Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

 

Gone with the Wind was a spring read for the Back to the Classics Book Club at the Kewaunee Public Library.  This was my third time reading this novel in my life.  I read it first in middle school and last time in my later twenties.  I seem to have a different perspective and learn something new every time I read it.  One thing I realized this time is that it works a lot better for me to read it straight through rather than to read half of it for one book club discussion and then finish it a couple of months later for the second book club discussion.

Gone With the Wind is an epic, layered novel with some of the greatest characters in literature.  Scarlett O’Hara is a heroine that you disdain at times, but you can’t stop reading about her.  Rhett Butler is a scoundrel that you root for, and at his heart, he truly loves Scarlett.  There are so many good characters in this story. 

In this reading of the classic tale, I was struck by how both Rhett Butler and Ashley Wilkes are realistic about the Civil War.  They both talk about how politicians and people with money have riled up the populace to fight in a war that they can’t win and that doesn’t benefit most of the people of the south.  I loved this quote by Rhett Butler, “All wars are sacred to those who have to fight them. If the people who started wars didn't make them sacred, who would be foolish enough to fight? But, no matter what rallying cries the orators give to the idiots who fight, no matter what noble purposes they assign to wars, there is never but one reason for war. And that is money. All wars are in reality money squabbles. But so, few people ever realize it. Their ears are too full of bugles and drums and fine words from stay-at-home orators. Sometimes the rallying cry is 'Save the Tomb of Christ from the Heathen!' Sometimes it's 'Down with Popery!' and sometimes 'Liberty!' and sometimes 'Cotton, slavery, and States' Rights!'”  Some things don’t change.  I totally didn’t remember these views in Gone with the Wind.

It was an interesting look at how the war changed everything in Georgia.  It does show how the war came right to where they lived and changed their lives forever.  The siege of Atlanta was one of the most thrilling sections of a book that I have ever read.  It was sad as characters you’ve grown to know died seemingly senseless deaths.

The book does paint a fantasy version of the perfect South that never really existed.  For instance, the black characters in the story are all happy slaves before the war.  After the war, free black people are not looked too kindly upon.  The most troubling aspect of the novel is that pretty much everyone Scarlett knows is in the Ku Klux Klan and it’s painted as a great organization that is protecting the women of the south.  It’s a very strange thing to read, especially knowing that Scarlett is Catholic and the KKK does not look too kindly upon Catholics.  This must be how the author in the 1930s South rationalized the KKK and its existence. 

I’ve recently been disturbed to see people who have never read this novel stating on my classic book club pages that you are racist if you’ve read this novel or enjoyed this novel.  I find that troubling as well.  You will never learn about the past and take a good look at what was bad and good if you just label things as racist without reading them and having discussions on them.  If we can’t look at the past to learn from our mistakes, I don’t know how we will move forward.

Book Source:  I own two copies of this book.  One is a June 1936 edition that I bought at an auction (sadly May 1936 is the first edition) and the other that I got at a half off bookstore.  It’s a beautiful copy as well.  This time around, I read it on my Kindle.

Ruth’s Journey by Donald McCaig

Title: Ruth’s Journey
Author: Donald McCaig
Read by:  Cherise Boothe
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

Length: 14 hours (12 CDs)
Source:  Review Copy from Simon & Schuster – Thanks!

Ruth’s Journey is subtitled “the authorized novel of Mammy from Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind.”  I am a huge Gone with the Wind fan.  I obsessively watched the move as a kid and then read the book first when I was around 13 and a few times since then.  It is a sprawling masterpiece of historical fiction with a great cast of characters, especially Scarlett, who is a heroine that you often find a hard time liking.  One great character in the book and movie is Mammy, who is one of the only people that truly understands Scarlett and isn’t afraid to tell her what she thinks about her actions.  Ruth’s Journey finally gives a name to Mammy, Ruth, and tells her story from childhood through the picnic at Twelve Oaks where Rhett and Scarlett meet and the very start of the Civil War.

Ruth’s Journey starts in Saint-Domingue which is undergoing a revolution.  Scarlett’s grandmother, Solange Fornier lives on the island with her husband Captain Augustin Fornier.  Captain Fornier finds a young child amongst carnage and the only one left living amongst her family.  He takes her home to his wife Solange and she names her Ruth.  Ruth stays with them as they flee the island for a new life in Savannah.  Ruth has some adventures of her own and eventually becomes Mammy to Solange’s daughter Ellen and then moves up country to Tara when Ellen marries Gerald O’Hara and becomes a mother herself.

As a fan of Gone with the Wind I enjoyed the story and getting more background about different characters, in particular I loved learning about all of the neighbors of Tara and their life before the war.  What I didn’t like is that this didn’t really seem like Ruth’s Journey at all.  It was Solange’s journey with Ruth as a bit side character until CD five when the story abruptly shifts to Ruth as the main character.  At that point I missed Solange as I felt it was her story. The story of Ruth as a wife and a mother was the strongest part of the novel for me.  There was one heart breaking scene that had me in tears.  It’s hard to believe that human beings treated others that way.  When Ruth is no longer a wife and mother and becomes Mammy again the story is once again really about everyone around Ruth and not about Ruth herself.  I wish we could have gotten a more in depth look at Ruth as Mammy and the doings downstairs versus upstairs like the novel Netherfield (Pride and Prejudice told from the servants’ point of view).  I also wondered how this book could have gone if it had been written by Alice Walker or Maya Angelou.

Cherise Booth was a fine narrator and was the voice of Mammy to me.  The audio story kept me interested on my long drives to work. 

Overall, I would recommend this to fans of Gone with the Wind with the caveat that you will find out a lot more about Scarlett’s grandmother, childhood, and other side characters, but not as much about Mammy as you would like.

Rhett Butler's People by Donald McCaig

I was very excited to receive Rhett Butler's People from my friend Jenn for Christmas. Learning Rhett's side of the story seemed like a great new take on Gone With the Wind.

Rhett Butler's People tells the story of Rhett Butler from an impetiuous youth to shortly after the ending of Gone With the Wind. It also tells the story in fragments of various family members and friends involved with Rhett through the years including the back story of Belle Watling and Rhett's sister Rosemary.

While it was great to get a different perspective on Gone With the Wind, I think my biggest mistake was reading this directly after reading Gone With the Wind again. McCaig has a rather abrupt writing style where he moves from piece to piece of writing, without filling in the details. It was rather jarring reading it at first (especially after Mitchell's great original description), but I got used to it. While the characters in the original novel are described in great detail, the characters in this novel were rather flat, especially the supporting "People" such as Rosemary and Colonel Andrew Ravenal. I wanted to care, but often found myself not caring, waiting to hear about Rhett again. There were many small details that were not correct as compared to the original novel, which was quite annoying. Also, they explain why Rhett was expelled from his family, but there was nothing about taking a carriage ride with a lady and refusing to marry her . . . the original story from the original novel.

What I wanted from this novel was more about Rhett and his adventures. We learn about how in his youth he traveled around the world to exciting locations and made money as almost a secondary, by the way . . . I wanted to know more details about this - and not quick stories about his friends and sister. I liked the ending and thought it was very appropriate. I just wish it would have lasted for a longer period after the ending of the original novel.

One major problem I had with the book was that McCaig decided to "white wash" Rhett. All of the sudden, Rhett is a flaming abolitionist growing up in South Carolina. There is no reason from the original novel to believe this. It is more likely that Rhett was not an abolitionist and was more a man of the time. I know it's more P.C. to make him one now, but it is not historically accurate.

I recommend this book for anyone who is obsessed with all things Gone With the Wind like me, but DO NOT read it directly after reading Gone with the Wind. It is worth a read, especially for the ending. I hope that someone else writes more about the adventures of Rhett someday.

Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

I just finished rereading Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell for my Mom's Club book club. I must say, I am extremely glad that I read this book again, it is a masterpiece. It's also a lot different reading a book when you are 29 versus 14! If you know the plot or don't want to know the end, skip the next section.

Plot Overview
I think everyone knows the classic story of Katie Scarlett O'Hara, the headstrong, spoiled Southern girl - but I'll recap in case you don't. Scarlett is in love with her neighbor Ashley Wilkes, but discovers just before the start of the Civil War that he is going to marry his cousin Melanie. For spite, Scarlett marries Melanie's brother Charles Hamilton. Charles dies of sickness without ever facing battle and Scarlett finds herself a pregnant 16-year old widow. After her son's birth, she goes to Atlanta to stay with Melanie and Melanie's Aunt Pitty-Pat. Scarlett finds Atlanta exciting, but life in mourning as a widow rather drab. Life is lightened up when Rhett Butler scandalizes society by "bidding" for her at a ball and dancing with her all night. Sherman eventually starts his march to the sea, but Scarlett can't leave pregnant Melanie alone in Atlanta after promising Ashley to watch out for her. After Melanie gives birth, Scarlett, her son Wade, Melanie and Baby, and Prissy (Scarlett's slave) are rescued by Rhett Butler who drives them out of Atlanta. He leaves them though and decides to join the army, but to Scarlett's anger. She arrives back at her plantation, Tara, to discover the place has been devistated by the Yankees, her mother has died, and her father has lost his marbles.

Scarlett works hard to find food to keep everyone fed. She is getting by after the war, but the Yankees raise taxes on Tara and are going to take it away if she can't pay them. She visits Rhett Butler in his Atlanta jail to try to seduce him to marry her (he is rich and she wants the money) or to become his mistress. He refuses, but luckily on the way home, she meets up with her sister Suellen's beau, Frank Kennedy, and lies about her sister being engaged to someone else. She is able to persuade Frank to marry her within two weeks and use his money to pay the taxes on Tara. Frank runs a general store and Scarlett pushes him to make more money. She borrows money from Rhett to buy her own mill and scandelizes Atlanta society by running it herself. She has a daughter, Ella, with Frank. After she is accousted in Shanty town, Frank and other vigilantes take their own form of justice against the assailants and Frank is killed in the process. Rhett proposes to Scarlett the day of the funeral before she can marry anyone else.

Rhett and Scarlett start off having a happy marriage, but Scarlett's love for Ashley comes between them. They have a daugther, Bonnie Blue Butler, that Rhett adores. Scarlett suggests separate bedrooms because she doesn't want to have any more children, much to Rhett's anger. Bonnie dies in a riding accident at age four and Melanie dies about a year after due to a miscarriage. Scarlett realizes that she has loved Rhett all along and that her love for Ashley was an illusion. By this point, Rhett has had enough with their marriage and tells Scarlett "I don't give a Damn" and leaves. Scarlett vows to win Rhett back and the book ends.

Laura's Thoughts
I thought this book was VERY well written. The characters were fully developed including all secondary characters. You really don't get a feel for the secondary characters in the movie as you do in the book. The dialogue was fantastic, especially some of the witty dialogue between Rhett and Scarlett. The description of the scenary and live in the Civil War days is uncomparable. The book is 960 pages long, but riveting. Although I know the end, the book still had me sobbing, much to my son Kile's dismay.

I liked how the book gave a good overview of what life was like for a rich southern family before, during, and after the war. Scarlett is not the most likeable of people, but I liked reading about a strong willed woman who does what she can to survive. The love story between Rhett and Scarlett is not a typical or conventional story and it rivals those of Elizabeth and Darcy, Cathy and Healthcliff, Romeo and Juliet. I just wanted to slap Scarlett though for her silly longing for Ashley. Ashley in the book is more attractive though then Ashley in the movie - although he is still no match for the manly Rhett Butler.

What I didn't like about the book is what most people would probaby say, the blatant racism. Take this critism with a grain of salt though. I really don't like a "white washed" past where we pretend that people were never racist. I think it's important to learn what we used to be like as a nation so that we never go there again. Taking that in to account, I understood that Scarlett's ignorant feelings towards African Americans was typical for a Southern lady at the time, although I thought it was racist.

Scarlett is a character that you love and hate. The way she treated her first two children was quite cold and hard to understand as a mother. Her treatment of Melanie and Rhett is also annoying. I'm glad that she grows as a character and by the end realizes the error of her ways, but it would have been nice for her to appreciate people while she had them. I like how she is a well developed, very three dimensional character that grows throughout the novel.

The introduction to the version I read compared this book to Anna Karenina, Vanity Fair, and Madame Bovary. I've read all three of those novels, so it was interesting to ponder the strong willed women in each novel. I think Scarlett is the most like Becky Sharp in Vanity Fair. Any one else read these books and have thoughts?

If you have never read Gone With the Wind, I highly recommend it. It's a bit of a slow read at first, but believe me, it gets much better. Gone With the Wind is a great American novel that I believe everyone should read.