PLOT

In Chapter One, Dr. Juvenal Urbino, an elderly doctor from an aristocratic family and a leader in the city, examines the body of his good friend, Jeremiah de Saint-Amour, who has committed suicide to avoid old age. He had greatly admired Jeremiah, who was a chess master and childrenÂ’s photographer. When he finds a long suicide note, Dr. Urbino is greatly disturbed at its contents. His wife, Fermina Daza, thinks nothing of what the note says. Her husband, however, feels compelled to follow the directions in the note. He visits a secret lover of Jeremiah de Saint-Amour and is shocked to find she is a black woman. He is also shocked that she aided her lover in his plan to kill himself. Still shaken by the news, he returns home to dress for a gala luncheon in honor of one of his most distinguished medical students. When he and Fermina Daza attend the event, a downpour almost spoils everything, but the hostess manages to salvage the party.

Arriving home, Juvenal and Fermina find the house in an uproar because his parrot has escaped into the trees. After his siesta, Juvenal goes out and finds the bird. When he tries to reach for it, the bird goes higher and higher in the tree. He stumbles on the ladder, falls, and soon dies. Fermina Daza is distraught over his death. There is an elaborate funeral, which Florentino Ariza attends. At the end of the day, when everyone has left, Fermina Daza finds Florentino Ariza in her parlor. He tells her he has waited for more than fifty years to repeat his pledge of undying love and eternal fidelity to her. She orders him to leave and finds herself sobbing in grief over her husbandÂ’s death and rage over Florentino ArizaÂ’s gall.

One day Florentino crosses over to her house, where Fermina is sitting with her aunt. They arrange to meet the next week so he can give her his letter. After the first letter, they become devoted to one another. She knows her father would be opposed to Florentino since he wants her to marry into aristocracy; as a result, she and her aunt keep the love affair a secret. In the meantime, Lotario Thugut tries to introduce Florentino Ariza to illicit sex. Florentino refuses and spends his time writing love letters to Fermina. The rapid exchange of letters between the two continues until she finally agrees to marry him. One day, Fermina Daza is caught reading one of his love letters and is expelled from the Academy. Her father is furious and banishes his sister, Aunt Escolastica, for keeping the love affair a secret. He takes Fermina for a long visit to relatives, hoping to make her forget Florentino. The long stay with relatives makes Fermina Daza realize she can be happy without him. When she and her father return home, he assumes that Florentino is a forgotten man. He turns over the keys of the house and her life to her. When she sees Florentino Ariza, Fermina realizes their love affair has been all an illusion and sends him away permanently.

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