Why a Booktrail?
Early 1900s: Gabriel Garcia Marquez is a writer like no other and his stories never fail to entice. His classic novel here is a calm and poetic journey through love and its many obstacles
Love in the Time of Cholera
What you need to know before your trail
This is the story which was inspired by the extended courtship of his own parents. In this novel we meet Florentino Arizo and Fermina Daza whose love affair might have been if she hadn’t married a doctor who was trying to eradicate cholera. Their ‘relationship’ is rekindled however more than 60 years later – years during which e has enjoyed the company of many women and she has led a life where Florentino is but a distant memory.
‘It was inevitable: the scent of bitter almonds always reminded him of the fate of unrequited love’
Do we get second chances like this?
Travel Guide
The fictional setting of the tropical Caribbean port (“District of the Viceroys”), at the turn of the century is the setting for a story of love lost and refound.
Underneath the hot and dizzying heat of the Colombian sun, Florentino pines for his one true love. Many years later, the couple could have a chance of rekindling their lost opportunities but whether the path of true love, any love really did run smooth is another story.
Love is a man splendored thing – evokes all the senses
‘It was inevitable: the scent of bitter almonds always reminded him of the fate of unrequited love’
The idea of love as being the hero of a book is an idea that provides a melancholy setting and atmosphere.
There is unrequited love, ‘emergency love’ as on offer in the city’s transient hotel, explicit and illicit love – all in one place too.
While the city itself remains unnamed throughout the novel, descriptions and names of places suggest it is based on Cartagena since this is close to the Magdalena River and the nearby city of Barranquilla which Garcia Marquez often includes in his novels
The city is divided into places such as “The District of the Viceroys” and “The Arcade of the Scribes.”
The city’s “steamy and sleepy streets, rat-infested sewers, old slave quarter, decaying colonial architecture, and multifarious inhabitants” are the setting, atmosphere and environment of these lovers and the people in the novel.
Where Next?
