One of E. Hemingway's biographers claims (and I agree) that if it weren't for Adriana Ivancic, the novel "Across the River and into the Trees" would not have existed. So, a bit about her. Adriana's roots are from a famous Dalmatian (a historical province of the Roman Empire on the Adriatic coast) family that moved to Venice in the 19th century, where Adriana was born in 1930. On January 4, 2020, she would have turned 90. Adriana is one of the most important muses of Nobel Prize laureate Ernest Hemingway. The writer's words, written to her in one letter, were telling: "If I can write well, it will be about you and me that people will talk for hundreds of years, because we worked hard and well together. <....> Maybe I didn't need to meet you. Maybe it would have been better that way. But... Know, Duchess, everything would have been the same even if I hadn't written a book about Venice. People would still have noticed that we were always together, that we were happy as two. People envy others' happiness."

And indeed - who would remember her if it weren't for the famous and uniquely valued (and still valued) book? Adriana met E. Hemingway in Venice in December 1948, by chance - during a hunt to which both were invited by mutual friends. She soon turned 19, and he was already 49. At that time, the writer was not widely known in Italy, so he didn't immediately charm Adriana - at first, the girl was only interested in his stories, way of communicating, and attention. Adriana's memories: "When I appeared, he immediately became nervous and started twitching like a big bear. He told me sweetly about hunting and war. <...> Gradually, the big bear with the somewhat tired twitch changed and became younger in our company. Sometimes we walked hand in hand on the streets of Venice. He spoke slowly, stretching the words, and I didn't always manage to understand him. But I felt that he liked being and talking with me, talking." That was the beginning. It's worth remembering that although Hemingway spoke Italian not badly, his knowledge was not perfect.

What charmed the writer? Here are two descriptions of Adriana's appearance - one by Hemingway himself, the other by his long-time loyal friend Hoerner. They met Adriana not at the same time, Hoerner - years later, but what a similarity in the description of the girl! Hemingway: "At that moment, she entered, shining with her youth and beauty, tall, long-legged, with wind-tousled hair. Her skin was smooth, dark, almost olive in color, she had black, shining, shoulder-length hair and such a profile that when you saw it, your heart would stop, and not just for you alone." Hoerner: "Adriana Ivancic was a tall, nineteen-year-old girl of aristocratic beauty, with long black hair and an unusual, but still attractive nose, which Ernest called Byzantine."

One biographer writes that "the girl seemed to have stepped out of some old master's painting." There are photos in which Adriana poses next to old portraits.

The first stage of Adriana and Hemingway's relationship lasted about four months, but that was enough for the story started in Venice to be written and, in Cuba, where the writer lived at that time, the novel was born. Their romantic relationship also began then: in 1950, the writer again came to Venice (as usual, after finishing a new book, he liked to check the details in the place where the action took place). The friendship strengthened - when Hemingway left for Paris, Adriana went with him - to improve her French. There, the writer met with his publisher, to whom he showed Adriana's paintings - one of them was chosen for the cover of the new book. Hemingway sailed to New York from Havana - Adriana saw him off to the ship. From New York, the writer returned to Cuba, where Adriana's letters were already waiting for him. As biographers write, at that time, Hemingway was very sad, he felt cheated, often quarreled, and hurt his wife Mary. During one fishing trip, he severely injured his head at sea. Moreover, when the new novel appeared in the fall, the writer was mercilessly attacked by critics - they didn't believe in such a work.

Everything changed when, at the end of 1950, Adriana came to Cuba with her mother and brother and settled in Hemingway's villa. The writer spent time with them happily and productively: in the morning, he got up early and worked, and in the afternoon, entertainment began - fishing trips to the sea, visiting bars, and receiving guests. The writer didn't forbid Adriana to socialize with the local youth. Unfortunately, when Adriana's mother heard rumors about the resemblance of the hero Renata in the novel "Across the River and into the Trees" to her daughter, as well as other rumors, she quickly decided to return to Venice with Adriana. Only the correspondence remained, but in 1954, when Hemingway survived two plane crashes in Africa and was severely injured, he decided to be treated in Venice. Adriana's family wholeheartedly took care of the writer. Here's what the Venetian count Federico Kechler told the writer when, after the plane crash, it was urgently announced about Hemingway's and his wife's death: "Adriana begged me to take her to Cuba, there she wanted to burn your villa so that no one would sleep in your bed anymore, would sit in your chair and not touch the white tower. Most seriously... The poor, innocent girl was suffering." As A. Hoerner writes in his memoirs "Papa Hemingway", at that time "it was not difficult to notice that Adriana occupied a special place in Ernest's life. This romantic story was never a secret romance, she was always his official friend, in front of whom he liked to show off."

For a long time, when they didn't meet, Hemingway and Adriana actively corresponded, and many letters have been preserved. Neither Hemingway himself denied, nor did those who knew him have any doubts that the novel "Across the River and into the Trees" was written under the influence of the friendship with Adriana, and she is the prototype of the main character Renata. Adriana herself said in an interview that there is no need to identify her too much with Renata, because some of the girl's features (and the amount of wine she drinks) are definitely not hers, and some in the hero's behavior are unacceptable to her. Hemingway protected Adriana's reputation and did not allow the book to be translated into Italian, so in Italy, the novel appeared only in 1965, after the writer's death.

Adriana was a typical girl of that time: she shot from a hunting rifle, skied, learned foreign languages, and wrote poetry. In Venice, she was respectfully called "grafina". There was a strong not only spiritual connection between Hemingway and Adriana, but they were also united by creative cooperation: Adriana painted not badly, so she also contributed to the design of other Hemingway's publications (including the famous story "The Old Man and the Sea"). But the most important thing was that he, inspired by her youth and spiritual closeness, felt a great creative upsurge, and often it was enough for him that she was just nearby. Adriana later described how in Cuba, Hemingway took her to a fishing village by the sea and, sitting next to her, looked at the sea for a long time, without saying a word. The girl didn't understand why she was needed, she was surprised when he said "thank you", and only much later, after reading "The Old Man and the Sea", she understood the meaning of all this. Many years later, in her memoirs, Adriana quoted Hemingway's words from a letter: "I will be eternally grateful to you for returning my ability to write. I finished my book, the main character of which I gave your face. Now I will write another book especially for you - it will be about an old man and the sea. When I see you, when you are nearby, I feel that I can do anything and write better than I can." It was necessary to write "better than I can" when critics attacked the just published novel about the love of the young Renata and the middle-aged colonel Cantwell, and he had to prove his truth and reveal the power of his talent; thus, "The Old Man and the Sea" was born. Unfortunately, for many important reasons, Hemingway could not dedicate the story to Adriana...

An important place in Hemingway's life, and in maintaining the relationship with Adriana, was taken by Hemingway's wife Mary. Understanding why the writer's three previous marriages had failed, Mary decided that she would be second in the family, would not try to change her husband, would not be jealous and ambitious, but would strive for him to write a lot - she hoped that his works, even indirectly, would immortalize her too. Therefore, everything that stimulated Hemingway's creative powers was acceptable to her. Adriana had undoubtedly a positive influence on the man, so she got along well with her. Mary felt guilty - she didn't give birth to Hemingway the desired daughter. She didn't give birth to anything. Therefore, she allowed him to have a "duchess" (as he called her) Adriana. Hemingway appreciated Mary's dedication and kindness and stayed with her until his death. In my opinion, Mary's love and wisdom, no less than Adriana's, determined Hemingway's Nobel Prize - these two women in 1951 in Cuba created not only excellent conditions for his creativity but also had fun with him and didn't let the good mood fade. The story "The Old Man and the Sea" was published in 1952, after which Hemingway was awarded the Pulitzer Prize and finally in 1954 - the Nobel Prize.

In 1954, the writer visited Spain and decided to return to Cuba from the port of Genoa in Italy. He informed Adriana about this, and she came to Genoa. It's hard to say whether they knew that this was their last meeting, but the goodbye was painful and long engraved in Hemingway's memory. On June 6, 1954, the ship sailed from Genoa. Hemingway immediately wrote a letter - a thank you "for the wonderful moment". Unfortunately, miracles don't last forever...

Hemingway did a lot for Adriana's brother Gianfranco. When he dreamed of becoming a writer, he took him into his home in Cuba, fed him, introduced him to the celebrities who visited him, advised him, and tried to have his works published. A few years ago, I saw very warm memories of Hemingway by Gianfranco on TV. The old man (born in 1920) simply shone with love for the writer.

Why did Hemingway and Adriana's correspondence stop? The answer to this question is in an excerpt from Adriana's letter to Hemingway in April 1956 - about the man for whom she was getting ready to go: "He doesn't want me to write to you anymore, and he doesn't want you to write to me... This made me suffer... and always feel sad... I tried everything (you know how much I love you...), but... neither threats nor begging could change his demands... I never thought that we would have to say goodbye." That's how Adriana felt, but the correspondence, even more so - meetings, still stopped. Hemingway also suffered because his words in the novel "Across the River and into the Trees" - "you are the last, true and only love of mine" - were undoubtedly addressed to Adriana. The fact that their relationship stopped determined the feeling of responsibility for the young woman's future - the writer had already experienced too many scandals... What was really between them, of course, only they knew. From Hemingway's letter to Adriana: "One of us will go crazy, but only you and I know the truth and we will die with it." And that's what happened...

Two years after Hemingway's suicide (1963), Adriana married Rudolph von Rex, became a countess, and gave birth to two sons. In 1980, she wrote memoirs "The White Tower". In 1983, at the age of only 53, she committed suicide...

When Hemingway died, the book "Across the River and into the Trees" was lying on the bedside table in his room. Biographers discuss - why? Because of the dedication "To Mary"? Because of Adriana in it? I didn't manage to find out what book Adriana read for the last time in her life. But I believe - it was "The Old Man and the Sea". The book dedicated to her, although there is no such inscription in it.

I almost didn't write anything about the book itself, "Across the River and into the Trees" - a wonderful love novel. It should be read; I recommend it without hesitation. I can only add that in 1950, it was a very bold novel...

There's something rather unique about this book.

On one hand, it indeed experiences all the issues that other reviewers have pointed out. The plot is relatively light, lacking in depth and complexity. The dialogue, at times, is monotonously repetitive, much like what we often find in Hemingway's works. And while reading, one can't help but have the feeling that the author is on his personal soapbox, passionately expressing his views.

However, there is still a great deal of "substance" in this book. Besides the obvious depictions of a May/December romance, a man's final days, and the regretful memories of World War II, the aspect that stood out to me the most in this story is how people transform into their best selves when they are around those they love. The protagonist, a self-described "rough" man, continuously endeavors to show his gentler side in his relationship with the young Italian woman. Admittedly, the constant stream of "I love yous" can quickly become tiresome, but there is a purpose to them. And in the end, it is one of the most beautiful themes I have ever witnessed in a Hemingway novel.

Overall, this book has its flaws, but it also has its redeeming qualities that make it worth reading.

When Hemingway penned this novel, perhaps he was aware that his greatest masterpieces lay in the past.

Although this particular work is considered a lesser one, it still contains moments of tenderness, poignancy, and power, crafted in his signature minimalist style that linger in the reader's mind.

The novel centers around a retired Army Colonel who has endured brutal combat and is now near the end of his life, desperately in love with a much younger woman.

To me, the woman symbolizes the Colonel's lost youth, and the relationship takes on new meaning when viewed from this perspective.

The Colonel looks back in the novel at the horror and futility of war, which stands in stark contrast to the extreme tenderness of his last love affair in Venice.

Hemingway's experiences during the Spanish Civil War and in Paris during World War II provided him with a wealth of material to draw upon in this literary "moveable feast," a term that first appears here.

Against the harshness of his existence, the Colonel has retreated to Italian duck blinds, the winter in Venice, and the adoring young beauty of his life.

One senses that at this stage of his life, so close to the end, Hemingway sees his own life's descent into finality, as reflected in the lines from Stonewall Jackson's dying moments, "to cross peacefully over the river and into the trees."

Hemingway is a master of dialogue, and there is much to savor between the Colonel and his young mistress.

I recommend reading "Old Man and the Sea," "A Farewell to Arms," and/or "For Whom the Bell Tolls" before delving into this novel.

If you already admire and have widely read Hemingway, then this is a very fine but not great novel compared to his masterpieces.

This is a compelling and accessible novel whose subtleties will linger, and perhaps the greatest aspect of his genius is that he always manages to have the same powerful impact.

Hmmm.... It truly fascinates me.

Sometimes, Hemingway pens words that have the power to make my heart completely melt. The beauty and depth of his expressions can be simply enchanting.

However, at other times, he writes the cheesiest dialogue that makes me raise an eyebrow.

Despite these fluctuations, I did enjoy this book.

Nevertheless, it was rather slow-paced at certain points, which tested my patience a little.

Thankfully, the prose more than made up for it. The way he weaves words together to create vivid images and evoke strong emotions is truly remarkable.

The ending, in particular, left me feeling somber. In fact, this is the consistent feeling that all of Hemingway's works leave me with.

There is a palpable sense of emptiness and utter hopelessness that seems to permeate every page of his writing.

It's a rather sad thing to notice, but it also adds to the unique charm and power of his literary works.

When Hemingway started writing this story, it was supposed to be a short narrative. Then, as he added and added, it became a novel, a truly great novel.

It was published in 1950 and is set in Venice during a winter so harsh that it freezes the lagoon. The protagonist is Richard Cantwell, a fifty-year-old colonel who is ironic, disillusioned, and wise. In his character, ways of doing things, habits, and especially his personal history, it is easy to recognize a great deal of the author.

Richard has a relationship, which Hemingway describes in a very poetic and intimate way, with a nineteen-year-old aristocratic girl who listens passionately to him tell his war memories, accompanies him on erotic gondola rides and walks in which nature frames a love that is as deep as it is unstable.

There is a lot of alcohol, a lot of food, and a lot of Hemingway.

It is a novel of love and death, of acceptance but not resignation, of all those obstacles, pains, and tragedies that make life what it is, including death. It is also a book full of symbolism to emphasize the path of growth and the awareness of the horrors of life, the ironic acceptance of them as part of existence itself.

Beyond the River and Among the Trees

Ernest Hemingway

Translation: Fernanda Pivano

Publisher: Mondadori

Pages: 327

Font: medium-small

Rating: 4/5

Triste, me dio pena el final.

This simple sentence holds a profound sense of sadness. It seems to convey a feeling of disappointment or heartbreak at the end of something.

Perhaps it was the conclusion of a story, a relationship, or an event that did not turn out as expected. The word "triste" directly expresses the emotion of sadness, while "me dio pena" emphasizes the pain or sorrow that was felt.

The brevity of the sentence makes it all the more powerful, as it leaves room for the reader to imagine the specific circumstances that led to this feeling. It could be a tragic ending, a missed opportunity, or a loss that was difficult to bear.

Overall, this sentence serves as a reminder of the inevitability of sadness in life and the importance of finding ways to cope with it.

He knew how painful it was for a person to talk about the war he had fought to another, so he simply stopped talking about it. People always understood war from their personal perspectives, he thought to himself.

It was truly tragic that a person spent his life in endless wars, carrying his wounds and battles with him until the end, unable to retrieve the past or embrace the future. He stood on the sharp edge, with nothing in front of him.

The novel here tells the story of love between a fifty-year-old warrior and a girl in her twenties. The general framework is love and the content is war. He couldn't let go of his war and past. The conversations were long, boring, and repetitive. The idea is that a person can't easily get out of war, but the extraction brings pain. I don't know, but the events seem like a fantasy of a man who has lost everything and decided to compensate for what he has lost with a story of a beautiful girl who loves his deformed hand, his war past, and even his hatred. She understands his hesitation and loves to listen to him talk about the war without stopping. Maybe this exists, but it is rare and illogical.

Perhaps the reason I completed this novel was my love for Hemingway's simplicity and his continuous pain, and that the beauty of his sadness overwhelmed his words, making you feel close to an old warrior, hoping that the world could offer him even a little bit of peace.

Haunting - the old warriors who strive to recapture the youth that they sacrificed to war - is one of my favorite works by Hemingway. War exacts a heavy toll, stripping away so much. However, it frequently takes many years for that sense of loss to surface. All too often, once this loss is discovered, it is already too late to attempt to rectify the situation. This story serves as the most poignant example of such a scenario that I have ever come across. It vividly描绘s the profound impact of war on the lives of those who have endured it, and the futile attempts of the veterans to reclaim what has been irrevocably lost. Through Hemingway's masterful prose, we are able to gain a deeper understanding of the human condition in the face of war and its aftermath.

I don't really know precisely what to express. It's simply a feeling of sadness.

I have never come across an author where the central character in every single book is so blatantly and unmistakably the author himself.

The self-hatred that is palpable and the manner in which he endeavors to relish things and find happiness is truly upsetting.

I believe I have developed such a profound liking for Hemingway because I am drawn to the way his characters think and engage in internal dialogues with themselves. I'm not entirely certain whether this is a good or a bad thing, but that is precisely what attracts me, I think. It's as if through his characters, he is revealing a part of his own psyche, and that raw authenticity is both captivating and disturbing.

Perhaps it's this complexity and the ability to explore the depths of human emotion that makes Hemingway's works so enduring and fascinating.

I was truly disappointed. As a die-hard Hemingway fan, I had high expectations for this book. However, it failed to meet them.

The story is set in post-WWII Italy. The main character is a 50+ year-old US Army Colonel who is in love with an almost 19-year-old girl. Their age difference is a constant source of lament for them, which is understandable given its insurmountable nature. But the dialog in the book is simply horrible.

For example, she says, "Don't speak rough." And he replies, "I will try to be gentle." Then she says, "It is so much better when you are nice." And he says, "I will try hard to be nice... How long has it been since I said I loved you, Daughter." She responds, "Too long. Will you tell me now?" And he says, "Yes, I will tell you now. I love you." And it goes on and on like this.

Geezus! I was really hoping to understand through flashbacks what the Colonel's war experience truly was. But there just wasn't enough in the book to transport me back in time. The description of duck hunting wasn't interesting enough to be included in the book. Also, I don't think it really talked about how the couple met each other. The details of what caused his demotion from General were very sketchy.

There may have been enough subject matter here to write a good book, but unfortunately, Hemingway just couldn't seem to find it.

It is truly a pleasure to finally get around to reading Hemingway's Across the River and Into the Trees. The novel is filled with the kind of salty banter that one might expect from Bogart and Bacall, as it takes place between a grizzled 51-year-old army colonel and a 19-year-old Italian contessa.

The movie adaptation of the book is also quite solid. At first, the inevitable changes from the book can be frustrating, as some of them are startlingly bold. However, when considered on its own terms, the movie does manage to work.

One of the standout aspects of the movie is Liev Schreiber's performance. He brings the character of the colonel to life in a way that is both nuanced and powerful, and his work is truly award-worthy. Overall, both the book and the movie offer an engaging and thought-provoking look at love, loss, and the human condition.

A Fifty-Year-Old Man

This book, written by Hemingway ten years after "For Whom the Bell Tolls" and twenty years after "A Farewell to Arms", is set in a winter Venice.

It tells a love story between a fifty-year-old colonel, in precarious health, and a very rich and aristocratic nineteen-year-old, "radiant with youth and slender beauty".

Interestingly, the colonel is the same age as the author at the time of writing the work. Knowing some traits of the writer's character, moreover, we can well hypothesize that the biographical element is strongly present, not so much for the love relationship itself, but for the author's existential condition, who led a life of excess to such an extent that he aged rather prematurely. The story represented here can therefore be defined as a senile love of a fifty-year-old man, a heavy drinker at any time of the day or night.

The protagonist's existential condition is also characterized by an ambiguous relationship with himself: " 'Old bastard' he said to the mirror. (...) The mirror was the truth and the reality"; "You're half a hundred, bastard that you are nothing else".

References to the Great War and the battlefields are numerous, often present in memory.

The atmosphere of Venice pervades the whole book, with its luxury hotels and restaurants, cafes where one can find shelter from the lashings of the wind and the high tide.

In this fascinating city, which has become an emblem of languor and decadence, the search for a residence on the Grand Canal is not at all out of place, which was the residence of Gabriele D'Annunzio where, convalescing, he wrote "Nocturnal", lovingly cared for by his daughter Renata: the same name, which I think is not by chance, given by Hemingway to his young protagonist, whom the colonel often calls "daughter".