I'm Currently Reading...Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell (Final Review)

  As I have stated over and over again, I first read Gone With the Wind when I was 12 or 13 (I've actually forgotten - isn't that the  mark of being old?).  I remember I thought it was absolutely well written, extremely long, romantic, and even a little scandalous to my then unworldly mind (sometimes I wish I didn't know as much as I did. >:/ )  I had been wanting to reread the story at my then mature age of 17, so when I discovered Fanda's read along for the book, I decided to dive in.  I will also warn you that the following review has some spoilers like my updates for this story.  Just thought I'd let you know! :)

  Gone With the Wind was first started in 1926 when Margaret Mitchell was bored during convalescence after an auto-crash.  She wrote the final moments of the book at the very beginning, and then built off that.  After an editor saw her work and found it to be a great story, it was published in 1936. It went on to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award.  Of course it also was made into an award winning film staring Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh. 

I'm Currently Reading...Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell (Part Four)

Part Three:  A lot of random stuff happens in this part, which I had completely forgotten.  Scarlett does desperate things in an attempt to pay the taxes on Tara, and becomes even more and more unpopular with her friends.

   Will informs Scarlett that she must find some way to pay the taxes on Tara.  Scarlett has a talk with Ashley, and a lot of things are said that shouldn't have been.  Scarlett goes to Atlanta to find Rhett, knowing that she will do absolutely anything to get the money from him  When she finds Rhett, he is in jail, and he refuses to give her the money.  Scarlett meets Frank Kennedy on her way home, and Scarlett devises a way to marry him for his money regardless of her sister Suellen's feelings for him.  Distracted by Scarlett's feminine charms, Frank does indeed marry her.  Frank becomes sick with a cold, and Scarlett begins to check over the account of the shop he owns.  She sees that many customers have not paid their money,  so she takes over his business.

I'm Currently Reading...Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell (Part Three)

Part Three: In this part of the story, Scarlett has to take on much more responsibility because of the war.  Her headstrong ways and committed spirit have made everyone look up to her and, though glimpses of the old Scarlett shine through, this new no-nonsense version dominates.

Part Three shows the effects that the war is having on Atlanta, where Scarlett is staying alone with a pregnant Melanie after Pittypat flees the area.  Scarlett is relieved that Prissy, her slave, has knowledge of "birthing babies" since Melanie tells them she is sure the baby will be coming any day now.  But, when the baby is due and Melanie is struggling to stay alive, Prissy reveals that she really knows nothing about it, and Scarlett rushes to find Dr. Meade.  Dr. Meade, however, is busy with   tons of wounded soldiers and sends her away.  Scarlett herself, with the unhelpful aid of Prissy, delivers Melanie's baby.  Rhett helps the women, the baby, and Wade escape a burning Atlanta to Tara, where Scarlett's mother and sister's are sick and there is no telling whether or not the Yankees have burned the house at Tara to the ground.  Rhett leaves Scarlett on her own awhile into the trip because he is going to join the military, and, through many dangers and terror, Scarlett arrives safely at Tara to find her mother has died, her father is going crazy, and the whole place is in shambles though their house has survived everything.

  Scarlett learns how to overcome pride, learns how to make money, murders a Yankee soldier and hides him with the help of Melanie, and also meets a new friend named Will Benteen, a wounded soldier who stays with them and helps on the plantation while falling in love with Scarlett's sister Careen.  At the end of Part Three, Will is sitting on the ground holding onto Scarlett's skirt, keeping her from running to Ashley when Ashley arrives home from the war.  He says "After all, he's her husband, ain't he?", and Scarlett knows that he has figured out everything about her feelings for Melanie's husband through his quiet, soft spoken ways.

  This was a really interesting part, I thought.  Scarlett seems to grow a lot, and actually has to take responsibility for others as much as herself.  I love Will - I think he's a great character, though I'm sorry to say I'd forgotten about him since the first time I read it.  I've already started on Part Four, but I think Part Three was a lot better.

Picture from Google Images.

I'm Currently Reading...Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell (Part Two)

Part Two: This update is way overdo lol.  Sorry it took so long!  And yes, I am using images from the movie version of the book because it has no illustrations.  Hope that's okay with everybody. ;)
 
  Part Two describes the realization Scarlett begins to have that she is no longer a damsel training to "catch" a husband.  No; she is a widow with a son.  Scarlett resents this fact, taking it out on Melanie and even her baby Wade.  She also behaves in ways that embarrass her family.  She sees the harsh reality of war and the terrible consequences it has on the families around her.  But Scarlett, being the self-centered belle she is, can only see her own petty problems.  Romance begins to bud between Rhett and her as well, and the forbidden romance between her and Ashley continues.

  I liked reading this part, but when I got about halfway through with it I remembered that I hadn't liked it as much as the first part (and still didn't).  I feel a little bit like Scarlett in the fact that reading about the ultra-Southern "party" times is more interesting than the war.  Also, as other school projects and responsibilities have doubled for me, I've had less time to read.  But I'm already on Part Three, which has presented plots I'd forgotten about.  Onward! :)

Picture from Google Images.

I'm Currently Reading...Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell (Part One)

 This is the version I'm reading.

Currently reading: Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

Reason: I've read it before, and I've been wanting to reread it, so I'm completing this read along HERE.

Part One: Reading Gone With the Wind for really the first time since I was 13 has started a nostalgic journey for me.  "Scarlett O'Hara was not beautiful..." chapter one begins, and I am instantly transported back to Georgia during 1861.

  Part One introduces us to the main characters - Scarlett O'Hara (the charming, selfish belle of Tara), her sister, her parents Gerald and Ellen, Ashley Wilkes and his wife-to-be Melanie Hamilton, and of course the infamous Rhett Butler.

  Scarlett is apparently still in love with her beau Ashley, who she hears is to be married to his cousin Melanie Hamilton, a Scarlett makes fun of but she is secretly jealous of nonetheless.  She meets Rhett Butler at the Wilkes' cookout and, when Scarlett makes her unladylike declaration of love to Ashley on his engagement day, neither Scarlett nor Ashley noticed Butler had been lying on the couch the whole time.  After Ashley leaves the room, Rhett addresses himself to Scarlett, and she is furious that he knows her secret.  Embarrassed that everyone might know now, Scarlett recklessly accepts a marriage proposal from Melanie's brother Charles.  They're married, and Scarlett is pregnant when their marriage is cut short by the death of Charles in the war.  The O'Haras decide sending Scarlett and her baby Wade to live in Atlanta with Charles' sister Melanie and his Aunt Pittypat Hamilton will the best thing for their daughter.

  It's take me awhile to write this review (because I had so many other blog posts I wanted to do first) so I'm already a fair way into Part 2.  I really had forgotten how much I love GWTW.  It's kind of an easy read, and the story is so intriguing.  I'd forgotten how selfish Scarlett is though - she's a nut!  My favorite chapter out of this part was chapter fifteen.  I love the description:

" It was ten o’clock in the morning. The day was warm for April and the golden sunlight streamed brilliantly into Scarlett’s room through the blue curtains of the wide windows. The cream-colored walls glowed with light and the depths of the mahogany furniture gleamed deep red like wine, while the floor glistened as if it were glass, except where the rag rugs covered it and they were spots of gay color.
  Already summer was in the air, the first hint of Georgia summer when the high tide of spring gives way reluctantly before a fiercer heat. A balmy, soft warmth poured into the room, heavy with velvety smells, redolent of many blossoms, of newly fledged trees and of the moist, freshly turned red earth. Through the window Scarlett could see the bright riot of the twin lanes of daffodils bordering the graveled driveway and the golden masses of yellow jessamine spreading flowery sprangles modestly to the earth like crinolines. The mockingbirds and the jays, engaged in their old feud for possession of the magnolia tree beneath her window, were bickering, the jays strident, acrimonious, the mockers sweet voiced and plaintive.
   Such a glowing morning usually called Scarlett to the window, to lean arms on the broad sill and drink in the scents and sounds of Tara. But, today she had no eye for sun or azure sky beyond a hasty thought, “Thank God, it isn’t raining.” On the bed lay the apple-green, watered-silk ball dress with its festoons of ecru lace, neatly packed in a large cardboard box. It was ready to be carried to Twelve Oaks to be donned before the dancing began, but Scarlett shrugged at the sight of it. If her plans were successful, she would not wear that dress tonight. Long before the ball began, she and Ashley would be on their way to Jonesboro to be married." - Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell.