From the Bookshelf of Reading List Completists…

Gone with the Wind

Margaret Mitchell

Start date: January 1, 2018

Finish date: March 31, 2018

Discussion: Gone With The Wind

Why we're reading this: Winner of the January-March Big Read Poll 2018
[close] Winner of the January-March Big Read Poll 2018

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Gone With The Wind

General Discussion - Gone With The Wind
By Matthew , Assistant List Master · 5 posts · 22 views

last updated Mar 31, 2018 10:02PM

Part Four - Gone With The Wind
By Matthew , Assistant List Master · 4 posts · 10 views

last updated Mar 24, 2018 09:35PM

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What Members Thought

Mar 28, 2018 Matthew rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: own, completist-book-club, 2018, classic, favorites, tear-jerkers, historical-fiction

Another epic story complete! This was a very good one!

I have read a few huge books in my life. Some are a struggle to get through and others are so captivating they read easier than a 300 page novel. Gone With The Wind falls in the "captivating" category. At no point was I bored with the story or wondering if it was ever going to end. I was fully invested every step of the way - invested to the point that my wife was amused that I spent a lot of time talking back to the book or exclaiming when s Another epic story complete! This was a very good one!

I have read a few huge books in my life. Some are a struggle to get through and others are so captivating they read easier than a 300 page novel. Gone With The Wind falls in the "captivating" category. At no point was I bored with the story or wondering if it was ever going to end. I was fully invested every step of the way - invested to the point that my wife was amused that I spent a lot of time talking back to the book or exclaiming when something big or shocking happened. Gone With The Wind was the complete experience.

Before I go further, I will address the uncomfortable part of the book: the depiction of race, dialect, and other Civil War era activities in the South. At times I felt like maybe I shouldn't be enjoying a book featuring a sympathetic view of the South or feeling bad for those who struggled in their losses to the North. However, the story was really interesting and I have seen a lot of people from a wide variety of races give this book 5 stars, so I believe it is generally acceptable to enjoy it for what it is with an understanding of the time period it was written.

The writing: so great! How is it that Margaret Mitchell is only known for this book. I will have to look it up and see if she wrote any others. To write such a large book with a great story, symbolism, character development, etc. like this is pure genius.

The story: I had seen the movie but was not sure if I should expect it to be the same (seems like Hollywood used to stick closer to the source material than they do now.) From what I remember of the move, it is a pretty fair adaptation of the book. I thought the combination of fictional characters and events along side and intertwined with ones that actually occurred was very well done. Because of that I am sure this is a novel that historians enjoy as well.

The characters: Great character studies and development. Watching where everyone starts compared to where the finish was very interesting. It is not often you get to go along on what seems like an almost daily journey with the characters from youth through adulthood. None of these characters have it easy. Seeing how each character handles the struggles of drastic life changes is the heart and soul of this book.

Gone With The Wind lives up to its reputation as a classic. If you have the time for a 900+ page book, you really should check it out.

Side note: finished this while in Greenville, South Carolina - pretty close to Atlanta. Seems appropriate! ...more

723 likes · Like · see review

Aug 15, 2021 Michael Finocchiaro rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: american-civil-war, national-book-award, american-20th-c, pulitzer-winning-fiction, classics, made-into-movie, fiction, pulitzer-fiction, novels, southern-fiction

What an epic read! Mitchell’s white supremacist mentality aside, the characters of Scarlett and Rhett are sublime. I wonder if they are not the most selfish, egotistical characters in all of literature. Ok, so Rhett shows a bit of a human side in the end thanks to Bonnie, but for most of the book, he seemed to me as unscrupulous as Stendahl's Julien Sorel of the epic Le Rouge et le Noir. The unrequited and ultimately fruitless love of Ashley and Scarlett was torture throughout. It is one of thos ...more

181 likes · Like · see review

Oct 28, 2014 ~☆~Autumn rated it it was amazing

I read this when I was about 13 and could not put it down. My mother read it about the same age and she felt that we (my sister and I) could read it. I was very sorry when it was over and also sorry when I finally saw the movie as I had a very different idea of Rhett Butler. My mother always quoted from this book as it was her "Bible". I was expected to know this book believe me. ...more

21 likes · Like · see review