☯Emily ’s Comments (group member since Jul 27, 2011)

☯Emily ’s comments from the Classics for Beginners group.

GWTW is one of the greatest love stories ever written. It clearly reveals the wisdom of the Bible verse that says, "For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows."

It sounds like you were convinced by the distorted propaganda that the South has believed for generations. The Radical Republicans from the North were determined to give blacks freedom and they were resisted by the Southern whites who were determined to turn back the clock. There are always two sides (or more) to every story. Margaret Mitchell portrays the "glory" years of the South before the war when people, like Ashley, lived a life of leisure while enslaved people did all the work.

Was there corruption going on during Reconstruction? Of course. Was there corruption in the South before and after Reconstruction? Yes, there have always been people in politics who are corrupt.

There were sincere people who wanted freedom for the blacks and, for a few years, the blacks had it. They had it until it was taken away through fear and threats of the KKK. To say reconstruction was only about power and greed and nothing else, is to tell only one side of the story. It is similar to only listening to Fox News today and refusing to believe anything other than what that network says.

For another view: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/reconstr...

The Reconstruction began when the Uncivil War ended. It continued until the election of 1876 which was stolen from the true winner (does this sound familiar?) Margaret Mitchell accurately describes the mindset of the Georgia aristocracy. They were determined to get their power back and trounce the blacks under their feet. Through a lot of chicanery and fraud, they managed to come back to power. They used fear and the KKK (terrorists is what we would call them today) to stop blacks from voting. These noble Southern gentlemen killed without remorse or shame as Mitchell brilliantly portrays in Section 4.

As soon as the Southern Democrats regained power, they put restrictive laws on the black population. Many blacks became sharecroppers, becoming de facto slaves once again. The blacks who had been in elective positions were removed and the southern gentlemen were back in control. Jim Crow laws were enacted to keep blacks in their place. From 1876 until the Civil Right movement in the 1950's and 1960's, the white man was in full control of southern politics.

If you want to read about the election of 1876, read Fraud of the Century: Rutherford B. Hayes, Samuel Tilden, and the Stolen Election of 1876.

If you want to know a little bit about the life for the southern black, read this great book: The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration.

Of course, To Kill a Mockingbird is the book you want to read if you want to get a sense of the plight of the southern black in the early 50's.

Hello readers! I will not join you in reading this book. However, I read this article about Jane Austen and it mentions Lolita and its author. http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/cultureh...

No Joy, you are not the only one still reading. I haven't yet started Part 5.

I, too, never saw the movie and after reading the first four sections of the book, have no desire to.

Did anyone else appreciate this comment about India: "The mantle of spinsterhood was definitely on her shoulders now. She was twenty-five and looked it, and so there was no longer any need for her to try to be attractive."

Yes, women have come a long ways!

In Chapter 31, Ashley is trying to explain to Scarlett why he is afraid in the new world he finds himself. He says, "It isn't that I mind splitting logs here in the mud, but I do mind what it stands for. I do mind, very much, the loss of the beauty of the old life I loved. Scarlett, before the war, life was beautiful. There was a glamor to it, a perfection and a completeness and a symmetry to it like Grecian art." What a absolute depiction of supreme selfishness. His old life was built on the wealthy exploiting the poor and denying freedom to their slaves. That was "perfection." He then says, "Maybe it wasn't so to everyone." Really! Just "maybe!" Not "now I see where our society failed."

No wonder Reconstruction existed until 1876.

Joy wrote: "And I still don't know who the heck Johnny Gallagher is and what he did to incur Rita's wrath."

I assume you have reached the part where Johnny Gallagher shows his viciousness? He is definitely mentioned in Chapter 41 and I think he is mentioned in passing in earlier chapters.

I agree with Rita that Scarlett is completely unlikeable in this section. I find her actions despicable and I dislike her intensely. In fact, I don't understand how anyone can admire her! There is a street in College Station, TX named for her. Ugh.

I am finding this book extremely difficult to read and I hope I can find a way to finish it without vomiting.

I enjoy the minor characters much more than reading about Scarlett. Therefore, I am enjoying Chapter 46. One of my favorite minor characters is Mrs. Meade. In this section she is trying to get information from her husband about the prostitution house he had visited that night. Another character is Belle Watling and in this chapter she meets with Melanie. Hilarious!

Not everyone in the South aristocracy was lost and clueless, like Ashley. Nor did everyone compromise their integrity and values in the pursuit of making a decent living, like Scarlett. The Merriwethers were the example that Rhett used. Mrs. Merriwether's decision to make pies led to a bakery and a thriving business for her whole family.

Even Archie has integrity. He refused to drive Scarlett anywhere once she hired convicts.

In Chapter 25, Scarlett has returned to Tara and she is sick, emotionally and physically. GWTW says, "What was past was past. Those who were dead were dead. The lazy luxury of the old days was gone, never to return. And, as Scarlett settled the heavy basket across her arm, she had settled her own mind and her own life.

There was no going back and she was going forward.

Throughout the South for fifty years there would be bitter-eyed women who looked backward, bearing poverty with bitter pride because they had those memories. But Scarlett was never to look back."

First, was the statement that she never looked back even accurate? But, if it were accurate, did Scarlett make the right choice?

At this point in the book, it looks like Scarlett is making the best decision. But what did Scarlett replace those memories with? Was she less bitter than her contemporaries? Did she lead a more optimist life? Was she happier than her bitter contemporaries?

Barchester Towers
Pride and Prejudice
We Need to Talk About Kevin
The Night Circus
The Housekeeper and the Professor
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Leaving Atlanta
To Kill a Mockingbird
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
Mary Barton

These are not all classics, but they are the top ten books that came to mind.

I love Betteredge and his commentary. He is not always a reliable narrator, but he is definitely funny.

Denise wrote: "I've been so eagerly looking forward to my first group read here (I joined mid-July) and I'm becoming frustrated because I don't see any discussion threads for the books scheduled and indeed, they ..."

Denise, thanks for letting us know. There are several new moderators and we are taking turns in setting up the nominations and threads. I think everything is now set up for the discussion and the home page has been updated.

I'm sorry that this thread was not opened earlier. This month we are reading The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins. Wilkie Collins was born on January 8, 1824 and died on September 23, 1889. During his lifetime, he wrote 30 novels, more than 60 short stories, at least 14 plays, and more than 100 non-fiction pieces. A close friend of Charles Dickens from their meeting in March 1851 until Dickens's death in June 1870, Collins was one of the best known, best loved, and, for a time, best paid of Victorian fiction writers. This is the link to more biographical information about Collins: http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/c...

The Moonstone is generally considered to be first detective novel in the English language. T. S. Eliot called this book "the first, the longest, and the best of modern English detective novels in a genre invented by Collins and not by Poe." Collins is also credited for creating many of the guidelines for detective fiction. Collins included the house servants in this novel, creating a funny, observant narrator in Gabriel Betteredge. Most authors of that time period generally ignored the servants, their lives and interests.

I have read this book twice and have enjoyed it immensely both times.

In the beginning of this group, easier books were voted on by the members. Gradually, readers got more adventuresome and began to spread their wings and become courageous. If you aren't ready to read War and Peace, you are not obligated to read it. (You don't have to read any selection!) I have never read War and Peace and I don't consider myself a beginner.

The discussion here are also less intense with less depth. Have you ever been in a discussion group where the topic is so esoteric and the words so big and unpronouncible, and the references so obscure that you felt stupid? You won't get that kind of discussion in this group.

I think that Rhett Butler is saying wars "start" because of economic reasons. WWII certainly fit into that category. I'm sure most Americans fought for ideological reasons, but Hitler started on his path because of the economic woes of Germany. Our country gained economically because of the war and there has been an active movement since then to always have a war or rumors of wars so we Americans can have economic prosperity. Prime example is Iraq.

Joy wrote: "Bloggeretterized wrote: "Scarlett is not a role model and I don't think she was ever portrayed that way. She isn't flawless. She is a young overprotected and capricious child that had to grow up wi..."

Bloggeretterized, I was trying to generate some discussion and I think I was successful!

The point I am trying to make is that the southern slave owners feared that their slaves would leave and many did escape behind the Union lines. Slave owners also feared a rebellion from angry slaves and passed numerous laws to restrict movement of the slaves. There is not an inkling of the true state of affairs in GWTW. If you want to get a more balanced picture of the conditions of the slaves BEFORE the Civil War, read Uncle Tom's Cabin.

The biases of Mitchell are clear and need to be recognized when reading the book.

Rhett Butler says,"There'll always be wars because men love wars. Women don't, but men do--yea, passing the love of women." Isn't it interesting that most of the men killed so far were the characters in the beginning of the book who glorified war and its "sacred" cause?

Rhett says the following: "All wars are sacred to those who have to fight them. If the people who started wars didn't make them sacred, who would be foolish enough to fight? But, no matter what rallying cries the orators give to the idiots who fight, no matter what noble purposes they assign to wars, there is never but one reason for a war. And that is money."

Do you agree with his assessment?