Gone with the Wind in Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge

Jan 11, 2013 Graceann rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction, favorites, classics

This was my fourth journey to Tara, and it is now like visiting with old friends. It is consistently fascinating to me that, because I've read the book at four very different stages of my life, I got four very different experiences from it. What you get out of it depends upon what you bring to it.

Most of us know at least the bare bones of the story. Scarlett O'Hara is the strong-willed, difficult to like Georgia southern belle who loves a man who isn't right for her, and ignores the man who is. This was my fourth journey to Tara, and it is now like visiting with old friends. It is consistently fascinating to me that, because I've read the book at four very different stages of my life, I got four very different experiences from it. What you get out of it depends upon what you bring to it.

Most of us know at least the bare bones of the story. Scarlett O'Hara is the strong-willed, difficult to like Georgia southern belle who loves a man who isn't right for her, and ignores the man who is. The backdrop of this classic love story consists of the American Civil War and Reconstruction, which were both particularly ugly episodes in the State of Georgia, and were something that Margaret Mitchell learned about from her family members who lived through them. The bitterness of that time for Southerners is part of every page of the book. When Margaret Mitchell was a little girl, older members of her family would take her out into the countryside around Atlanta and show her the chimneys of the plantations that were burned during Sherman's March to the Sea back in 1864, and tell her the stories of what those "damned Yankees" did. Those memories obviously stuck with her, and she uses them here.

My favorite character, and the true heroine of GWTW, is Melanie Hamilton Wilkes. Scarlett views her as a stupid "ninny," but what she, and many readers, don't get is that Melanie is the moral center of the story, and the strongest character, at least emotionally. In that frail body is a backbone made of the strongest steel, and a sense of dignity that is unassailable. She alone sees through Rhett Butler's bluster, and he, in his turn, leaves his cynicism at the door when he visits her.

There are ugly, racist aspects of this novel, and I'm not here to apologize for them. It was written in the 1920s and 30s, which was a racist time (and not just in Georgia), and it is about the 1860s and 1870s, which were even worse. As unpleasant as it is to read, it is true to the Southern perspective. If you think this is bad, I suggest you avoid reading Thomas Dixon's The Clansman (upon which the DW Griffith film "The Birth of a Nation" is based). Compared to that, Gone with the Wind is a nursery rhyme.

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Aug 28, 2012 Krissy rated it it was amazing

Shelves: book2film, tagged-classics, 5-motherfucking-stars, pgs-600-or-more, read-before-2015

I read this book when I was in the 7th grade. I have read it several times since. This has got to be one of the best books I have ever read. I laughed, I cried, I got so angry I threw my book across the room! You will go through every emotion possible while reading this book. Classic. Just classic.

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Jan 31, 2008 Beth Given rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

This book is often cited as a "favorite," which is how it ended up on my fledgling to-read shelf not long after I joined Goodreads four or five years ago. But its thickness made me keep putting it off. I mean, 1000+ pages?? I'll read something else first, something shorter that's not so much of a time commitment. (That's right -- I'll think of reading that novel "tomorrow," haha.)

Well, I finally decided that this would be the summer to tackle this one. And wow. Part of me can't believe I waited This book is often cited as a "favorite," which is how it ended up on my fledgling to-read shelf not long after I joined Goodreads four or five years ago. But its thickness made me keep putting it off. I mean, 1000+ pages?? I'll read something else first, something shorter that's not so much of a time commitment. (That's right -- I'll think of reading that novel "tomorrow," haha.)

Well, I finally decided that this would be the summer to tackle this one. And wow. Part of me can't believe I waited so long to read this; another part of me wishes I could go back a few weeks so I could be blissfully ignorant of the way this novel was going to pull at my heart strings. I've never seen the movie and only had a vague idea of what the book was about, and I loved being surprised by it.

It's been a long time since characters have felt so real. I love the contrast of Scarlett and Melanie. Everyone loves Melanie, can't help but love Melanie -- and yet Scarlett is our main character, our protagonist ... maybe because we wouldn't like her any other way. And maybe because each of us has some Scarlett in us, regardless of how we admire Melanie.

Yes, as many wrong turns as Scarlett makes, I find that I can't help but root for her still! Her fortitude, her gumption -- she is a heroine in her own right.

I also loved (loved!) the history here. The Southern perspective of the Civil War was both captivating and terrifying. I was surprised, though, when the war ended and I was only halfway through the novel -- turns out that the rest of book focuses on the period of Reconstruction. Yes, boring ol' Reconstruction, that part of history class seems to gloss over ('cause "carpetbagger" and "scallawag" were just terms to define on a vocab sheet). Well, turns out that this setting was just as captivating. Really good history.

This book gave me so much to think about, so many great themes: money vs. class; looking to the past vs. looking to the future; homeland; love vs. lust; loyalty; survival. Yes, this book has so much in it that I feel like this humble review can't do it justice!

How about this, then: this was really a worthwhile read. One that makes you think, one that sticks with you -- and a good, romantic, heartbreaking story to boot. ...more

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