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Summary: Best book I've ever read besides the Bible.
Review: Gone with the Wind was the fisrt 'adult' book I'd ever read as a child .Took me awhile to get thru it but I'v read it many times since then. It was MY daughters first 'adult' book and has become her favorite also. I hope that my grandaughter also loves this book when she comes to be
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Summary: Scarlett and Rhett - unforgetable
Review: Margaret Michell's GONE WITH THE WIND is a tragic saga that can never be forgotten once read. Scarlett O'Hara is headstrong, intelligent, bold, and beautiful but she also makes mistakes. She is selfish and lives for the present. Rett Buttler is one man no woman can ever forget. He is the perfect father and lover whom is first consumed wholly with Scarlett and then driven away by her. Scarlett's frivolousness will be turned over and over in your mind. If you want to read a truely absorbing, romantic, historically accurate book let this one be your first choice
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Summary: The Classic of all times!
Review: This book is extraordinary! It is truly a brillant piece of literature. To any one who has never read this book, you need to read it. The movie is good, but the book is so much better!
Scarlett O'Hara is the epitome of a selfish, spoiled brat . . . but you just gotta love her
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Summary: The best book ever written! Breathtaking and a pageturner right to the end.
Review: It takes you through the story of a girl that has everything and wants just what she can't have, and through the story of how her world fell around her. About Scarlett and her men, but never having her one love
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Summary: Nothing will ever compare.
Review: This is my favorite book of all time. Everyone should find time to read it. I realize it is 1024 pages of very small print and also that there are sixty-three chapters; however it is amazing. I realize too that it is in some cases a bit racist and there are people who are offended by that; to them, I privately say, "Grow up". Gone With the Wind is not about slavery. It is not about white supremacy. It is not even really about the South. It is about how war destroys people. You could take it and apply it to any war. I am by no means a white supremist, but those feelings need to be pushed aside while one enjoys such a wonderful book. I do not agree with Scarlett, or Melanie, or Ashley, or Rhett completely, but I can't help but tear up as I watch their world disappear again and again. It is a million times better than a history book to understand the causes of bigotry in the South after the war. As for Scarlett, she is infuriating, bullheaded, selfish, and childish, but I cannot help loving her anyway. Perhaps my favorite lines, though, come from Ashley, lost soul though he is: "It's a curse--this not wanting to look on naked realities. Until the war, life was never more real to me than a shadow show on a curtain. And I preferred it so. I do not like the outlines of things to be too sharp. I like them gently blurred, a little hazy...It isn't that I mind splitting logs here in the mud, but I do mind what it stands for. I do mind, very much, the loss of the beauty of the old life I loved. Scarlett, before the war, life was beautiful. There was a glamor to it, a perfection and a completeness and a symmetry to it like Grecian art. Maybe it wasn't so to everyone. I know that now. But to me, living at Twelve Oaks, there was a real beauty to living. I belonged in that life. I was a part of it. And now it is gone and I am out of place in this new life, and I am afraid. Now, I know that in the old days it was a shadow show I watched. I avoided everything which was not shadowy, people and situations which were too real, too vital. I resented their intrusion. I tried to avoid you too, Scarlett. You were too full of living and too real and I was cowardly enough to prefer shadows and dreams." Everytime Ashley says what he truly thinks, it makes me cry. I never cry about anything, but I cry over Gone With the Wind. It's not that I want to be a part of that world, the pre-Civil War South, because I don't...it's just that Margaret Mitchell's words are magic, creating characters so real that I can't help but long for them to have what they want.
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Summary: Gone with the Wind
Review: Gone with the Wind is an excellent book. I read it the first time when i was 14 and i have read it every year at least once since then. I would recommend it to anyone who has the time to read this lengthy book. It keeps you waiting for more about Scarlett O'Hara and her life during the Civil War and her romance with the honorable Ashley Wilkes and the reckless, scalawag Rhett Butler. If you do read this book and love it like i do i would HIGHLY recommend the sequel "Scarlettl; the sequel to Gone with the Wind" by Alexandra Ripley
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Summary: The Paradox of Strength & Weakness
Review: Gone With The Wind is no doubt THE classic Civil War novel. However, the major characteristic that enables it to achieve its greatness also condemns Scarlet to a life of unrequited love and dooms her potential for happiness with Rhett. That attribute is that it is written entirely from the woman's viewpoint.
The perspective is a strength because it permits the author to vividly portray the destruction of Southern society better than any battlefield-centered novel could. Regrettably, it also leaves the author, and therefore Scarlet as well, incapable of understanding the male characters. They are merely personalities that fade in-and-out of the background to shape the narrative. While they are characters that can stand up off the page and cast a shadow, there is no tone or timbre in their images.
For example, Rhett notes that he was nearly killed stealing the horse to get Scarlet out of Atlanta before it was burned. But Mitchell does not describe the theft. Therefore, Scarlet (and Mitchell herself) cannot appreciate Rhett's ordeal or gain true insight into his character.
In another instance the novel mentions that Rhett fought at the battle of Franklin. What Mitchell does NOT tell the reader is that Franklin was probably the bloodiest defeat of a Confederate army in the entire war. For Southern arms its horrors are unmatched by any of the better known battles in Virginia or elsewhere. Mitchell fails to narrate this experience and thereby misses yet another opportunity understand and appreciate Rhett.
In short, since Mitchell herself failed to share much of Rhett's (or any man's) experiences, the chances that Scarlet could find true love were as slim as an Apache Indian getting elected Pope. Mitchell and Scarlet sought only to be understood and not to understand.
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Summary: The truest and most wonderful book that I have ever read.
Review: I cried when I finished this book. I honestly did. No, it was not the heart-breaking ending that brought me to tears, but the fact that there was no more Gone with the Wind. The book brought me so much into its depths, made me so much a part of its words, that at the end I felt almost as if a friend died. I just wish that Margaret Mitchell were alive so that I could talk to her, understand the mind that created such a masterpiece. I will never read a better book.
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Summary: Outstanding historical fiction
Review: This is a story about the life of a spoiled, selfish woman, Scarlett, going through the civil war period. It gives you an understanding of south's point of view. Several reviewers complained that it is racist. I would agree with those people but I don't like reading books that I agree with all the time. I found it valuable to try to understand what motivated the south to fight to preserve slavery. It seemed Mitchell was almost trying to defend slavery; if this offends and upsets you, then perhaps this may not be an enjoyable book for you.
The character development is outstanding in this book. I constantly found myself comparing the book's characters with people I know. I've read many Michener books, which are also long historical fictions. I enjoy his books a lot, but this was far better than any of his books due primarily to her excellent character development.
This book will stay with me forever.
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Summary: Love this Book
Review: GONE WITH THE WIND is one fantastic book!---------------------I'll never ever read a book this good again. This is without a doubt the best book I've ever read and ever will read. If you haven't read this book, you have to read it. It has everything: adventure, romance, historical fiction, survival, and excellent character development. It paints a vivid picture of life pre, during, and post Civil War. The characters are so well drawn you can predict how they will react to certain situations and what their responses will be. Every character is lovable, and every character feels real to you. Scarlett will stay with me for the rest of my life. Sly and rotten as she is, there are many sides to her; a loving side, a caring side, a brave and courageous side. Scarlett is my favorite character out of all of the books that I've read. Her romance with Rhett is complicated and passionate, and there were times when i wanted to hit Scarlett for treating Rhrett the way she did. Every character is memorable: Scarlett, her parents and sisters, Rhett, Melanie, Aunt Pitty, Ashley, Mamie, India, and Prissy. I LOVE THIS BOOK! If there were a 6 star rating thats what i would give this book. READ IT!!!! If you love Southern books, you'll also love----------------- McCrae's THE CHILDREN'S CORNER--fantastic short stories about love, loss, and life.
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