Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez

✨"The symptoms of love are the same as those of cholera.''✨

Considered as one of the best works of the twentieth century, Love in the Time of Cholera by the realism extraordinaire Gabriel García Márquez is a love story spanning over fifty years. Florentino loved Fermina unrequitedly; he has loved her since he saw in her school years and courts her with letters with hidden white camellia flowers (a flower of promise and undying love) and poetry verses. She approves of him and they exchange letters throughout their short-lived romance- her strict father catches her writing a letter to Florentino and is enraged. He takes Fermina away from that place, on a long journey, and once she returns at the age of 17, she realizes that she had been foolish to love him and dismisses love as an illusion.

Much to her father’s relief, she is courted by one of the most respected people in the town, Dr. Juvenal Urbino who is a physician responsible for bringing awareness to sanitary conditions that will help to eradicate Cholera that has plagued the country. They both get married and then set on a journey to “invent” love- this aids to the narrative of Fermina that love is an illusion and that one had to look for love to eventually find it. For Juvenal and Fermina, love is complex and challenging just like art. And they make it work, have a family and are with each other until Juvenal’s demise.

Florentino “saves” himself for Fermina while going around and engaging in sexual affairs with various different women. He still in love with Fermina even when he comes to love a beautiful woman who used to work as a prostitute and helped him get her job at a boat company.

When Florentino starts to woo Fermina again, this time he posed deep philosophical questions regarding life, death and love. She is still set in her beliefs and replies, “let time pass and we shall see what it brings”. Finally, Florentino’s love for Fermina comes to fruition and they set sail along the Magdalena River- their blossomed love is a stark contrast to the decimated nature which they witness around them. This is to highlight that time can build something beautiful while it can also destroy something.

With well-rounded characters, an impactful plot, pellucid narrative and writing style, the novel is a profound work of fiction- with a bold romance, where the emphasis is laid on self-knowledge more than the dramatised version of a love story, Love in the Time of Cholera is an extraordinary piece of literary work.