Story: Scarlett O’Hara, southern belle and resident of Georgia, has her life turned upside-down by the Civil War. She meets and eventually marries Rhett Butler, a southern gentleman and war-time blockade runner, all the while pining away for her “true love,” Ashley Wilkes. An excellent historical fiction detailing the lives and morals of pre-Civil War southerners and how it all changed afterward. Made into what has been commonly accepted as the Greatest Film of All Time.
Review: I feel kind of silly reviewing one of the greatest works of American literature. After all, millions have gone before me. But I would like to put my mere two cents’ worth in, because it is an achievement worthy of praise. I am grateful that Ms. Mitchell was properly lauded for this novel before her untimely death. By the way, “GWTW” was her first published book.
For years I begged my hubby to buy me a video copy of “GWTW” (way back when in my day they were expensive, like $100 a copy!). When he finally did, I realized I was being a bit of a hypocrite because I’d never read the novel. To rectify that I borrowed a copy from the library. As I got into it, another realization hit – I had to own this book! For hours I sat engrossed, completely caught up in the life and petty problems of Miss Scarlett O’Hara. She seemed such a shallow, self-centered woman! – but as I got farther into it I understood that Mitchell was showing us how the degradation of old South society affected its denizens, personified by Scarlett…the implication being that the South itself was simpering and self-absorbed, but became strong and self-assured through hardship and adversity. My understanding of the entire era increased ten-fold by reading this book.
What most surprised me about this novel was Mitchell’s powers of description. She can take the simplest concept and flesh it out to something the reader can almost reach out and touch. It isn’t the long drawn-out type of description one finds in, say, a Dickens or Austen novel, but the type that puts the reader smack into the center of the action. The way she takes Scarlett from a fresh-faced, spoiled child to a mature and fully self-aware adult woman is nothing short of incredible.
And there lies the rub: How does one become disappointed in the Greatest Film of All Time? By reading the book it was based on! There is so much more to all the characters made famous by the film. One understands Scarlett, Ashley, Rhett, Melanie and the enslaved people so much better by reading their story. Frankly, my dear, there were several elements of the film that I simply did not fully grasp until I’d read the book.
Keep in mind while reading that this book was written in the early 1930s, a time when prejudice and sexism were much more acceptable facets of everyday life than they are today. Read it with the time period it is set in foremost in your mind. Particularly offensive are the terms used for the enslaved people, but as distasteful as our past may be, facts are facts and that is how people were viewed (catagorized) back then.
Reading this novel is no small task. Size notwithstanding, it is filled with gigantic concepts. The allure of freedom, 1860s era politics, the nature of family, love, loss, perseverence. “GWTW” is also a great segue into learning more about the history and realities of the Civil War. When one realizes the compassion one feels for these characters, it is easier to see the war from a more humanistic point of view. It was a very turbulent time in our shared past. “GWTW” takes the reader directly there and literally pitches them into the fire – oh fiddle-dee-dee, what a lovely ride!
Year: 1936
Author: Margaret Mitchell
Publisher: MacMillan Press
Pages: 1037