtue of having given childbirth, birth, by raising a child who may or may not be her biological offspring, or by supplying her ovum for fertilisation in the cas ...
in the finale episode "
Last Forever
"Last Forever" is the series finale of the CBS sitcom ''How I Met Your Mother''. The episode serves as the 23rd and 24th episodes of season nine, and the 207th and 208th episodes overall; the episode's two parts are classified as two separate e ...
".
In "
Lisa's Rival
"Lisa's Rival" is the second episode of the sixth season of the American animated television series ''The Simpsons''. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on September 11, 1994. Winona Ryder guest stars as Allison Taylor, ...
" (''
The Simpsons
''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical depiction of American life, epitomized by the Simpson family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, ...
second episode of season 6),
Marge Simpson
Marjorie Jacqueline "Marge" Simpson () is a character in the American animated sitcom ''The Simpsons'' and part of the Simpson family, eponymous family. Voiced by Julie Kavner, she first appeared on television in ''The Tracey Ullman Show'' shor ...
is seen reading ''Love in the Time of Scurvy'', a clear reference to the novel.
In the ''
Gossip Girl
''Gossip Girl'' is an American teen drama television series based on the novel series of the same name written by Cecily von Ziegesar. The series, developed for television by Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage, ran on The CW network for six sea ...
'' episode "New Haven Can Wait" (season 2, episode 6), Jordan, a Literature professor at Yale University, asks Nate what he thinks of the book. However, he has never read it and clearly does not understand the reference.
In the film ''
Playing It Cool
''Playing It Cool'' is a 2014 American romantic comedy film directed by Justin Reardon and written by Chris Shafer and Paul Vicknair. The film stars Chris Evans, Michelle Monaghan. The film was released on video on demand on March 31, 2015 before ...
'',
Topher Grace
Christopher John Grace ( ; born July 12, 1978) is an American actor. He is known for portraying Eric Forman in the Fox sitcom ''That '70s Show'', Eddie Brock / Venom in Sam Raimi's film ''Spider-Man 3'', Pete Monash in ''Win a Date with Tad Ham ...
plays the character Scott. Scott is a writer and is deeply moved by the book so much that he often leaves copies of the book in public places for others to find and read. He leaves a note in the book for the assumed reader explaining how this book changed his life.
Chris Evans, the main character/narrator, finally picks up the book to read. After reading the book, the narrator applies it to his own life. He says that there are people in our lives that are so important, they dwarf everything else.
In the Chris Rock film ''
Top Five
''Top Five'' is a 2014 American comedy film written and directed by Chris Rock. Produced by Scott Rudin and Eli Bush, the film stars Rock, Rosario Dawson, and Gabrielle Union, and follows New York City comedian and film star Andre Allen (Rock), w ...
'', Rosario Dawson quotes the novel, saying, "Too much love is as bad for this as no love at all" when talking about her favorite authors.
The book was a major part of the plot of the movie ''
Serendipity
Serendipity is an unplanned fortunate discovery. Serendipity is a common occurrence throughout the history of product invention and scientific discovery.
Etymology
The first noted use of "serendipity" was by Horace Walpole on 28 January 1754. I ...
'', where Sara writes her number in the book in the hope that Jon will one day find it.
Sales of ''Love in the Time of Cholera'' increased during the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
.
The title of the 2020 television show ''
Love in the Time of Corona
''Love in the Time of Corona'' is an American romantic comedy television miniseries created by Joanna Johnson that premiered on Freeform on August 22, 2020. The title is a play on the title of the novel '' Love in the Time of Cholera''.
Premis ...
'' is a play on the title of the novel, replacing "cholera" with a reference to the
coronavirus disease
Coronavirus diseases are caused by viruses in the coronavirus subfamily, a group of related RNA viruses that cause diseases in mammal
Mammals () are a group of vertebrate animals constituting the class Mammalia (), characterized by ...
that caused the ongoing pandemic.
Multiple musical artists have recorded songs with titles inspired by the book, including
Danny Elfman
Daniel Robert Elfman (born May 29, 1953) is an American film composer, singer and songwriter. He came to prominence as the singer-songwriter for the new wave band Oingo Boingo in the early 1980s. Since the 1990s, Elfman has garnered internation ...
("Love in the Time of Covid") and
AJJ ("Love in the Time of Human Papillomavirus").
In episode 4 of the 2021 Korean drama ''
My Roommate Is a Gumiho
''My Roommate Is a Gumiho'' () is a 2021 South Korean television drama series starring Jang Ki-yong and Lee Hye-ri. The series tells story of romance between a 999-year-old nine-tailed fox named Shin Woo-Yeo and a female college student named ...
'', the male lead character Shin Woo-yeo (
Jang Ki-yong
Jang Ki-yong (; born August 7, 1992) is a South Korean actor and model. Initially beginning a career in the modelling industry, Jang debuted as an actor through a guest appearance on ''It's Okay, That's Love'' (2014), followed by roles in variou ...
) references the novel by saying, "You could be Fermina Daza in someone's eyes."
Publication details
*1985, Colombia, Spanish edition, Oveja Negra, 1985, hardback and paperback (first edition)
*1985, Argentina, Spanish edition, Editorial Sudamericana, 1985, hardback (E) (first Argentine edition)
*1985, Mexico DF, Spanish edition, Editorial Diana, 1985, paperback (first Mexican edition: 100,000 copies)
*1986, The Netherlands,
Meulenhoff
Uitgeverij Lannoo Groep is a Belgian publishing group, based in Tielt, with assets in Belgium and the Netherlands. Its Belgian subsidiary is Uitgeverij Lannoo. Its Dutch subsidiary is LannooMeulenhoff. Over the years Lannoo evolved from Catholic ...
, , translated into Dutch by Mariolein Sabarte Belacortu. Title: ''Liefde in tijden van cholera''
*1988, US, Alfred A. Knopf , Published 1 January 1988, hardback (first English-language edition)
*1989, US, Penguin Books , Published 7 September 1989, paperback
*2003, US, Vintage International , paperback
Footnotes
External links
''The Heart's Eternal Vow ''– ''New York Times'' Book Review from 1988 by
Thomas Pynchon
Thomas Ruggles Pynchon Jr. ( , ; born May 8, 1937) is an American novelist noted for his dense and complex novels. His fiction and non-fiction writings encompass a vast array of subject matter, genres and themes, including history, music, scie ...
Love in the Time of CholeraOprah
Oprah Gail Winfrey (; born Orpah Gail Winfrey; January 29, 1954), or simply Oprah, is an American talk show host, television producer, actress, author, and philanthropist. She is best known for her talk show, ''The Oprah Winfrey Show'', br ...
's Pick 2007.
{{Authority control
1985 novels
Alfred A. Knopf books
Colombian magic realism novels
Colombian novels adapted into films
Novels by Gabriel García Márquez
Novels set in Colombia
Spanish-language novels