Florentino Ariza is the novel's principal romantic who lives out the very unmodern concept of a constant heart. A telegraph operator with a passion for music and books (he is a voracious reader of both classic and popular literature, especially poetry), Florentino falls in love with the teenaged Fermina, who is teaching her aunt to read. And for the next fifty-one years, nine months, and four days-for the rest of his life, in fact-he continues to love her. Garcia Marquez based this couple on his own parents, whose courtship took a similar course. The author's father was a telegraph operator who, like Florentino, sent his sweetheart telegrams while she was on a journey that was supposed to make her forget all about him. But whereas Garcia Marquez's parents married, Florentino is spurned by.....
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