Gone With the Wind

by Margaret Mitchell

Hardcover, 1036 pages

English language

Published May 1936 by The Macmillan Company.

(22 reviews)

The stirring drama of the Civil War and Reconstruction is brought vividly to life in this really magnificent novel.

Scarlett O'Hara, born of a gently bred mother from the feudal aristocracy of the Georgia Coast and an Irish peasant father, inherited charm from the one and from the other the determination and drive that enabled her to survive the wreckage of war.

The stirring drama of the Civil War and Reconstruction is brought vividly to life in this really magnificent novel.

As the belle of the county, spoiled, selfish, Scarlett arrives at young womanhood just in time to see the Civil War sweep away the life for which her upbringing had prepared her. After the fall of Atlanta she returns to the plantation and by stubborn shrewdness saves both from Sherman and the carpet baggers. But in the process she hardens. She has neared starvation and she vows never to be hungry again. In the turmoil of Reconstruction she battles her way to affluence. Scarlett's friend, Melanie Wilkes, of finer fibre, meets the same hardships with equal courage and better grace. Scarlett uses any available weapon; Melanie refuses to break with her ideals. Side by side with Scarlett and Melanie are the two men who love them: Ashley Wilkes, for whom the world died at Appomattox; and Rhett Butler, blockade runner and charming scoundrel, who is drawn to Scarlett because she is as unscrupulous as he.

The story epitomizes the whole drama of the South under the impact of the War and its aftermath. The ruggedness and strength of north Georgia's red hills are in the characters bluff, blustering Gerald O'Hara; Ellen, his wife; Mammy, who both loved and chastened Ellen's daughters; the rollicking Tarleton twins; the quick-tempered and murderous Fontaines; stately John Wilkes, and a host of others, white and black, forming a rich picture of Southern life.

Not a war novel, except as the War affected the lives of people of the South, the of Scarlett is written with a rare sensitiveness and skill.

60 editions

anka.trini reviewed Gone with the Wind. Margaret Mitchell by Margaret Mitchell

Goodreads Review

No rating

Ach, wie viel einfacher wäre es, diese Rezension zu schreiben, wenn der Roman nicht ganz und gar von Rassismus durchsetzt wäre. Aber man kann einfach nicht darüber hinwegsehen. Margaret Mitchell hat Jahrzehnte nach dem amerikanischen Bürgerkrieg quasi ein Manifest geschrieben, das die Sklaverei und den alten Süden verherrlicht und selbst den Ku Klux Klan in ein positives Licht stellt. Gott bewahre, dass jemand diesen Roman für bare Münze nimmt.

Auf der anderen Seite hat mich die Liebesgeschichte um Scarlett und Rhett Butler einfach umgehauen. Fiktionale Männer, die eine Frau mit vollem Herzen lieben und ihr jahrelang hinterherlaufen, sind einfach mein allerliebstes literarisches Motiv. Auch die anderen Figuren im Roman sind extrem gut gezeichnet und ich wurde einfach in die Geschichte hineingezogen. Voll und ganz, mit Haut und Haar habe ich tagelang quasi an Scarletts Seite gelebt und mitgefiebert.

Andere Leute haben hier schon viel bessere Rezensionen geschrieben, die all meine …

Andere Leute haben hier schon viel bessere Rezensionen geschrieben, die all meine Gefühle viel besser in Worte fassen, wie ich selbst... Mein eigenes Fazit ist jedenfalls, dass es für mich ein 5-Sterne-Buch gewesen wäre, hätte mich der stete rassistische Unterton nicht so angewidert.

torin reviewed Gone with the Wind. Margaret Mitchell by Margaret Mitchell

Review of 'Gone with the Wind. Margaret Mitchell' on 'Goodreads'

2 stars

I read this book for the first time when I was 11 and loved it. I reread it and fell in love with Scarlett, but was disgusted by the racism and ultimately misogynist message of the novel.