I'm somewhat surprised that I've gone as long as I have knowing very little about this classic, but it happens. To start, the prose is absolutely beautiful, and I imagine it's even more so in Spanish. Unfortunately, I had a hard time focusing. This is more of a problem related to my reading habits, but the chapters were much longer than I anticipated. I found that I frequently lost track of what was happening because I'd have to stop at random moments to do something else.

However, I just couldn't care very much about the characters, who are supposed to be the driving forces of the novel. I didn't find Fermina to be a compelling character. Florentino had more depth, but wow, is he massively problematic. It was incredibly difficult to look past the fact that an elderly man had sexual relations with a fourteen-year-old girl, for one. There's also the obsessive love for Fermina that didn't strike me as romantic at all, and I found the ending rather lackluster and frustrating, for the most part.

I'm not upset that I read this novel, but I certainly am disappointed that it didn't end up being as gripping and beautiful as I thought it'd be.