I have been thinking about which other Gabriel Garcia Marquez books to design for and include in the box set.
After a bit of research I have decided on two others. 'In Evil Hour' this story also includes a couple of the characters who re appear again in one hundred years of solitude. For the second I have decided to include 'Love in the time of Cholera' because this deals with similar drama and relationships as in 100 years of solitude. .
In Evil Hour
In Evil Hour (La mala hora) is a novel by Colombian writer Gabriel García Márquez, first published (in an edition disowned by the author [1]) in 1962.
Written while García Márquez lived in Paris, the story was originally entitled Este pueblo de mierda (This Town of Shit or This Shitty Town). Rewritten, it won a literary prize in Colombia.
Some of the same characters and situations found in La mala hora later re-appear in Cien años de soledad.
Plot
In Evil Hour takes place in a nameless Colombian village. Someone has been placing satirical pasquinades about the town, outlining the locals' shameful secrets. Some dismiss these as common gossip. However, when a man kills his wife's supposed lover after reading of her infidelity, the mayor decides that action is called for. He declares martial law and sends soldiers (really just armed thugs) to patrol the streets. He also uses the 'state of unrest' as an excuse to crack down on his political enemies.
Love in the Time of Cholera
Plot summaryThe main female character in the novel, Fermina Daza, is the strong axis around which the story revolves. Fermina easily rejects Florentino Ariza in their youth when she realizes the naïveté of their first romance, and she weds Juvenal Urbino at the age of 21, the "deadline" she had set for herself, ultimately because he seemed to be able to offer security and love to her. Urbino is a medical doctor devoted to science, modernity, and "order and progress." He is committed to the eradication of cholera and to the promotion of public works. He is a rational man whose life is organized precisely and who values his importance and reputation in society to the utmost. He is a herald of progress and modernization.[1]
Urbino's function in the novel is to provide the counterpoint to Florentino Ariza’s archaic, boldly romantic love. Urbino proves in the end not to have been an entirely faithful husband, confessing one affair to Fermina some years into their marriage. Though the novel seems to suggest that Urbino's love for Fermina was never as spiritually chaste as Florentino Ariza's was, it also complicates Florentino's devotion by cataloging his many trysts and apparently a few, possibly genuine, loves. By the end of the book, Fermina comes to recognize a wisdom and maturity in Ariza and their love is allowed to blossom in their old age. For most of their adult lives, however, their communication is limited to occasional public niceties.
Setting
The story takes place in an unnamed port city somewhere in the Caribbean, near the Magdalena River. While the city remains unnamed throughout the novel, descriptions of it lead one to the conclusion that it must be Cartagena, in Bolívar, Colombia, where García Márquez spent his early years. The city is divided into such sections as "The District of the Viceroys" and "The Arcade of the Scribes." The novel encompasses the half century roughly between 1880 and 1930.[2] The city’s "steamy and sleepy streets, rat-infested sewers, old slave quarter, decaying colonial architecture, and multifarious inhabitants" dot the text and mingle amid the lives of the characters.[3] Locations within the story include:
- The house Fermina shares with her husband, Dr. Juvenal Urbino
- The "transient hotel" where Florentino Ariza stays for a short time
- Ariza’s office at the river company
- The Arcade of the Scribes
- The Magdalena River
