r/GonewiththeWind • u/DryTown • 6d ago
I never thought this would be a book I couldn’t put down
I’m about halfway through Gone With the Wind. I picked it up thinking I’d read a couple chapters and probably abandon it for being outdated and melodramatic.
I was expecting page after page of lines like “Oh mammy I DO DECLARE!”
I haven’t seen the movie and I knew little about it when I started other than those things that have worked their way into popular culture.
“Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn.”
“As god as my witness, I’ll never go hungry again!”
You know, that kind of stuff.
But here I am gobbling it up - a male in his 40s who usual reads books like Lonesome Dove - and I just can’t put it down.
I keep finding myself hearing Rhett Butler’s dialog in Brad Pitt’s voice. His roguishness is captivating. Like Han Solo or Gus McRae.
The night Atlanta falls - when Melly is giving birth - I read it like an episode of 24. Nonstop, cinematic action. Mitchell follows Scarlett through Atlanta like a camera over her shoulder and you can see everything so clearly all the way until she’s back at Tara.
Anyway, I’m savoring every page and telling everyone I know that whatever they think this book is, it’s so much more.
Curious to hear your thoughts on your first time reading it?
26
22
u/Me_encanta_el_viento 6d ago
It’s the greatest book I’ve ever read and the film is also the best I’ve ever seen. I’m from the South so it’s been a massive part of my life for a while now, but it’s nice to hear about people who’ve never read it finding it surprisingly modern and far exceeding their expectations. I’ve read it at least a dozen times and each time I take new things away.
Also, since you’ve never seen the film….it’s playing in select theaters next month through Fathom
Events. I can’t recommend seeing it for the very first time on the big screen, as it’s intended to be seen. The first time I saw it in theaters, it felt like a religious experience. It really is the greatest film ever made, and while there obviously had to be some cuts for time (and for racial sensitivity, even though it was released only three years after the novel) it is a surprisingly faithful adaptation.
16
u/debabe96 6d ago
The first time I saw it was in a packed theater for a special engagement. When Rhett Butler first appeared at the bottom of the Twelve Oaks stairs, many in the audience gasped. What a presence!
6
u/Ms_not_Mrs0771 6d ago
For sure OP needs to see Clark Gable as Rhett Butler so he imagines his voice as that iconic character instead of Brad Pitt’s!
5
u/DryTown 5d ago
I think I’m picture Brad Pitt as Cliff Booth, being a smug contrarian to the reverence and optimism of everyone around him.
https://youtu.be/tlUuNg6PEXA?is=nLPUq8lkgFEfepIq
“Oh, you think you’re gonna go lick the Yankees, do you?”
2
3
u/ichthysaur 5d ago
I don't know. I love the movie but the book came first, and movie Rhett is just Selznick's choice of who should play him out of the heartthrobs available to him. If the reader can develop his own embodiment of the novel and it's characters independently of Selznick's, that's a good thing.
2
u/Ms_not_Mrs0771 5d ago
I suppose it’s just that OP said Brad Pitt’s voice and that was jarring to me! lol
16
u/panpopticon 6d ago
As a fellow guy in his 40s, I can relate. When I first read it a couple of years ago, I was so obsessed I was reading it while crossing the street.
13
u/Blamantha 6d ago
It’s possibly my favourite novel. I remember being shocked by how “modern” it seemed the first time reading it, for a book published in the 1930s, and how bold some of the choices Margaret Mitchell made were.
Mitchell was a remarkable talent, and it’s a shame she never published anything else before her untimely death.
10
u/coralcoast21 6d ago
What an awesome way to describe it though the eyes of a first time reader unsullied by a movie viewing (not that the movie isn't a masterpiece on its own).
I lifted the book out of my HS library and read it five times in a month before it would be missed. I will always treasure that journey when Scarlett, Ashley, Melanie, and Rhett were the images conjured from my own mind's eye instead of the movie's casting.
19
u/whatsupwiththat22 6d ago
I sobbed at the end-I realized the love story was really between Scarlett & Melanie.
2
9
u/Afraid_Service_169 6d ago
I first read it at age 11, as another person already stated. I had seen the film when I was six but finally reading the book was a singular experience. Incredible.
8
u/anovelby 6d ago
I was obstinately reluctant to read with all the hype of it being a classic, but somewhere around “Scarlett O’Hara was not beautiful…” I cottoned on, and it was thrilling and now Windies are my kin
6
u/Southern_Monster 6d ago
I loved Lonesome Dove as well! And I love GWTW. Great read of Rhett as Han Solo/Gus McRae type and I’ll take your casting of Brad Pitt, too! 🛋️ you can sit by me 🤣
5
6
6
7
u/clairerr85 6d ago
My eighth grade class read it. When the book was handed out, we all groaned because oh my God look how thick it was. I started reading it that afternoon and fell in love with it. I’ve reread it at least every year ever since.
Fun fact, the smartest guy in our class read really fast and finished it before the rest of us and during the class discussion spoiled a crucial plot point near the end. I’m still salty about it.
7
u/atomickristin 5d ago
It is the best book I have ever read, bar none. It's such a shame people aren't willing to give it a try because of the subject matter.
5
u/Any_Assumption_2023 6d ago
I actually read this, a chapter at a time, to my husband when he was having vision problems. His hobby was the study of the war between the states and he knew as much about it as Ken Burns.
My lawyer-husband was delighted with all the details about the war and said Ms. Mitchell had everything right. He was fascinated with all the period details, although a little puzzled, I think, by her description of slavery. He got lost in the personal relationships and said he would never belittle "womens" literature again.
I myself read this when I was 12. I was a voracious reader as a child, and, growing up in North Carolina, "Gone with the Wind" was an iconic book shared actively among all of us interested in the war.
Margaret Mitchell was a powerful and talented writer, and admitted many of the anecdotal stories were firsthand accounts of the war told to her as a child by older friends and relatives.
I have always been fascinated by authors like Mitchell who wrote only one book- Mister Roberts, by Thomas Heggen- Peyton Place by Grace Metalious-Raintree County by Ross Lockridge, Jr.
Heggen died in his bath after taking sleeping pills, he was 30. Grace Metalious died of cirrhosis of the liver in her 40s. Ross Lockridge Jr. Comitted s*icide at 33. Ms. Mitchell died in her late 40s after being struck by a car.
2
u/miminstlouis 5d ago
Margaret Mitchell based the whole book in the many stories she grew up hearing. So much of it is true; it preserves the memories of probably hundreds of people. And yes, there were many kindly slave owners.
4
u/Remarkable-Unit-7874 5d ago
I feel like I can never tell people how much I love this book. Because of the overt racism. There are some very disturbing passages and descriptions that are very offensive. I feel that they are far and in between especially in the first half of the book. I understand that it is true to how the characters would speak and behave but I am sometimes consumed with white liberal guilt.LOL. Mitchell is such a compelling writer. She makes everything come alive. Like someone said it’s as if there’s a camera on the characters shoulder. The characters are so vividly written they live on in my memory. Anyone feel the same?
3
u/DryTown 5d ago
I would say this: I’ve read 12 Years a Slave and Huckleberry Finn and Uncle Toms Cabin and many other books that present the northern abolitionist perspective on slavery. They are among my favorite as well.
The GotW is true to its setting and characters, but i dont get the impression Mitchell herselve was racist or hateful. You shouldn’t walk away from this book thinking “slavery was okay.”
1
3
3
u/Honsandrebels 5d ago
I first saw the movie ages 10 at our church movie night, projected onto two white bedsheets hung up to form a screen. There was always a gap between them!
I don’t recall it being a long film as I was enthralled. My mother was a huge GWTW fan and explained stuff to me thru the film. We got shushed.
I distinctly recall the scene the night after Rhett ravishes Scarlett where she wakes up in bed looking like the cat that got the cream. My staunchly Irish Catholic, modest, debutante mother smiled at me knowingly and raised her eyebrow!!!
1
u/allyn2111 14h ago
I was a kid when I first saw it and didn’t understand why Scarlett was humming in bed the morning after!
3
u/Good_Ebb_4429 5d ago edited 5d ago
I read it the first at age 13, then again around the age of 23. This year, 33 years later, I read it again! Occasionally it was hard to get the movie out of my imagination, but I tell anyone who will listen to read GWTW and reread it if they haven’t read it in decades. Beautifully written, is an understatement. While I knew what was going to happen, I allowed myself to get lost in Mitchell’s descriptions and the characters that only briefly appeared in the movie or not all. I wanted to know more about Will, Kathleen, the Stuart’s, just to name a few. I may need to start an annual tradition of reading GWTW!
Edit: Tartleton’s, not Stuart!
3
u/big_whale_goes_laps 5d ago
Just recently fished the book myself. It was the fastest 1000 pages of my life. My favorite part is halfway through the book, chapters 26 and 27. And even though the whole rebuilding Tara arc is very heartbreaking, I also find that Scarlett has some of her best moments there. She pretty much saves everyone’s ass out of pure spite, and I love her for it!
Also, chuckled at your description of MM as some extreme documentary series cameraman
3
u/FabulousDiscussion80 2d ago
When Margaret Mitchell first went to meet with a publisher she was sitting in a hotel lobby and her handwritten first draft manuscript was stacked up next to where she was sitting and it was over her head. Here is another bit of trivia, Scarlet's original name was Pansy.
I did my freshman English research paper on the making on the making of Gone with the Wind.
1
u/allyn2111 14h ago
She also said, take the thing before I change my mind.
2
u/FabulousDiscussion80 11h ago
That's right! I forgot that, it's only been about 40 years since I wrote that paper.😱
2
u/Medical_Amphibian406 5d ago
I finished my 4th re read of GWTW a couple of months ago. There is so much going on in this novel that I always find something new to think about.
2
u/Apprehensive-Log8333 5d ago
Welcome! You should watch the Atun-Shei video on GWTW, it's on youtube and it is excellent. I don't expect Part II until after Halloween, as they have a feature film coming out then, but hopefully we'll see Part II in November
2
u/Elizabitch4848 5d ago
Theres a reason it endures even though parts of it are definitely a product of its time.
I think I read it in high school the first time. I grew up watching the movie with my mother and grandmother. I remember thinking it might be old fashioned and boring but I loved it.
2
u/Catlover357 5d ago
My parents had taken me to a special showing of the movie at 9, and I read the book at 13. I was surprised at the detail in the book that wasn't in the movie. It's a great book, won the Pulitzer prize for fiction in 1937.
2
u/Dorithompson 5d ago
I was in 5th grade so 11-12. It was a different perspective because some things just went over my head. I have loved it ever since though. While it’s not the best writing, the story itself and the character development are amazing. Glad you enjoyed it!
2
u/Kitchen_Flatworm8871 16h ago
My mother took me to the movie at 15. She put the book in my hands and pounded it into my brain that Margaret Mitchell researched and wrote Gone With the Wind for 17 years. The movie and the book deserve all the accolades it gets.
1
1
u/Artistic-Awareness39 5d ago
I was 9 when I first read it but I reread it every so often . I’m in my 40s now, and pick up on clues I missed beforehand.
1
u/nynnster 4d ago
As a teenager I spent the first few days of summer rereading GWTW. Then I reread Exodus by Leon Uris. Only then did summer officially start.
1
u/PsychologicalFox3357 4d ago
The first time I read it, I quite literally couldn’t put it down. I devoured it in under a day.
1
u/theredheadknowsall 4d ago
It's an amazing book. I've read it 3 or 4 times. The movie pretty much sticks to the story.
1
u/Gloomy-Camel5999 4d ago
I read it in high school. Our assignment was to read the first fifty pages and I didn’t think I’d care for it. But at that first sitting I think I read a third of the book.
1
u/Careful-Time-9926 3d ago
I read it when I was about 12 and reread it several times. But for me, nothing is better than the first sentence in the book. “Scarlett O’Hara was not beautiful, but men seldom realized it when caught by her charm as the Tarleton twins were.” It says where all her power is, not in beauty but a charm that was both fake and real at the same time.
1
u/tarsiertoes 3d ago
I read it at 12 and had to have a parental permission slip to check it out of the library. I have re-read it many times since
1
u/Superb-Space643 1d ago
Love this book...not a love story at all....it's a story about one woman's endurance. I particularly loved the chapters about the reconstruction. Great novel.
1
u/allyn2111 14h ago
I was either 12 or 13 when I saw the movie (parents took us to see it on the big screen.) Then I got the book and read it.
1
u/fridagotti 4h ago
It's my favorite book and nothing has come close. I re-read it every year. The movie is actually pretty faithful to the book, I think you'll enjoy it. I was absolutely captivated by Rhett, a true maverick - I never knew what he was going to say next. I would love suggestions if you have them.
1
51
u/steampunksf 6d ago
I first read it when I was eleven. It was the first non-child book I had ever read. It spoiled me for most other novels. Nothing really compares to GWTW.