The year is 1861. America is on the brink of a civil war. In the South everyone seems to be talking about nothing else, which is not to the liking of the sixteen-year-old Scarlett O’Hara, a feisty daughter of a plantation owner who finds all this talk about war and politics boring — especially when she has more important things to worry about, such as how to profess her undying love to Ashley Wilkes, the handsome heir to the neighboring plantation. The opportunity presents itself at a barbecue held on a warm April Sunday at Wilkes’ place, but as Scarlett finally manages to steal some alone time with Ashley and charges through with her plan, fully certain that she’ll be a married lady by the end of the day (elopement is an integral part of her scheme), the actual outcome comes to her as a shock: although Ashley is not immune to Scarlett’s charms, he turns her down as he is already engaged to Melanie, his cousin from Atlanta. And as if the humiliation of being rejected were not enough, it turns out that there is an involuntary witness to the whole scene in the shape of one Rhett Butler, a ruggedly handsome Charlestonian with dubious reputation. Thus one of the most fabled love triangles of all times comes into existence.
Out of spite, Scarlett marries the first boy that crosses her path — purely by accident this happens to be Melanie’s brother — and as the war erupts and her young husband falls victim early on she is left a widow and a mother of an infant at the age of seventeen: not a very bright perspective for a young girl who was just a few short months ago the belle of the county with a surplus of beaux lavishing her with attention. To snap her out of the depression she has fallen into the family sends her to Atlanta to stay with Melanie, and Scarlett spends the better part of the war there playing the role of a bereaved widow — albeit not very successfully. Bound by the promise she has made to Ashley, Scarlett is forced to stay in Atlanta (taking care of Melanie who is pregnant and cannot be moved) until it is almost too late; the two young women manage to escape the Sherman’s advancing army in the nick of time.
Back home at the O’Hara plantation, however, they find nothing but devastation and despair: Scarlett’s mother had succumbed to an illness and her father, unable to cope with it all, has turned into a broken old man. Instead of finding refuge and comfort as she hoped, Scarlett is forced to take charge of the situation herself — and she is not one to choose the means or balk at anyone or anything when it comes to bringing her birthplace out of ruin and ensuring survival for herself and the few remaining residents of the plantation.
Gone with the Wind has been widely hailed as one of the finest achievements in American literature. First published in 1936, winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 1937, the novel is set in the period of Civil War and Reconstruction, depicting those turbulent times in American history from the point of view of the defeated side — which, given that history is always written by the victors, makes it that much more intriguing. The book is a portrayal of the collapsing of the Old South and its values — some good, some bad — and gives a remarkable account of the once ruling class and its former members as they struggle to conform to the harsh new reality: some adapt and survive, others perish…
Book Review: Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
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