Part 1: Summary & Themes in Love in the time of Cholera

Whenever I start a new book, my first order of business is figuring out what’s happening:

• When and where do the events take place?

• Who are the main characters?

• And, most importantly, what exactly is going on?

This may sounds intuitive and redundant, but, as I said in my previous post, some stories are not straightforward. They go back and forth, digress into side stories and have convoluted plots, leaving you wondering how to move from following the story to understanding it on a deeper level.

So, before we delve into a deeper discussion of Love in the Time of Cholera, I will give you a detailed summary of each part. Below you will find the summary of Part 1, which we will be discussing in the next few weeks.

Can I just ask AI?

Creating a summary is not an easy task. You have to dive in, keep reading even when the story doesn’t make much sense, and take notes until it starts to take shape. Sure, you can ask AI for help, but I would advise against it.

• Firstly, because AI makes mistakes. From really obvious ones, which you can easily catch if you have a even a basic understanding of the text, to more nuanced ones, which you may not catch, but which can leave you embarrassed if someone else does.

• Secondly, and more importantly, creating the summary is an important learning process that helps you understand the text in depth. You uncover the structure of the narrative, divide it into sections, and map the events, themes, images and patterns that make up its meanings.

Since this is a guided critical reading, I’ll save you the trouble and provide the summaries, so that we can get straight to exploring the text in depth! After we’ve covered that, I’ll leave you with some questions for you to consider while you read the text closely.

If you have any questions or comments, please leave them below!

PART 1 Summary

In a nutshell:

The story opens with Dr. Urbino examining the body of his friend Jeremiah de Saint-Amour, who has taken his own life. Later that day he falls from a ladder and dies, in an attempt to capture his escaped parrot. At the funeral, a man called Florentino Ariza approaches Dr. Urbino’s widow, Fermina, and declares his undying love for her. She throws him out, but that night she finds herself unable to stop thinking about him.

More detailed analysis:

A) At Jeremiah de Saint-Amour’s house

It is Pentecost Sunday morning. Dr. Juvenal Urbino arrives at the house of Jeremiah de Saint-Amour, a photographer, disabled war refugee, and chess enthusiast, to certify his death—an apparent suicide by cyanide. The unmistakable scent of bitter almonds in the house confirms the cause of death, while Jeremiah’s experience with chemicals through his work as a photographer leads Urbino to conclude that the death was deliberate rather than accidental.

At Jeremiah’s house, the police commissary discovers an eleven-page letter addressed to Dr. Urbino. The doctor reads it in the first morning light by the window. In it, Jeremiah reveals his decades-long secret love affair with a woman, along with other sordid details of his past. Urbino is visibly shaken by what he learns and decides to visit the woman, who lives in the city’s slave quarter.

B) Dr. Urbino’s visit to Jeremiah’s secret lover

Dr. Urbino ventures by carriage into the city’s former slave quarter, where the poverty and decay are striking. He finds the woman’s house (she is not named) and, after speaking with her about the events of the previous night, is surprised to discover that she had been complicit in Jeremiah’s suicide. For her, helping him end his suffering was an act of love, just as she had helped him find happiness throughout their life together. Her attitude towards grief and her willingness to comply with Jeremiah’s wishes to end his life shocks Dr. Urbino, who leaves her full of moral condemnation for what he sees as an irredeemable woman.

C) The escaped parrot

Dr. Urbino returns home to discover that his parrot has escaped while the servants were taking it out of its cage to have its wings clipped.

After several unsuccessful attempts to recapture the bird, they call the firefighters for help. Meanwhile, Dr. Urbino and his wife, Fermina, prepare to attend a professional anniversary gala hosted by a colleague and former student.

D) The complexities of a 50-year-old marriage

“They had just celebrated their golden wedding anniversary, and they were not capable of living for even an instant without the other, or without thinking about the other, and that capacity diminished as their age increased. Neither could have said if their mutual dependence was based on love or convenience, but they had never asked the question with their hands on their hearts because both had always preferred not to know the answer.”

Although this is not a part of the main thread, I include it here as it provides a useful contrast with the previous section (the illegitimate love affair) and the next section, which takes us into the public world of Dr. Urbino and his wife at Olivella’s gala. We get a glimpse of the couple’s daily life, which is governed by a mutual dependence. The petty arguments and bickering of their younger married life have given way to capitulation to old age, with Fermina gradually assuming the role of a carer, bathing him and dressing him - a habbit that had started out of love but in the later years became a necessity.

As she helps him dress for the party, they discuss the revelations about Jeremiah’s suicide and secret lover. Fermina does not share her husband’s moral indignation over Jeremiah’s concealement of his sordid past, nor does she condemn the woman for complying with this wish to end his life. In the course of their conversation the text also hints at a past indiscretion on Dr. Urbino’s part, adding an ironic twist to his moral judgment of Jeremiah and his woman.

E) Olivella’s Anniversary gala

This is an important event attended by all the elite of the area. Dr. Olivella’s wife and her seven daughters have been planning the luncheon over three months, tending to every detail, in order to make sure that it would be the social event of the year. As the first guests are having an aperitif outside, under the canopies, an unpredictable downpour disrupts the celebration, forcing everyone indoors. Place cards are lost, and guests have to sit anywhere they can. Fermina is always by her husband’s side, tending to him almost like a child.

At the gala, we get a glimpse of Dr. Urbino’s social self, and of the couple’s public persona, both of which are surprisingly similar to their domestic identities and comportment. They return home before dessert is served because Dr. Urbino wants to rest before Jeremiah’s funeral.

F) The fatal fall of Dr. Urbino

After his siesta, as he is about to start getting ready for the funeral, Dr. Urbino hears the parrot in the garden and ventures out alone to capture him. He climbs up a ladder, but it slips and he falls backwards on the ground. His wife runs outside just in time to hear his last words:

“He recognized her despite the uproar, through his tears of unrepeatable sorrow at dying without her, and he looked at her for the last and final time with eyes more luminous, more grief-stricken, more grateful than she had ever seen them in half a century of a shared life, and he managed to say to her with his last breath: “Only God knows how much I loved you.””

G) The funeral arrangements

Because of his high social status Dr. Urbino’s funeral is not a small private family affair. Three days of official mourning are declared in the city, the flags are flown at half mast and Fermina has to show great determination to resist demands for a vigil in the Cathedral and a public viewing of the body at the Assembly Chamber. She succeeds in keeping her husband’s body at home, despite her son’s attempts to intervene.

H) Florentino’s declaration of love

As Fermina sees off the last of the guests, an old gentleman called Florentino Ariza remains behind. With his hat pressed to his chest, he declares his undying love for her. Furious, she sends him away and tells him never to return. Yet, during the first difficult night after the funeral, she finds herself thinking about him.

“he placed his hat over his heart, tremulous and dignified, and the abscess that had sustained his life finally burst. “Fermina,” he said, “I have waited for this opportunity for more than half a century, to repeat to you once again my vow of eternal fidelity and everlasting love.””

Themes & questions to consider while you read:

Have you read the first part already? Go back and reread it, keeping these questions in mind.

Haven’t started it yet? Even better! Pick up the book, grab a pencil, and start reading with a critical mind.

Old age, Smells & Decay

• Why do you think the story introduces us to the characters through death and old age rather than youth and romance?

• What smells permeate the first part of the novel?

• Note down any references to old age. How does the novel represent old age? What does it suggest about the value, limitations and possibilities of life in old age?

Space & Class

• Can you map out the geography of the town (the marshes, the old slave quarters, the district of the viceroys, and any other smaller neighbourhoods). What is each place associated with?

• Which characters move freely between different parts of the city, and which seem confined to particular spaces?

• What do the descriptions of houses, streets and neighbourhoods tell us about the people who inhabit them?

Love & Marriage

• Which love stories appear in the first part? What do they have in common and how do they differ?

• Why is so much attention given to the mundane details of Dr. Urbino and Fermina’s daily married life? What do these details reveal about their marriage?

  
  

Gender & Agency

• Who makes decisions in the relationships we encounter? Who has the power to act, and who is expected to accommodate?

• How are the female characters introduced and described? How does this compare with the way the male characters are presented?

• Which spaces do women and men occupy? Are men and women equally mobile?

  
  

Now I’d love to know what you noticed! Add your thoughts in the comments, and join me next week for our first deep dive into the text.