Customer Reviews
Hooked by this book - By: Book Worm DJ, 06 Jan 2009 
I'm not much of a romance reader but I remember a school friend who RAVED about this book. I bought it more out of curiosity to see what all the fuss was about - but oh, what a book!
It's hard to describe what makes this book so brilliant - it's a kind of alchemy. Fantastic characters lovingly described - their weaknesses & strengths as real & vivid as anyone around you. You BELIEVEin these characters, & care about what happens to them - you are caught upin their world completely.
As for the historical world she creates - it's dazzling. All I can say is that most decent people celebrate the demise of slavery - but while reading this book you will wish & pray that the Yankees were defeated & sent home with their tails between their legs. This book is propaganda for a world that doesn't (and shouldn't) exist any more - but it's a world that is created so beautifully that while you read the book you identify completely with the heroes & heroines, right down to their views on slaves, gender & war.
I have read a lot of books, but the only book that comparesin terms of scale, character & imagination is Lord of the Rings. You won't find orcs & elvesin this book, but you will find yourself transported into a completely believable world.
Ridiculously overblown - By: Mrs. K. A. Wheatley, 29 Dec 2008 
If you like your romance doomed, & with no real romance, your prose overblown & your books as heavy as doorstops, this is the book for you. Comingin at over 1000 pages of close set text, this may have been the book the word epic was invented for.
It concerns the life & loves of Scarlett O' Hara, the most unsympathetic, remorseless heroine of any book anywhere, ever. Setin the American civil war, it uses the fortunes of the Southern state of Georgia as its backdrop & sets the love triangle between Scarlett, Ashley Wilkes & Rhett Butler against the decimation of the South & its eventual regrowth.
The characters are unsympathetic Scarlett is spoiled, wilful & deeply unpleasant, Rhett is a rogue whose heart of gold is buried so deep you eventually give up wanting to dig for it & the other characters are pompous, irritating & saintly by turn.
I find it hard that Mitchell is so biased, bothin her reaction to the war & her sympathies for the South, & that she seems obsessed by the racial question, to her detriment. I understand that no story about this era could not deal with race, but her bias seems clear & her attitudes extremely old fashioned. It is hard to read the chapters on the Klanin particular with any sense of understanding for her point of view, or that she illustrates.
A deeply flawed, highly unpleasant, over long book. Possibly the least romantic thing I have ever read except perhaps for the Haines Manual for the Mini Cooper.
I didn't want it to end - By: Trickle Tree, 22 Aug 2008 This book was just the ticket for a good old fashioned summer read. Sitting outsidein my garden I was swept away to Atlanta. I loved the film & had always meant to read the book & have now had my chance. I cannot get over how well cast the film was, all the actors really stayed loyal to the text. The great bonus of the book is the historical, political & social perspectives which gives the story much more meaning & good reference points. The events make far more sense. I loved this book.
Greatest novel I ever read - By: Martel 2008, 11 Jul 2008 As a boy growing up, I always wondered why my mother had tearsin her eyes at the end of Gone With The Wind when it was on TV each year. Recently I developed a keen interestin the War between the States (civil war if you prefer)and got around to reading this book. It is by any standard, exceptionally well written & doesn't shine away from the horrors of Reconstruction & portrays the original Ku Klux Klanin a heroic light although Rhett Butler (always the voice of reason) argues the successes of the Klan only lead to Yankee anger & more agony & repression for the beaten South. Interestinglyin the movie, it is a white man who tries to rape Scarlett & a black man who saves her. The exact opposite of the book! I guess evenin the early 40's political correctness was alive & well. Anyway, no matter I too had tearsin my eyes at the end of reading this fabulous book.
Ripping Yarn - with one massive flaw - By: P. G. Harris, 31 May 2008 
This is a book with a thoroughly unlikable heroine; it is shot through with jaw dropping racism, so how can it qualify for four stars?
The simple answer is that it is fundamentally an absolutely ripping yarn. Margaret Mitchell's achievement isin creating a set of flawed characters, but then making the reader care about what happens to them. Couple engaging characters with a beautifully paced plot & it is easy to understand why Gone With The Wind is stillin print & massively popular.
It is the story of selfish, determined daughter of a plantation, Scarlett O'Hara, her enduring love for neighbour Ashley Wilkes, his marriage to Melanie, who becomes Scarlett's devoted friend, & of course the love of Rhett Butler for Scarlett. The context of the story is the American south before, during & after the civil war. We see the relationships between the characters develop as they go from affluence, through degradationin defeat, & then rebuild.
Scarlett is of course the centre of the book & Mitchell skilfully plays with the reader's emotions towards her heroine. Basically she is selfish, spiteful, snobbish, racist, a hideously bad parent, an exploitative employer, but courageous & engaging. Initially we dislike her as a spoilt brat, her marriages are exasperating, we grow to admire her courage as she fights to survive during & after the war, she becomes a figure of ridicule as she joins the nouveau riche & finally her inability to understand Rhett's love is frustrating, infuriating & eventually tragic.
I have never seen the film, only heard the famous lines, & so was surprised to find that Rhett Butler, rather than being a heartless cad isin fact brutally honest with himself & is a strong & proud man brought low by his love for the unknowing Scarlett.
Despite the fantastic nature of the story, the epic background, the major flaw which cannot be ignored is the appalling racism. I was ready to be accepting & view the racismin the book as a portrayal rather than an espousal of the attitudes of the time. I'm afraid I can't maintain that line, Mitchell is too clearly & openly sympathetic to slavery. Her attitude is basically that slaves are subhuman, that the "good" ones prefer enslavement & that the institution was vindicated by the fact that the North perpetrated some unacceptable actsin abolishing it. Some of the sections after the civil war are just dreadfulin their proslavery sentiment. It is almost unbelievable that this book was written & publishedin a democracy during the 20th Century. This is further illustrated by the toe curlingly embarrassing speech patterns Mitchell gives to the slave characters.
That the book can still have any validity despite this is a testament to the power of the story. The whole thing cracks along superbly with some brilliantly evocative scenes which will stickin the mind for a long time: the first time Scarlett dances with Rhett, the birth of Melanie's baby, the flight from Atlanta, Scarlet & Ashleyin the Saw Mill & of course the final scene between Rhett & Scarlett.
In a strange way GWTW reminded me of the Lord of the Rings. It is not a great work of literature. It has some serious flaws, but it is an absolutely fabulous story, & it gave rise to a whole sub genre, while remaining superior to any of its successors.
So final thoughts.
-I highly recommend GWTW as a thundering good read, but be aware you'll need a strong stomach
-Don't be daunted by the size, the plot is well paced & it never drags
-It's not just a girly book, I'm an (ex) rugby playing bloke & I loved the story
