Gone with the Wind - Reviewed by Maggie Devero

Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
Reviewed by Maggie Devero

Scarlett O'Hara is a beautiful, charming, and most of all stubborn, southern belle living on a cotton plantation named Tara in Georgia in 1861. All her life, Scarlett has had the ability to bend men to her every whim with her beauty and pretty lies, aside from the only man she is really smitten to: Ashley Wilkes. In a short span of time, the man of her dreams is out of her reach, now engaged to his own cousin, the frail and plain Melanie Hamilton, along with most other male companions she's had all her life. For civil war is breaking out in America, and every strapping young man is ready to join the army and support their "glorious Cause." In two months, Scarlett has married Charles Hamilton (Melanie own brother nonetheless), lost him to the army, and been left with his unborn child. After she has her baby, Scarlett becomes very unhappy with her life and its similarity day to day, so mistaking this for depression, her family sends her to Atlanta to live with her Aunt Pittypat and sister-in-law Melanie. The suffering due to war continues to rain down on them more than ever, and due to many reasons, Scarlett takes Melanie after her aunt left, and with the help of the handsome and mysterious Rhett Butler, they make it back to her home.

Upon returning, Scarlett comes to find that many things have changed: her mother has passed away, her father is incapable of caring for them, and the whole family and what slaves there are left are starving. So Scarlett, who has never worked a day in her life, gets down on her hands and knees (literally) and picks her family up from the ruins in which they had been in. In order to keep things running at home, she ends up having to return to Atlanta, a place completely different with the war having recently ended, and find ways to pay taxes on Tara to keep it her home. Scarlett marries again and takes up running two mills to keep money for all their needs, though she ends up just staying in Altanta. Rhett also lends her some money during the time, to help her buy one of the mills, and helps her when Ashley, her husband Frank and some other men get in trouble for being part of the KKK. Unfortunately her husband is killed, and Scarlett is once again widowed. But knowing her, she won't be for long, and soon things take a richer and more prosperous turn that even Scarlett could have ever imagined. But will this be enough to settle her restless soul? You'll have to read the book to find out!

I absolutely, 100% adored Gone With the Wind. There's no doubt in my mind why it's one of the classics, and how many people have enjoyed reading it throughout the years. Even I, who have never been a person too interested in period novels, was completely captivated with the description and detail put into capturing the time period. The character development was superb, and some of the changes I never would have seen coming for characters like themselves. The plot was never a bore, and there was never a slow moment it seemed. It just continued to grow and expand, adding into it new exciting elements and surprising twists that would leave me hungrily tearing through more pages to figure out what would happen. I even got teary-eyed when I finally closed the book, to be completely honest. There's no doubt that I would suggest this book to ANYONE, even if their tastes don't seem to match up with the book. It was an amazing experience for me to read, and I want others to be able to feel the same. There are also some other novels to go with this one. Scarlett by Alexandra Ripley which is a sequel written by a completely different author, and Rhett Butler’s People by Donald McCaig, written as Gone With the Wind: Rhett's POV. I hope to find time to read both in the near future, just as I hope you find time to read this wonderful classic!