Gone With the Wind | Margaret Mitchell

Gone With the Wind | Margaret Mitchell | A 10-star epic novel.

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Gone With the Wind

	Gone With the Wind Margaret Mitchell THE MACMILLAN COMPANY, 1936 - 1048 pages average customer review:based on 656 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Spoiled Southern belle Scarlett O'Hara never stops loving the married Ashley Wilkes even as she faces the hardships of life during the Civil War and the changes brought about by Reconstruction. Reprint.

Timeless!

This novel is, I'm certain you must know by now, a family saga covering the Civil War and Reconstruction in the South from the viewpoint of a wealthy Southern family who live on a plantation called 'Tara.'

Easy to read, 'Gone With the Wind' is not only a family saga, but a fascinating character study of people who did what they had to do in order to survive the devastating war years and the reconstruction that followed. Lives and lifestyles were changed forever with the Civil War. Southerners had to adapt to an entirely foreign way of life and this novel explores how different people coped in the form of well-developed, complex characters.

Difficult to put down, this novel is one you will read over and over again and eventually pass down to your children. Don't hesitate to buy a copy!

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A 10-star epic novel.

Five stars is not enough to rate this timeless, flawless epic novel of the South. Miss Mitchell's talent has never been underrated or under-appreciated, but having read it as a teen - then, again recently, after having read "Rhett Butler's People," the authorized sequel to GWTW commissioned by the Mitchell estate, I am newly appreciative of Miss Mitchell's prodigious talent.

For those who have only seen the equally terrific, but different, movie, please read Mitchell's original.

The movie does stand on its own. I am a fan of novels-turned-books and have seen many. I never denigrate a movie if it differed from the original novel in any way. The two are different media.

But Mitchell's only novel earned her a place forever in American literature and is desrving to be read in its entirety.

Though long, it is a quick read for the engaged reader.

I have not read the much-ballyhooed but often best-seller, unauthorized sequels, but I will do so, mostly out of curiosity.

The authorized sequel, Rhett Butler's People, is also interesting, but can never live up to Mitchell's GWTW.

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*romantic sigh*

I can't help it. I have been a sucker for this classic story for as long as I can remember. I own the movie and a couple of the collectible dolls. Despite all the many flas people love to point out, this is a flippin' wonderful novel that has managed to stand the test of time.

Irritating and somewhat stereotypical characters? Melodramatic plots? Disgusting romance? Yes, it's all there, and I love every moment of it because Ms. Mitchell is THAT good of a writer and clearly has a passion for this story as she wrote it.

The story follows the life of a girl, Scarlett O'Hara, a young southern belle who is forever tainted by the Civil War that blasts through her land. But she is a stubborn Irish, prepared to do whatever she needs to do to survive, and her character, as much as you love or hate her, is fascinating to observe.

Then there is the romance. Gotta have the romance with this book. The man she continually waits for is Ashley, but we all know that her soulmate is the scoundrel Rhett Butler.

This is a classic, passionate story full of unforgettable drama and characters. That might annoy many people, but I can't read this book without being swept up into a fanciful romance of the Old South.

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I don't know what I can add, but....

This book probably has more reviews written for it than any other that I've seen on the Amazon site. As I said, I don't know what I can add that others haven't already said...but I have often thought, as I have read and re-read this wonderful novel, that I don't think Scarlett would get Rhett back in the end. I always thought Rhett was far more intelligent, well-rounded, and wise than she, and that an awful lot of his longing for her was comprised of her lack of availability (her heart, that is, that heart that belonged only to Ashley), and her looks. After all, when did he fall for her? When he looked up at her on the staircase and she was wearing that low-cut green-sprigged dress!

The fascinating characters that Mitchell so deftly brings to life are what make this novel so unforgettable. I don't know that any of them are truly believable, but somehow that doesn't matter. The writing style is dated (all those exclamation points!), and of course the dialect and political viewpoints are atrocious in this day and age. The amazing thing is that none of this matters as we find ourselves caught up in Scarlett's world, a world, as Mitchell so poignantly writes,that was gone with the wind.

When Rhett tells Scarlett at the end, "I won't be pursued as the luckless Ashley was pursued," I believe he meant it. The fact that he could coin a phrase like, "Someone or something has convinced you that your lover is too large a piece of Dead Sea fruit for even you to chew" (not sure if I'm quoting this 100% correctly, but I've memorized large portions of the dialogue through re-reading) simply showcases how much more extensive his intellect is than Scarlett's. He realizes now that she no longer holds any appeal for him; her charm for him, simply, was her unattainable-ness. (not a word, either - sorry!)

I never read the sequel. To me, that would be a sacrilege. Mitchell always said that for her, the novel ended when it ended. But no one who reads it can resist pondering..."Did she get him back?" And I say no.

But read it anyway. It's a long read, but oh, such an enjoyable one.

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Page-turner, but too full of moonlight and magnolias

This book has a very involving story and I quite literally could not put it down, though I did a few times in outrage over the portrayal of slavery, the Civil War, and the Reconstruction. This novel exemplifies the Lost Cause movement, which showed the Confederacy as noble but outnumbered, and slavery as a benign and paternal institution. It is worth reading for the story, but I shudder to think that some may take what it states as fact. I am not saying that the book should be banned or censored, but it is certainly difficult to read the numerous descriptions of freedmen as lazy and the countless explanations that slaves were just so dumb that they needed the care of white people.

Also, Scarlett O'Hara is a terribly unlikeable character. Whether she is stealing her sister's boyfriend or daydreaming about murdering her only true friend, Ashley, her actions and thoughts will just appall you. She is also phenomenally oblivious, not realizing that Rhett loves her until it is far too late. I was sad that Rhett left her, but who could blame him??

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