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

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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Jul 12, 2017 Linda rated it it was amazing

I started this knowing absolutely nothing about it. The audio is 42 hours long. The narrator was amazing. The story was well written and engaging. But I did not anticipate the cliff hanger. Forty two hours and that's the ending?!?!?! Why 5 stars? Because I laughed and I cried and I got mad. These qualities make a good book great. But that ending!!!! Ugh!!!!

Favorite quote from my favorite character (until the end anyway). Then I sort of hated him:

"Really Scarlett, I can't go all my life waiting ...more

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Aug 10, 2019 Kate rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-novels, romance, read-a-thons, classics

Finally finished this monster of a novel after 5 weeks of reading! Thankfully it wasn't heavy going so was an much easier read than I was expecting. To make it worthwhile having invested so much time in it I'm counting it against as many reading challenges as I can! ...more

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