Gone With the Wind

How is it possible that I've never read Gone With the Wind? In case you didn't know, I am slightly obsessed with studying and learning about the Civil War. I have always enjoyed history and have found this time period especially fascinating. I love reading books about the period (including purely historical accounts and fiction works set during the time), watching movies set in the Civil War (Gettysburg is my favorite, Glory is amazing, and I even sat through every single minute of the 24-hour miniseries North & South- the music is playing over and over again in my head now), and learning about the era in general. One of my favorite high school memories? When one of our regular substitute teachers Mr. Mulvaney, who already had bonafide mutton chops, came to our AP American History class to do a presentation on the Civil War. Apparently, some of his ancestors fought in the war for the Confederacy, so he did his whole presentation in a true-to-life Confederate uniform and even gave us a sample of hardtack. In the future, I'll definitely pass on the hardtack, but the presentation itself was awesome.

So it came as a quite a surprise to me when I realized that not only did Margaret Mitchell's classic make it to the list of the 100 greatest novels, but that I had never read it before. I promise you, if my cousin's wife ever finds out I just finished the book and still haven't seen the movie, she might just have a heart attack. So, for the health of Erica and my future 'niece' Vivien (yes, to be named after Vivien Leigh from the film Gone with the Wind), I deemed a quick trip to our library (which I will miss incredibly once I move this weekend) would be necessary.

Don't be fooled, ladies and gentleman, because this is one whopper of a book. The original manuscript was well over 1,000 pages, but my version had close to 1,500. I had no idea completing this novel would be such an endeavor, but I nonetheless cracked it open and pushed on. It was a little difficult to dig into the book at first (a good portion of that probably came from the fact that I kept dropping it because it's rather hard to hold due to its larger size), but after the first few chapters, I very much enjoyed the story and characters throughout the entire novel. I'm sure most of you already know the storyline, so I won't hash it out here, but I really felt the character development was excellent. Scarlett is one of the most brutally and beautifully honest characters in literature; she's not the typical damsel in distress or the kind-hearted and gentle princess. No, she is the privileged and spoiled girl who thinks of nothing but herself and her happiness. But we have the enjoyment of seeing her transform- not quickly and superficially- but through several years and a series of events that mold her and affect her greatly, but that do not change the essence of Scarlett O'Hara. I think many readers would get frustrated because it takes her longer to learn from her mistakes (perhaps we want resolution sooner), but I feel this book best portrays real life- and real people- in that sense.

Overall, I think it's an absolutely wonderful read. You get frustrated with the characters, you feel their pain and heartache, you get nervous reading the frightening scenes. Mitchell draws you into the story- and after all, isn't that exactly what a good book is supposed to do?