Gone with the Wind

Say what you want about political correctness (or lack thereof). It's all ridiculous anyway, because this book was written in a different age and about a different age. At its heart, this book is an intimate look at the American Civil War from a Southerner's perspective. And it's also got a whopping great (doomed) romance. I grew up for 10 years in Chicago and then when I was nearly 11, we moved to a rural area in South Carolina. A few years later we moved to a small town in North Georgia. My father was from Philadelphia, but my mother and stepfather were Georgians. I always considered myself a hybrid, but I was the only one who thought so. Northerners ridiculed the soft drawl I picked up from my Georgian family; Southerners ridiculed my Northern speech patterns and LACK of a proper drawl. This was in the 1960s and 1970s. So tell me that nobody remembered the Civil War anymore. In both North and South a mere hundred years later, it defined a great many of my own relationships. In the North, elementary school history was all about the evil South and the the evils of slavery. When I got to the evil South--to a fully integrated school (as opposed to the totally white suburb of Chicago I'd inhabited before) I got the Southern perspective--the war came about because of unfair taxes, a federal government that took away states' rights, AND slavery. In some ways, GWTW provides a more comprehensive look at the reasons for secession than some of the history books I've seen. Although it's told from the perspective of rich plantation owners (does anyone even remember that rich plantation owners accounted for about 5% of the South's population??), rather than the "white trash" and "poor Crackers" (this would be people like my family) who made up most of the Southern army, the real focus is on why there needed to be a war at all. And the answer, of course, is, there didn't need to be one. The character of Rhett Butler, who serves the purpose of the one who got away; selfish Scarlett never knew she loved him until he left her--but in addition to that, he is the voice of hard, cold practicality, and 20/20 hindsight. He puts the war into economic terms, questions the motives of all the great heroes (I loved his sneer at Abe Lincoln's "crocodile tears") ridicules everything the Southerners claim to believe, but when the chips are down, he goes to fight too. Melanie and Ashley mourn the loss of their gentle way of life, but both sacrifice everything they have for their "Cause." Better descriptions than mine have already been written about the plot of this book: Selfish Scarlett wants to marry Ashley, but he marries Melanie, so Scarlett sets out to make everyone miserable when the war intervenes. For years she is forced to put her energies into things she'd never given thought to before--like surviving. In the course of surviving she finds out women--herself in particular--are nowhere near as weak or silly as she's been raised to think, and she discovers talents she never knew she had (such as making money) as well as making the knees weak of most men in her vicinity. But of course in the course of surviving, becoming successful, and finally even gaining Ashley, she makes herself the most miserable of all. But there's so much more to it than that. So much about the rapid change of society (anyone who's lived more than 40 years should be able to appreciate that), the horror and ultimate futility of war (anyone who's ever been in the military, or had a son or daughter or friend in the military, should understand that), changing values (such as priorities going from what dress I should wear to the party to will I be able to eat tomorrow). And it makes the war up-close and personal, whether in the scenes leading up to and including the burning of Atlanta or the destruction of Tara's pathetic cotton harvest. Gettysburg notwithstanding, the vast majority of the battles in the war were fought in the South. So most of the destruction was in the South. Rich plantation and tiny sharecropper acreage alike were destroyed, and most of the 50,000 civilians killed in the war were Southerners. This is why “Little Women,” technically also a Civil War novel, doesn’t seem like one—the March sisters were comfortable and untouched in Massachusetts, at worst suffering an occasional shortage or worrying about their father—while GWTW touches every horror women in the South faced, from starvation to rape and worse. I first read this book when I was eleven, not long after we had moved south. It was an eye-opener. I’ve read the book at least fifteen times since then (I’m now 56), most recently purchasing it as an ebook to replace a worn-out hardcover. I read it again, specifically focusing on some of the descriptive passages in the last days of Atlanta, the trip back to Tara and the settling there only to be attacked again by the dreaded Yankees, and I marvel that Mitchell can write such vivid description while the reader (in my case a professional editor) isn’t even aware that it’s just a description. I don’t like reading long descriptions, and some of the worst (in several famous books I could name) have prompted me to skim pages to get back to the story, but with Mitchell I never noticed. I felt the gumminess of Scarlett’s skin in the heat of the day; saw the bloody and dying soldiers on the streets around the train depot, felt the hunger gnawing in her gut when she dug that radish out of the ground. There’s a reason a blockbuster movie came from this book (but is not as good as the book); there’s a reason Carol Burnett’s parody of the story is the most popular of all her wonderful comedic sketches. This book transported ordinary people into the setting and made them feel the agony. And considering how unlikable Scarlett O’Hara really is, it’s doubly amazing that Mitchell makes me root for her. Maybe I don’t want her to get Ashley (heavens, what would she DO with him—he bores her stiff!) but I want her to survive. You want Tara to regain its former glory even as you know it never will. And no matter how many times I read it, I still keep hoping Scarlett will recognize that Rhett loves her before it’s too late. Now THAT is powerful writing.

When I first read Gone with the wind many years ago at age 25, I had watched the movie many times and loved it. Then when I read the book, I fell in love with it hailing it as the best book I'd ever read in my life. At that time though, I did find the in depth descriptions of the surroundings and of backgrounds of people a little tedious. Other than that, I loved it and my lifelong love of Civil War history was started right then and there. As the years went by and I read so many more books, a few years ago there began to be other books that took the title of "best book" in my eyes, always keeping that great love of GWTW in my heart. However, at age 52, I decided to read it again. It just called to me for some reason. This time, I loved it even so much more than I did then, and what I disliked about it years ago, the descriptive writing of Margaret Mitchell, is one of the things I loved about it most of all. It takes a tremendous amount of talent for a writer to totally immerse the reader into the setting they have created, when they can just see the lush beauty, the red clay, the desolation, the dying wounded, everything that was written, you lived it, smelled it, and felt it. I was in this story from beginning to end, and I lost myself in it completely. It now has rightfully taken its place as my favorite book of all time. Yes, It is a book where the main character is a selfish, spoiled rich plantation owner's daughter, that lost everything she had that she knew in the world, her home, her parents, many friends, her money, and how she clawed herself back to the top no matter who she ran over or hurt along the way. She is an unlikeable character that you cannot help but like anyway for the sheer will and determination she has to survive. Somewhere along that road of selfishness, she developed a conscience even though she stifled it whenever it reared it's head and went on being ruthless anyway. Also somewhere along the road, she realized that there was a feeling she could not quite identify in her heart about Melanie and Rhett, a feeling she did not realize was love until it was too late to enjoy that love. Oh you knew she was ruthless and hard, but you knew there was some good in her somewhere (was there?) and you rooted for her. Then there's Rhett. The rebellious, sarcastic, making money at the ruin of others, handsome man that fell in love with her the moment he cast eyes upon her. He was there for her so many times over the years, but she never really appreciated him. He loved her so much, but never let on in words that he did because he knew anyone that admitted they loved her, she would run over like she did so many other poor men that loved her, may they rest in peace. She realized she loved him much too late. There's Melanie, the mild, sweet shy girl-like woman who Scarlett said she hated because she was Ashley's wife (and of course Scarlett was in love with Ashley). So sweet and mild, she has a fierce loyalty and love for Scarlett, which Scarlett also didn't fully realize until it was too late. And Ashley, poor pitiful Ashley who she just thought she loved all these years only to finally realize she was In love with an idea of him, not him. She wasted all those years not realizing this, again, until it was too late. Mixing with all these wonderful characters and more, is a story about the south and how the world they knew was lost. Though it was a world that had many wrongs that should not have happened and that I'm glad was put an end, you can't help but feel their loss, feel the horror as they watched their houses and Atlanta burn to the ground. You feel their hungriness as they have nothing to eat, feel their shame as they have nothing but rags left to wear, feel their bitterness as they are under Yankee rule during the reconstruction. It's also a story about what different people do to survive. In this case, does one go with the flow and make the best out of a new situation and reap the benefits that they can in the situation they're in, or does one stay loyal to a cause that was burned to the ground and is no more and stay humbled and hungry? Does one sell their soul and prosper at the cost of others? Scarlett took advantage of the situation she was in and it made no difference who she ran over to do it or if she did forget the cause for which a war was fought. However, in the end, I think she realized that to have all she acquired, a very high price was paid for it all. This book was so great on so many levels, even more that what I've written here. For to go on, it would be way longer that this. I think it's a masterpiece. I do want to say one more thing, last but not least, about the author Margaret Mitchell. Though this was her only published novel, she did not drop down out of the sky to write this book out of nowhere. Growing up she wrote complete stories all the time as a little girl, was in drama at school, and as a young adult, worked as a journalist until she had to quit due to an ankle injury. She was born into a family rich in civil war history and many of her family had actually fought and lived during the civil war and she sat on many a lap listening to these stories throughout her childhood. She was born, lived and died in the city she wrote about, Atlanta. She knew of what she wrote about and it's historically accurate. She died, unfortunately, at the age of 48, hit by a drunk driver, crossing Peachtree St. (a street mentioned many times in the book), with her husband on the way to the movies. 5 days later she died, she was buried in Oakland Cemetary, (a graveyard mentioned in the book). To me, this book could have never been surpassed and I feel so good knowing that in her short life, she chose to leave this masterpiece for us all to enjoy forever. I, for one, am grateful. Thank you Margaret Mitchell.

Livro essencial para quem da literatura do século 20! A leitura é deliciosa!!!

Learned so much about the historical background of the Civil War, southerners’ mindsets, and the aftermath of the reconstruction while enjoying the great story.

Really enjoyed this book, central characters are memorable, American Civil was a context but story were very personal and intimate.

The book jacket has scratches and tears around the edges and it makes me curious whether this is actually new. But the crisp pages reassured me, though I'm incredibly disappointed by the wear and tears on the book jacket.

I bought this book primarily because I am a huge fan of the film. To be honest, I wasn't expecting to be bowled over and sort of imagined a Mills Boon/Jilly Cooper type read - entertaining but not particularly substantial. Well, I was wrong. For context, my usual novels of choice are classics so I was pleasantly surprised to find this wouldn't be completely out of one with those. First clue is this book actually won the Pultizer Prize - so whilst it's not seen as 'serious' writing in our time, it was considered a masterpiece back in the day, the great American novel, etc. Yes, times were different then but I find it slightly sad that the book's reputation has fallen somewhat. Whilst it probably not 'top tier' next to the greats of Fitzgerald, Salinger, Dickens and so on, it's not a million miles away and to be honest, far better written than a lot of highly acclaimed novels today. To get over the inevitable - yes the book is racist. The KKK do feature but they are not seem as wholly positive - while some characters are in favour, interestingly our heroine and hero do not think highly of them. Yes, the n word is used and whenever a black person speaks their speech is rendered phonetic which is derogatory (as it's not done for the white people who would also be speaking with an accent). (Although, interesting I believe Bronte does a similar thing in Wuthering Heights with the servants speaking in a phonetic manner and the main characters not and this hasn't received as much comment.) Racist comments are made about the appearance of some blacks and there are some 'whitewashing' statements around how 'good' black slaves actually like being slaves and would never leave their masters, and the North has corrupted them etc etc. All of this is of course offensive and wrong. However, should we claim a book is 'bad' or ban it or not read it just because we disagree with some of the things it says? Whilst not a defence of these ideals at all, this book was written in a different time (far before the Civil Rights movement) and set in a time even more different (when black people were still 'property'). The ideas represented by the characters and the author themselves are (sadly) indicative of common opinion of the time, and whilst they are wrong and would not and should not be tolerated today, arguably you could not set the book during this period without giving voice to some of these opinions. As for the writing itself, I found it well written and highly entertaining. Fans of the film will enjoy it I think, on the whole it sticks remarkably close to the plot of the film (even some speech is the same in the film!), although notably Scarlett's first two children are not present in the film (but I think this was the right decision as I don't think they add much in the book to be honest). Yes, the book does drag in some places but saying that a lot of the content is relevant and I think you could probably only cut it down 50-100 pages or so without losing a lot of meaningful writing and events for the characters, which for a book this long I think is quite good. The characters are all 'real' and fleshed out, with the exception of the annoying Ashley (and the slaves as to be expected, unfortunately). He is slightly ridiculous but this is somewhat forgiven as I think he's meant to be. Rhett is somewhat darker in the book than the film, and some say that Scarlett is as well although actually I find the book makes her somewhat more human as we are privy to her inner thoughts and deep down she is a 'good' character and does a lot of 'bad' things for the right reasons. Overall, if you're a fan of the film or interested in a fiction of the American south/Civil War this is worth a read. The plot is cracking and whips along, covering a span of twenty odd years and many dramatic events. For a long novel I got through it relatively quickly as it is very readable and highly entertaining.