Love in the Time of Cholera

Love in the Time of Cholera Summary | Chapter 1 Summary

The story opens with Dr. Juvenal Urbino de Calle, eminent physician and patron of the arts, arriving at the home of his former chess partner, Jeremiah de Saint-Amour, to certify the death of the Antillean refugee turned studio photographer. The disabled man had vowed to take his own life when he reached sixty rather than suffer the ravages of old age. He had made his vow known to his lover of many years, a woman who cared for him so much that she would never have ignored his wishes or revealed his plans to anyone. The gold cyanide that de Saint-Amour used to kill himself (along with his Great Dane, Mister Woodrow Wilson) leaves behind the scent of bitter almonds, which Dr. Urbino has always associated with unrequited love. While gazing down at a chessboard that shows the final masterful moves of de Saint-Amour's last opponent-the secret lover, as it turns out-Dr. Urbino discovers a long letter that his friend had left for him; it reveals a past that includes cannibalism and fleeing a life sentence in prison. Dr. Urbino finds the letter troubling, not so much for its revelations as for the duplicity he believes it represents; he is offended to know that de Saint-Amour had harbored such secrets from everyone.

Through the dispassionate recounting of the nameless, omniscient narrator, we learn of the strong bond of love that has survived between Dr. Urbino and his wife over the decades. Paradoxically, the narrator shows this love by telling us of one of those 'trivial" matters in domestic life that in this case very nearly caused their marriage to end after thirty years: an argument over whether there was, or was not, soap in the bathroom. The feisty, proud Fermina Daza claims she has indeed left soap for her husband; the stubborn, equally proud, but ultimately soft-hearted Dr. Urbino eventually capitulates and pretends there has been soap there all along so that he may be allowed to move back to their shared bedroom. The tale is telling, in that it reveals the essential characters of both Dr. Urbino and Fermina Daza.

After Dr. Urbino returns from meeting his fellow chess player's clandestine paramour, he has high hopes of taking a siesta before he and Fermina must attend a silver anniversary gala for his former student, Dr. Lácides Olivella. His intentions are thwarted by an uproar in the household as the servants attempt to recapture the family parrot, which has escaped into the garden. Resignedly, Dr. Urbino tells them to send for the fire department, whose recent expansion beyond simple firefighting into rescues and emergency response is a direct result of his own civic contributions. He and Fermina attend the fete, which is devastated by a torrential rain, and he returns home quite ready to rest his tired eighty-year-old body. He awakens after an uneasy sleep that leaves him convinced that his own days are at an end; the feeling is focused all the more sharply for his having confronted death earlier that day, not as an abstraction but as a reality. Dr. Urbino decides to read for awhile, and as he is doing this, he is startled to hear the fugitive parrot nearby. Despite his advanced age and increasing decrepitude, he climbs a ladder and grabs the parrot, just as a household servant cries out in fright at seeing him endangering himself; the ladder slips away. Dr. Urbino falls to the muddy ground below and manages to tell his wife how much he loved her before he dies.

Dr. Urbino's standing in the unnamed Caribbean town in Colombia makes his death a public tragedy occasioning much grief and an official time of mourning-not to mention gossip about the ignominious manner of the death. Fermina Daza resolves to keep her own grief to herself and maintains a stoic reserve throughout the funeral and wake. Throughout these events, Florentino Ariza, who is the head of the River Company of the Caribbean and who had once been Fermina Daza's fiancé, takes it upon himself to assist with the arrangements, arranging chairs and ordering coffee to be made. At seventy-six, Florentino believes that he has "loved in silence for a much longer time than anyone else in this world ever had." When at last everyone leaves and Fermina believes she is alone, she sees that Florentino has remained behind; this pleases her, until he solemnly announces that despite the passing of half a century, his feelings for her have not changed, and that he once again wishes to pledge his "eternal fidelity and everlasting love." She kicks him out of the house. That night, her sleep is troubled not by thoughts of her husband, but of Florentino, her first love.