Almost two decades later, The Notebook still brings audiences to tears in the hopes of finding someone to grow old with like its lead couple. A classic example of a love story for the ages, the 2004 film starring Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams remains the most lucrative Nicholas Sparks adaptation to date, earning over $116 million worldwide.
Although The Notebook’s long-term success is undeniable, few people are aware that the story is actually based on a real-life couple that Sparks met through his ex-wife, Cathy.
What Is ‘The Notebook’ About?
Before getting into the specifics around true events that inspired the hit novel and its film adaptation, here is a refresher to The Notebook. Both the book and the onscreen version follow Noah (James Garner), an elderly man whose life’s mission is to tell his wife, Allie (Gena Rowlands), their love story over and over again in the hopes that she might remember it.
Every day, he visits her and opens his notebook, convincing Allie to listen to him retell their romantic journey from start to finish. Through flashbacks, viewers and readers alike get to know how the couple (played in the past by Gosling and McAdams) met in their youth and how they were able to maintain their relationship throughout the years despite the obstacles they faced.
From parental disapproval to Allie’s engagement to another man (played by James Marsden), the main characters spend a long time apart before Allie sees Noah’s picture in the paper and decides to pay him a visit.
As the two reconnect in their mid-30s, Noah reveals that he has remained in love with Allie ever since their summer romance and confesses that he has written her more than 365 letters. The reason she didn’t know about them was because her mother hid the letters from her.
Despite the emotional crossroads that Allie feels at this news, pondering whether she should reconsider her engagement, Allie ends up choosing to stay with her first love. At the end of The Notebook, the elderly version of Allie finally remembers her relationship with Noah for a brief amount of time before her dementia leads her to forget everything.
In the movie’s final moments, the couple pass away side by side in bed, whereas in the book they make love.
As previously mentioned, there is a true story behind The Notebook.
According to a statement from Sparks on his official website, the author drew inspiration for the novel after visiting his ex-wife Cathy’s grandparents. Cathy was very close to her grandparents, and felt upset that they wouldn’t be able to attend their wedding.
For this reason, she and Sparks decided to put on their wedding attire the day after they got married and reenacted the ceremony in her grandparents’ living room. While they ate cake and watched footage from the wedding together, the author said that Cathy’s grandparents shared their love story with them.