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1-Page Summary of Love In the Time of Cholera
A doctor is sent to examine the body of his close friend and competitor at chess. The man has committed suicide by jumping from a mango tree, so that he would not grow old. The doctor returns home and discovers that his pet parrot has escaped from its cage. He climbs up a ladder to get it, but falls down as soon as he grabs the bird’s tail feathers. His wife was horrified when she saw her husband die in such an embarrassing way, since she had provoked this drama herself when she was eighteen years old.
Although Fermina Daza may have erased Florentino Ariza from her memory, he has not stopped thinking of her since their long and troubled love affair ended fifty-one years, nine months, and four days ago. Florentino first meets Fermina when he delivers a tele gram to her father who is notorious for his shady dealings. After watching Fermina walk to school each day from the Park of the Evangels, Florentino works up the courage to approach her one day. He asks that she accept a letter from him in which he declares his love for her but she refuses because she is obligated to get permission from Lorenzo Daza. However, after getting permission, Fermina accepts it with a note saying that if they are meant to be together then they will find each other again.
In the two years that follow, Fermina and Florentino see each other occasionally. They write love letters to one another every day. Florentino proposes marriage to Fermina, who says she will think about it. She is caught writing a love letter by her cousin Lorenzo and is punished for it. Escolástica (Fermina’s mother) is also punished because of this incident, so she leaves the house with her daughter. For his punishment, he makes them travel all over the country until they forget about their relationship with Florentino in order to teach them a lesson about not falling in love too early in life. On this journey, Fermina meets Hildebranda Sánchez—her older cousin—and they become good friends. They communicate via telegraph messages with Florentino throughout the trip while traveling around Colombia.
Fermina has grown up and matured. She now looks at Florentino in a new light, as he is not the man she once knew. He tries to woo her back, but she rejects him. Over fifty years pass by without them seeing each other again. During this time, Florentino sleeps with many women in an attempt to forget Fermina. However, he never does give up on his love for her and vows that one day they will be together again
Dr. Juvenal Urbino pursues Fermina Daza, but she resists his advances. Lorenzo Daza forces Dr. Urbino upon his daughter and reluctantly, she agrees to marry him. When Florentino Ariza hears that Dr. Urbino is going to be married to Fermina, he decides he needs to make himself worthy of her love by getting a job at the River Company of the Caribbean so that he can eventually become its president after thirty years in order to impress her with his success and wealth. His uncle Don Leo XII Loayza gives him a job at the company, which Florentino excels at until he becomes President after 30 years. After three months abroad on their honeymoon, Fermina returns home pregnant with her first child from Dr. Urbino. Although determined not to give up on winning over Fermina’s heart, Florentino continues having affairs with other women whom he meets during trolley rides around town or transient hotel stays. One such woman is Leona Cassiani who mistakes Florentio for a pimp and asks for work as one of his prostitutes; instead, however, Florentio hires Leona as an employee at the River Company because she has good business sense.
