Book review: Gone with the wind

Gone with the Wind is a romance/historical fiction novel written by Margaret Mitchell in 1936. It was bestseller when it first came out in 1936 and 1937, won a Pulitzer price and it continues to be very popular and equally as interesting now as it was at first.

The book is set in Georgia and Atlanta during the four-year long American Civil War between the Confederacy (South) and the Union (North, also known as the “Yankees”) where slavery was abolished. The main characters are Scarlett O’Hara, Rhett Butler, Melanie Wilkes and Ashley Wilkes. It tells the story of Scarlett O’Hara, a girl whose beauty and charm attracts every man’s attention, who lives in her father’s plantation, Tara. She is in love with Ashley Wilkes, who is engaged to his cousin Melanie. Scarlett gets rejected at a ball when she confesses her love for him and Rhett Butler hears this conversation, telling Scarlett afterwards that her actions do not correspond to those of a lady. Out of spite, she marries Melanie’s brother, moves to Atlanta with her now sister-in-law and becomes a widow very soon after the war starts. As things look very bad for the Confederacy and they eventually lose, Scarlett does everything in her power to survive and keep Tara because they now have to pay very high taxes to the Yankees. For this, she marries her sister’s suitor, Frank Kennedy. After he dies trying to avenge Scarlett when two men try to assault her, she accepts to marry Rhett Butler and marries him after a year. During this whole time she still thinks about Ashley and secretly desires him. Scarlett and Rhett have a daughter, Bonnie Blue, and Rhett becomes a loving father and spoils his daughter pouring onto her all the love he wants to give Scarlett and she rejects. As a result of Bonnie’s death when she falls off her pony and breaks her neck, Rhett decides to divorce Scarlett. Only at this moment does Scarlett realize she now loves Rhett with all her heart. So Scarlett finds herself alone again until she remembers she still has Tara, so she goes back home knowing she can win Rhett back. After all, as she always says, “tomorrow is another day”.

The way the book is written really captures your complete attention because it’s very descriptive of the time and place where it is set and the dialogues are dramatic and really appropriate for each character. What I liked about this book is that the author portrays Scarlett as a fierce woman who doesn’t hesitate to take care of problems on her own, as scared and terrified as she may be. I also liked how controversial and scandalous her actions were in a time when it was something unheard of, in a time when women were considered to be submissive, weak, and fragile and needed a man to take care of them. I like how the character of Scarlett breaks all the limits and rules from that time. And this can be seen in the whole book from the very first page until the last one.

Gone with the Wind is one of my all-time favorite books. It is very well written and interesting and even though it is basically about Scarlett, you can also learn about the American Civil War, for it is very accurate with the fact of this war and the reconstruction era after it finished. For all these reasons, I would highly recommend this book to everyone. I think it is a must-read, a classic and it’s really worth it.

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