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Love in the Time of Cholera
- Narrated by: Armando Durán
- Length: 15 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged Audiobook
- Categories: Literature & Fiction, Genre Fiction
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Publisher's Summary
Audie Award Finalist, Classic, 2014
From the Nobel Prize-winning author of One Hundred Years of Solitude comes a masterly evocation of an unrequited passion so strong that it binds two people's lives together for more than half a century.
In their youth, Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza fall passionately in love. When Fermina eventually chooses to marry a wealthy, well-born doctor, Florentino is devastated, but he is a romantic. As he rises in his business career, he whiles away the years in 622 affairs - yet he reserves his heart for Fermina. Her husband dies at last, and Florentino purposefully attends the funeral. Fifty years, nine months, and four days after he first declared his love for Fermina, he does so again.
With humorous sagacity and consummate craft, Gabriel García Márquez traces an exceptional half-century of unrequited love. Though it seems never to be conveniently contained, love flows through the novel in many wonderful guises - joyful, melancholy, enriching, and ever surprising.
Featured Article: 65+ Quotes About Love from Much-Loved Authors
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Editorial Review
What listeners say about Love in the Time of Cholera
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Andrei
- 10-02-19
Sex with a child
I know that I am repeating someone's else headline here. I remember that in my 20s I read One Hundred Years of Solitude and it was such a cathartic experience. I was hoping for the same, but this time I found the novel to be boring, I do not care about the story and I do not care about it's presumed exoticism, magic realism or whatever. But besides that, sex with a child and degrading treatment of women (once again I am plagiarizing someone)....NO! NO! NO! Not even in the name of "great" art. That's why I do not like Lolita, even though I have respect for Nabokov as a writer. I was not also satisfied with his treatment of elderly people. How many times he is going to tell us that they smell of old age. And you know, in terms of quality, I can write a novel like this (NOT THAT I WOULD!!). I cannot write the Sound and the Fury. I cannot write War and Peace. I cannot write The Elegance of the Hedgehog (read this one please - a masterpiece!). I cannot write The Beautiful Room is Empty. I cannot write Conversations with Friends. I cannot write Hunchback of Notre Dame. Well, I can blah, blah, blah, blah about this for ever and ever. Be a responsible reade. We live in very tragic time in the history of our country. Read it, of course, but be aware of what you read.
38 people found this helpful
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- JLH
- 07-02-19
Sex with a child
Need I say more - in addition to the dozens of women he degrades, looks down upon & uses for sex & therapy - he had sex with a child. He documents how he wins her trust through childish games and then begins a long term affair with her. He builds a secret room off his office so that he can have sex with randos at work. This is all intended to be as a response to him having to wait for the woman he actually loved. This may have been written in the 80’s and intended to be about “another time”, but it’s hardly romantic or a love story. This man writes a story that doesn’t even respect or value women - they are merely there to serve his selfish needs.
28 people found this helpful
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- Anne
- 09-05-13
Timeless Romance, brought to life by Armando Duràn
This story is one of the classic romances that will live on forever. I have read it more than once, but it had been a while and I needed some romance in my life, so I went in search of it again. I was so pleased to find it had finally been made into an audiobook, my life is busier than it used to be, so I was able to listen to it wherever I went. The narrator, Armando Duràn, was a perfect fit for this story. I mean perfect. The animation in his voice captures the passion of their love, the excitement and the sorrow. Every emotion was conveyed with such conviction, you would believe he wrote the story himself and was recounting from his own memory. His performance was impeccable and the story was lovely as ever. I would recommend this audiobook to everyone who wants the experience of a masterpiece novel, played out by an exceptional narrator.
55 people found this helpful
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- Madeleine
- 04-20-14
The Sublime Disease of Love
I decided to revisit this book in memory of Gabriel Garcia Marquez who just passed away. It brought back all the reasons I've loved his writing. Complex characters who evolve with the story, incredible descriptions that pull you into the settings; they become characters in their own right.
Marquez reminds us that love is not benevolent. It is a wasting disease. But we wouldn't be human without it.
28 people found this helpful
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- Vira
- 09-02-13
When love is sick
I find very little love in this book. A young person might regard it as romantic. I see much which is the opposite. (I hope the following doesn't contain spoilers?!)
As adolescents, Florentino and Fermina fall in love. 'In love' is not the same as love. Her father has different ideas and wants what HE thinks is best for her. He doesn't consult her feelings, and acts in an autocratic, paternalistic manner which is probably indicative of the times. In some ways, this could be regarded as high-mindedly selfish.
Florentino undoubtedly sees himself as a poetically romantic hero who suffers his self-inflicted romantic martyrdom for 50plus years for the sake of his "love". I see in him a needy, obstinate and obsessive stalker who also wants his own way, regardless of the cost. At the same time, he's obsessed with sex, and uses up every female who allows him within spitting distance, to the point of paedophilia. His romantic martyrdom requires no honourable abstinence, no self-negation. His emptiness cries out to every lover in turn, and he "loves" them all, if to a greater or lesser extent.
At no stage does he show any acceptance of Fermina's choice in marriage, or appreciation for her apparent happiness. This would be an indication of a love less false.
Only in old age, when his tormented self-convincing 'love' for Fermina settles down into companionable affection is there any sense of realness about it.
Fermina's husband, by comparison, seems to have been the better choice after all, as he does leave one with a sense of his true love and caring.
I grew tired of listening to Florentino's sexcapades for the greater part of the book. Of all the women who nurtured and indulged him, but actually meant very little. It got very stale. It also got sickening, when he resorted to molesting a girl who smelled of "nappies", 60 years younger than himself, of whom he had guardianship. That begs a long-term prison sentence. We are not amused.
I wonder if all the corpses scattered throughout the book are symptomatic of all the bodies he used, abused, and left lying in the dust?
I'm not sure I would recommend this book to anyone. I can't say I actually enjoyed it.
Good narration.
84 people found this helpful
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- Mel
- 09-04-13
In Love With Love
A passionate storyteller and a Pulitzer Prize winning author, Márquez warned those that wanted to define this book as a great love story not to fall into his *trap.* He doesn't set out to define love in Love in the Time of Cholera, instead he tells about the individual relationship his characters have with love throughout their lifetimes, how they express love, and how they experience love in all it's incarnations. Rather than define love, he almost makes the argument against defining love, showing that it is flowing and adaptable, and dependent on a myriad of variables. His characters experience lust, desire, passion, stability, all in the name of love -- that *malady for which there is no cure.* Love is not an emotion, but the destination in this novel.
Marquez's style of magical realism is perfectly matched to the period and characters in this Caribbean seaport village at the turn of the 19th century, where the local folklore and superstitions walk hand in hand with social and political reality. Three contrasting characters are central to the story and form the love triangle: Fermina Daza, the young local beauty; the older Dr. Juvenal Urbino, practical, stylish and much respected in town; and the hopeless romantic, and struggling workman Florentino Ariza, who provides most of the comedy due to his philandering ways and insistence that he is still a virgin in his heart -- which he also claims "has as many rooms as a whorehouse." Each has a singular conception of love. Márquez captures their conflicted spirits, as they age and adapt to their changing situations and environment, brilliantly. There's more comedy than romance in this bittersweet novel -- it's more about "emotions in motion" (as Mae West once said) than Love.
I understand the discrepancy in ratings. My own experience with Márquez got a shaky start when a friend (a literature major) handed me the book and said I would love it -- and I didn't. For at least 80 pages I struggled with the general foreignness and languid pace, and then it seemed as if I was suddenly tossed into a crazy tornado of passionate characters, sex, and intestinal problems. It seemed like a delirious opera takeoff of Don Juan. Whether timing or my own limitations (reading Spanish was a hurdle itself), the book was difficult for me to get into, but ultimately -- and several years later -- rewarding; it took me 3 times to finish this book, which I came to love. The translation is wonderfully done, and this narrator gives a great performance that enhanced the story without interpreting the characters for me.
There is a natural and unforced flow in Márquez's writing, that fits easily into your head, both because of his artistry and because of the emotional recognition in his stories. Even incorporating complex themes, his sentences sparkle with clarity and humanity. An Audible questionnaire asked which authors members would like to see available at Audible.com. I answered Gabriel Garcia Márquez, so I was thrilled to see some of his books on the menu (100 Years of Solitude would have been my choice for the first book, but I noticed it is coming soon). Considered a classic and one of the greatest books written, but I would limit my recommendation to those that want a beautifully written, bittersweet story to linger over and savor.
82 people found this helpful
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- W Perry Hall
- 01-16-14
Love to Love You Baby
In his ballad to Love (with a capital "L"), "Love in the Time of Cholera," Marquez's effortless, orchestral prose honors Love's many wondrous forms, reminisces the joys of loving and probes the pain unbearable from losing her.
Above all though, this novel sounds the sureness of Love's stamina (with just a bit of watering) and her strength to grow and grow, even as the body goes.
The narrator does an excellent job with the narration. I wish the publisher had agreed when it instead, after losing Jimmy Smits and Hector Elizondo successively as narrators for Marquez's 100 Years of Solititude, chose about the most white-bread, stuffy and passionless narrator in all Audibleland- John Lee. Oh well.
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.” Martin Luther King, Jr., born this day (1/15) in 1929.
10 people found this helpful
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- Kelsey
- 09-10-13
Garcia Marquez appeals to the jaded and romantic
Would you consider the audio edition of Love in the Time of Cholera to be better than the print version?
I enjoyed the audio version as much as the book version, largely because I am at a time in my life where I need to clean my house when I previously may have had time to read a book. It is an excellent narration, the tempo and voice matching my feelings when I read it, which always makes an audible book more appealing.
What did you like best about this story?
I enjoy everything Gabriel García Márquez has written. I like the honesty and cynicism in the women, the naive romanticism in the men. I enjoy the languid story of transformation, of metamorphosis and returning to vows and ideals of youthful folly.
What does Armando Durán bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?
I enjoy his pace and tempo. His American accent has just enough Hispanic intonation that it doesn't take away from the book, as so many Americans narrators do for me.
If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?
Javier Bardem makes this worth watching, but this book should never be replaced by a movie. Read the book first.
Any additional comments?
Thank you so much, Audible, for bringing Garcia Marquez to Audible!!!
8 people found this helpful
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- Darryl
- 09-10-13
Marquez is great, awaiting 100 Years
Read this when it first came out and loved it. I was totally under Marquez spell and still am but with a little distance I have to say that I can't give it 5 stars simply because I know 100 Years is coming and hoping for Patriarch and those are incredible. This love story is good but the writing style is different than those 2 and I wasn't quite as immersed in the world as I was with those. don't get me wrong, it's still head and shoulders above most of the junk that's out there, Marquez is a beautiful writer. & I noticed this time how the novel is structured in a manner that reflects the memories of the "lost love" and keeps building them through a life time. and of course the Marquez-ian themes of memory, nostalgia, love affects you like a disease, odd comical occurrences; but there aren't as many "magical realism" moments that i love so much from the others. but then again, someone else may love this more because it lacks those "fantastic" elements. This is in a way a rather realistic love story. I felt just a little removed from the story, like I was being told what happened instead of being in the action as I was with 100 & Patriarch.
However, I don't know what the 1 reviewer was saying about the sing song narration. His voice is a little raspy, very much like bob simon from 60 minutes, but his narration is fine and if there is a little lilt in it at times, i think it must be due to the characters names which have a little of that rhythm to them, but other than that I couldn't find it and I was looking for it due to that review.
In either case, kudos for finally getting Marquez, I've been waiting years for it and look forward to as much as they'll produce, I just hope they have the courage to do Patriarch (6 stars if it's done right) and all of the novellas and short stories. wonderful writer
17 people found this helpful
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- Barry
- 02-24-14
Wildly entertaining but vaguely troubling
I pestered Audible so long about this book, having heard nothing but glowing things about it for so many years (and no time to read the paper version). So I rushed to put it in my queue as soon as it came out. Garcia Marquez has said that you have to be very careful not to fall into his trap. I wish I knew what he thought his trap was. Is it about love in old age? Is it about immorality disguised as faithfulness? Is it about the unreliability of the characters' appraisal of people and events? Is it about something else entirely? I will probably never know.
First of all, the prose is beautiful. Even in translation, you get the sense of an author with a gift for finding the right word and the felicitous phrase. The book is simply littered with insightful observations about life and humanity. Second, the characters are solidly created. We are interested in them, even as we sense that they may not be people we personally would like to know. And therein lies my uneasiness with this book. The more we get to know these characters, the more ordinary they seem, and--especially with Florentino--the more troubling their moral outlook on life becomes. Garcia Marquez leads us step by step down the proverbial primrose path, and I can follow as long as I suspend disbelief. I have more of a problem with it in the cold light of day.
11 people found this helpful
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- C Carney
- 01-31-19
15hrs of male fantasy, racism and peadophilia
Gabriel Garcia Marquez has been on my reading list for quite some time and if this book is anything to go by, I'm not sure I can stomach another. Perhaps it's offensive storyline (albeit disguised in beautiful pride) is of its time but that's like the excuse that sexual harassment was the norm in the earlier part of the 21st century - it was creepy then and it's creepy now! it's a story of a woman who spurns a childhood crush (who she realises she never really liked) for a marriage of convenience (her father's, not her own). Said crush then uses this rejection as an excuse to stalk the poor girl for 60 odd years whilst sleeping with over 600 women - because obviously he's a 'hopeless romantic' - including a few who end up dead through murder or suicide because of his indiscretion and thoughtlessness - until the object of her desire relents, either out of sheer exhaustion or grief of losing her husband. I pretty much hated every minute of it after the first couple of chapters but am too stubborn to put a book down once I have started it :(
16 people found this helpful
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- Laura
- 08-14-19
I hated this book more and more throughout
I'll give credit where credit is due, the narrator was fine. There were a few dubious accents, but generally it was fine.
But OMG I hated this story. From the waffley prose, to the despicable characters I cared little about. Plus, nothing ever happened.
It started off ok, I was quite interested in the first character, but that story arc ended very early.
And then the further it went, the more unrealistic and unpleasant it got. Disgusting descriptions alluding to paedophilia and rape, and then seemingly the character being rewarded for 80 years of vile behaviour.
I wish I could unread.
8 people found this helpful
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- J Z A
- 08-27-15
Its Very Long
If you could sum up Love in the Time of Cholera in three words, what would they be?
Immersive,
Lyrical
Long
What about Armando Durán’s performance did you like?
I particularly enjoyed his enjoyment of the language. It was fully articulated and the rolling and complicated Spanish names and culture was laid out in a way that was surprising givenit was read in English.
If you made a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?
Everything comes to he who waits
Any additional comments?
The book is very long. The first half and the last quarter were great but once things had been established it became repetitive until it got close to the very enjoyable conclusions.
14 people found this helpful
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- Ruth Mary Branigan
- 01-06-17
Simply Beautiful
For a while, I liked the male protagonist in spite of myself. By the end I loved him in spite of everything.
A simple story made exquisite by Marquez's gorgeous language, his keen but gentle observation. So many sentences could be lifted from the story and applied to the world at large.
The book is achingly romantic - no mean feat considering that many of the relationships described are at best fleeting, at worst downright shocking. Many of the encounters in this story are based on casual sex (at times, not even consensual - hence my ambivalence towards Fiorentino Arisa), but when it comes to the main love story, every word and gesture is intense, significant and explored at length.
Armando Duran narrates beautifully. The timbre of his voice is just lovely and his wise and knowing tone lends itself perfectly to the prose. This might in part explain why I was able to dismiss some of Don Fiorentino's misdemeanours.
Come to think of it, some of his actions are downright unforgivable. Clearly I'll need some more time to deliberate on the characters. But the romance of the novel just swept me away.
15 people found this helpful
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- Snowy
- 03-10-18
Improves with the insights of old age.
Hearing the book read aloud made the story much easier to follow. I first read it as a young woman and found it hard going. As an old woman, I found it very moving, especially in the way the author deals with the difficulties that arise with old age.
5 people found this helpful
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- Mini
- 11-16-15
Do you like Marmite?
From looking at other reviews, this does seem to be a bit of a "marmite book". I had been looking forward to 'hearing' this since it had been on many people's "top" list of books. It was a struggle to finish it... the characters are just given no "depth". There's something strange about the way it's written (someone who understands literature styles might be able to define it!).
So, I found the characters confusing and just not "likeable" at any level. Such a disappointment. Yes, the odd insightful sentence but left me like someone who's just taken that accidental mouthful of marmite on toast... I got to the end... but it wasn't what I would call enjoyable!
18 people found this helpful
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- Wras
- 08-22-15
Only God knows how much I have loved you
Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza fall in love in their youth but circumstances, family and society keeps them apart he chooses to love her best of all and wait for the opportunity to reunite, rejecting all other possibilities of making a life with other women but not of enjoying the moments. She on the other hand marries Dr. Juvenal Urbino,and with time learns to love him. This loves are not perfect or without struggles they are real and frail like life itself, and so it is that when the Doctor dies and Fermina is approached by Florentino and his persistent love; she receives him with her resistant love.
The story begins with these events but develops through the retelling of the years in between from 1880 to 1930 there is humor, romanticism, magical realities in small doses and reality in large spoon fools like florentino confronting the consequences of successful business life on a trip down a river he had known in his childhood and discovering a river destroyed and devastated by his actions. This book also confronts the problems of older couples without embellishments or excuses something truly revolutionary and commendable for it allows love to be greater than a romanticised notion.
The reader was efficient and clear. I suspect the accent is real.
12 people found this helpful
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- Paul20764
- 04-06-22
Didn't disappoint
Read the first paperback edition in 1989, so long ago that I'd actaually forgotten most of the story! Why use one word when ten will do. Wonderfully descriptive - unfortunately the passages about the effects of aging ring very true now, whereas they had zero relevance nearly 35 years ago, when I was in my mid-twenties.
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- Pumpkin364
- 02-20-21
A favourite book wonderfully narrated
Gorgeous narration of a book I love. if you want a snappy page turner then Garcia Marquez is not the author you want, but his prose is wonderful and his humanity glows through every sentence. the characters in this book are flawed and relatable yet exotic and the setting also.
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- Matthew C.
- 03-17-17
simply magnificent A perfect story.
Beautifully told tale I never wanted to end. A rich tapestry of life from a different time.
5 people found this helpful
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- Graham B
- 12-12-18
magnificent
This book is so very beautifully written I feel transported every time I listen or read it. I can feel the breeze, the fragrance of perfumes and imagine the courtyards. it is like being in a painting while listening to poetry flowing like a cool spring. It is amazing.
2 people found this helpful
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- Nicky Webber
- 06-09-16
Brilliant Perspectives on Love by Literary Genius
Read this 30 years ago & wonderful to listen on Audible now. I got so much more out of this wonderful story. Rich colourful & meaningful language.Excellent! the narrator brought the story to life as if it was read by Marquez himself.
2 people found this helpful
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- Danelle Kenny
- 10-05-14
A meander through the ages and stages
If you could sum up Love in the Time of Cholera in three words, what would they be?
delightful, poignant, unpredictable
What other book might you compare Love in the Time of Cholera to, and why?
To date there is nothing quite like it that I've read, the movie 'as good as it gets' deals with similar themes.
What about Armando Durán’s performance did you like?
His accent lent itself very nicely to the blend of Spanish in the text
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
No, this book is definitely designed for Sunday afternoons sipping a good drink or taking a long bath. It is quite a slow book, though very well written. It deserves the time to soak it in.
2 people found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 10-11-18
Amazing visuals
I feel that the whole book is a guide on love and matters of love, relevant to all ages as it spans decades in life. a beautiful tale of beautiful people in a special space and time.
1 person found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 09-14-21
Horrifying that people think this is a love story
Just horrifying there is not much else to say than that. Don't bother reading it
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- Melissa
- 01-17-21
The narrator -- make or break
I am new to audiobooks and am surprised at how positive the reviews are for this one. I find the narrator's intonation stiff and monotonous and working against the fluidity of the storytelling. I am not going to make it to the end.
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- Daren
- 06-17-20
A sad but hope filled love story
A very well read novel with realist characters based in a realistic time period. I personally felt disheartened that so many men could easily relate to the doctor’s experiences. That’s sad, just as is the sad tale of love that engulfs the reader searching for a hopeful ending. A worthwhile read, but not in my top 20 books by any stretch.
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- Rebekah
- 05-14-20
beautiful description of love
really detailed interesting read. broadened my views on what love looks like. characters are multifaceted and relatable.
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- Trudie Simpson
- 08-18-19
A classic
Enjoyed this narrator and this story that spans a generation. It is a classic well worth the read