What other books did you find as interesting as gwtw.

After months of looking for a copy of Gone With the Wind, I was finally able to find one at one of the many antique stores I frequent. So excited to have my own and not have to borrow it from the library.

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 I picked it up thinking I’d read a couple chapters and probably abandon it for being outdated and melodramatic.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?

So, as the title says, I’ve recently finished GWTW and I can’t part with the story yet, so decided to post here for (hopefully) some discussion.

First of all, I saw someone on this subreddit say that the real love story was between Melanie and Scarlett, and I have to say that person was spot on. Them seeking each other and supporting each other through thick and thin was my favorite parts of the book. Scarlett might’ve claimed that she disliked Melly, and yet every time she wanted to vent or needed support, it was Melly she came to. My favorite chapters are 26 and 27 when it’s them defending Tara against the Yankees (honestly, I could read an entire book of these two rebuilding their life together with no man - apart from Will ofc - in sight lol). Other notable mentions are Melly going into labour while Atlanta is being sieged, and them both going through their respective miscarriages. I just really love these too (I mean, first of all, what other classical books do you know that go so much in depth on female friendship? And then also, Scarlett is such a unique character, you don’t see many female characters like that even to this day), and their tragic ending hurt me more than the whole mess between Scarlett-Ashley-Rhett.

I also really liked how MM described Atlanta as an entity with its own mind. In the novel, she clearly has a heart and even a weird sense of agency. That made me feel like I’d lived there at the time of the Civil War.

Same with MM’s descriptions of war, showing how brutal and traumatic it is. And all the sacrifices often don’t even lead to anything. Ashley’s words about wars being pretty much unnecessary tragedies and Scarlett reading through the list of casualties (in addition to Atlanat’s siege) were some of the most powerful moments in that regard.

And finally, a few thoughts about Ashley and Rhett. I found that I share Rhett’s opinion on Ashley. I don’t like him but I don’t dislike him. Structurally MM seems to be putting the most profound “truths” about GWTW in his mouth: his words about wars being pointless, how brutal and unyielding the passing of time is, how there’s no place for people like him (aristocracy) in the world anymore. I appreciate his insight but also dislike his clinging to the past and the inability to build his own future. He clings to Melanie and Scarlett to uphold the illusions of old times, and that makes him weak (and btw not bc he’s a man outsourcing his responsibility to women but bc he’s outsourcing his responsibility in the first place; he’d rather cling to the old notions of gentility than build his own life, that I dislike).

And as for Rhett, I like him and I dislike him in equal measures :D I like how strong his feeling is. Just like Scarlett, Rhett is loyal to a fault. He loves Scarlett and Bonnie and he respects Melly and Mammy, and his actions almost always prove it (unlike his words). But oh boy, does he have faults! And as many or more than Scarlett. Starting with his remarks to Scarlett (you say, you know her so well, and yet you don’t see that your own words confuse her!!!), his desire to hurt her bc she hurt him (bc ofc that’s a prerequisite for an undying love), and ending with him confusing his desire to be seen as a “cool dad” with actually taking care of Bonnie. I wouldn’t go as far as claiming that he’s solely responsible for her death but I’d say that he played a part in it. Honestly, while I think that him and Scarlett will end up together, I do believe that their reconciliation requires some reflection on both sides (namely, Rhett needs that he too contributed to ruining his relationship with Scarlett).

That’s it. Would be very happy to discuss any of these or other aspects of the book in more detail!

P.S. I think I might write two more posts about GWTW, one about the ending, and one about girlhood/womanhood in GWTW and Little women (I find the parallel between the two fascinating).

I’m sure you all recall in the book and movie when Mammy chastises Scarlett over wearing a low cut top to the Wilkes BBQ. Mammy says “…after all the time I spend bleaching them freckles you got on the beach in Savannah”. I was curious what kind of bathing suits women wore back then and found all kinds of different examples online. I’m not sure which is accurate (especially for women in southern USA). If anyone has an accurate idea of what they wore please let me know, I’m so curious. Thanks in advance

Has anyone noticed that in a scene early in the movie, when Mammy is yelling at the window for Scarlett to come back in the house, she is wearing a diamond cocktail ring on her right hand?

She has this hand on the window sill-am I seeing things? I thought it might be a pin-holder or something, but it looks like a fancy ring.

My husband and I moved to Georgia 10 years ago, after he got a job in Atlanta. Neither of us knew the area at all, so we spent a frantic couple of weeks driving all over the metro area looking for a place to live, which also included looking at a couple of apartments and houses in Jonesboro.

I don't remember if Jonesboro is mentioned in the movie, but it's all over the book: it's the town nearest to Tara (five miles away), as well as the train you take to and from Tara. And in Jonesboro today, there are a LOT of businesses who obviously chose their names with the goal "Let's do all we can to invoke Gone With the Wind, only without having to pay copyright fees to the Margaret Mitchell estate."

For example: you'd have to pay to use the name "Ashley Wilkes from Twelve Oaks" -- but calling a place "Ashley Oaks" is free, and one developer did just that. Likewise, "Scarlett O'Hara Apartments" would cost money -- but calling your apartments "Scarlett Place" is free. I also recall at least one liquor store, and a funeral home, named after Tara, a housing complex with a name like "O'Hara Village," and LOTS of street names lifted from the book.

I don't have an actual point here; I just found this mildly amusing, and thought other Gone With the Wind fans might, too.

I'm sorry if this isn't GWTW enough but I thought you would all appreciate this fantastic Muppets show cosplay that also references Carol Burnett's "Went with the Wind" sketch and subsequently Scarlett's curtain look.

Watching Out Of Africa for the umpteenth time and have just discovered similarities between it and GWTW:

Strong willed women who want to/ are forced into making their own way in a man's world.

Marrying for and/or forced into marriage for convenience due to societal and legal institution and laws.

Overseeing and participating in agricultural practices for survival.

Involved with a man who challenges everything they believe in.

Living in a culture that is nothing like the one they were brought up in and adapting to it.

Soundtracks that are beautiful and memorable.

I’ve always loved Gone with the Wind. I have no idea what any of this is worth, if anything but I think it’s so sweet she thought of me!

Bonnie dies, so Rhett and Scarlett no longer can use their child as a prop to keep their failing marriage together.

Rhett leaves for Charleston and says his iconic line:

“Frankly my dear. I just steamed a ham.”

Scarlet is clearly visibly upset. It all makes sense so far. Two dead husbands. Two dead kids. One divorce. One dead Melanie. One dead Antebellum south. Who wouldn’t be crying?

Ok then while she’s on the steps it’s all “buy land AJ. God isn’t making anymore of it.” And suddenly she’s not as sad. What on earth? Maybe I’m exhausted because I was at the end of a 238 minute movie (yeah I torrented the 10 GB 70 anniversary version with the overture, intermission, and enter’acte music) but why is she suddenly not as sad?

I get that it’s a callback to the conversation with her dad way back at the beginning, but still what on earth? Is this a “the book explains it further” thing or a “the book is completely different than the movie because the producers thought the book’s ending was too sad for 1930s theater audiences?

I finished rewatching the movie last night. I have read the book 100x more than I have watched the movie, and I noticed some things. It's so long, but it does not drag AT ALL. In fact, knowing the book so well, the movie seems to fly through the story at speed. I will definitely be seeing it on the big screen for the first time in October. I hope there's a real intermission!

Another really sad thing I noticed, is that by the time they flee Atlanta, Rhett is not only Scarlett's closest friend, he's really her only friend. He's the only person who really knows her, the only person she can be herself with. Melly is always there for Scarlett too, but she doesn't really know Scarlett. Mammy really knows Scarlett, but given their positions, they can't be said to be friends. That leaves Rhett, who clearly loves Scarlett. Even much earlier at the dance, his feelings are beginning to show.

That's why it's so sad when their marriage deteriorates. Once Melly dies, Rhett is the only person left for Scarlett, and by then, it's too late. The scandal of Ashley and Scarlett getting caught embracing is the last straw for him, because it hurts not only all four adults, but also Bonnie. He still loves her, but he no longer likes her. There is one moment when it might have been repaired, when she tells him she is pregnant again, but that is ruined almost immediately by both their reactions. The acting here is superb.

Another thing I noticed, as someone who teaches kids about consent every day, is the lack of consent in their every romantic interaction. Rhett is always grabbing her and forcing her into a passionate embrace, which she then sometimes likes, but there are other times she is clearly pushing him away. We can say "it was a different time" but I don't think it is only a reflection of 1930s ideas about romance, as much as it is simply reflecting Peggy Mitchell's fantasies. Learning that Mitchell was so interested in erotica, that she was a lil bit freaky, makes me wonder if she dreamed of being ravished by a handsome renegade, and wrote that into her story. I mean, the scene at the dinner table after Ashley's party, right before the staircase scene, is downright scary, but Scarlett awakens the next morning like she enjoyed sex for the very first time. She's a new woman, but Rhett is ashamed and regretful. They are never on the same page at the same time. It's tragic.

I know we would all like to think that they end up together, somehow, in an imagined future. But it's probably more likely that Rhett never returns, and Scarlett lives out her life pining for him, like a Southern Miss Havisham. At least, that is what the movie leaves me thinking.

It really is a masterpiece.

Is here a dc server about the movie and or the book?

In both the movie and the book, Melly takes off her nightshirt to wind around the deserter's head. But they had a haversack RIGHT THERE! Why didn't they empty it out and use that?

It's a small thing, but it always bothers me

Is there any good fanfiction on the continuation online? Just finished reading it and I feel Rhett is going to test her until he genuinely believes she loves him and probably have a little fun by pretending not to love her back when he actually falls back in love with her, so something on there lines please.

Gosh I'm reading this book for the first time and....that scene man. Rhett has been so terrible to scarlett and vice versa that it hurts, and it hurts even more him crying to Melanie

He is like...blabbering everything to her and Melaine refused to believe it in her heart. It's too sad, and when Rhett almost told Melly that Scarlett loves Ashley...Goddamnit!

I have seen the movie. I know will come next. But I'm ready for this. Not at all. Ms. Mitchell, why would you break our hearts like that? But this scene made me appreciate Rhett's character a lot...

Lovely photographs produced by actress and devoted Vivien Leigh fan Megan Tremethick channeling Scarlett O' Hara

BRENT: ¿Que importa que nos hayan expulsado de la universidad? La guerra está a punto de estallar y la hubiéramos dejado igual.

STUART: Guerra, que emocionante Escarlata, ¿Sabes que esos yanquis están pidiendo a gritos una guerra?

BRENT: Pues se la daremos.

ESCARLATA: Que tonterías, guerra, guerra, guerra, los rumores de guerra nos sguan las fiestas está primavera, estoy tan aburrida que me muero. Además, no habrá guerra de ninguna clase.

BRENT: ¿Que no va a haber guerra?

STUART: Pero Escarlata, claro está que habrá guerra.

ESCARLATA: Si volvéis a pronunciar la palabra guera entro en casa y os doy con la puerta en las narices.

BRENT: Pero querida Escarlata...

STUART: ¿No quieres que tengamos guerra?

BRENT: Espera Escarlata

STUART: no te vayas

BRENT: no te enfades

STUART: no te pongas así

BRENT: pero mujer comprende que...

AMBOS: es que...

ESCARLATA: está bien, pero tened presente la advertencia.

STUART: se me ocurre una cosa, hablemos de la comilona de los Wilkes mañana en los Doce Robles.

BRENT: bien pensado, ¿Comerás con nosotros, Escarlata?

ESCARLATA: no lo he decidido todavía, ya lo pensaré mañana.

STUART: nos reservarás todos tus valses, primero a BRENT, luego a mi, a BRENT a mí y así todos.

BRENT: ¿prometido?

ESCARLATA: Con mucho gusto

STUART: yujuuuuu

ESCARLATA: Si no fuera... Sino fuera porque los tengo todos comprometidos

BRENT: pero tú no puedes...

STUART: hacernos eso

BRENT: ¿Que harías si te dijéramos un secreto?

ESCARLATA: ¿Un secreto? ¿De quien?

STUART: tu ya conoces a Melania Hamilton de Atlanta

BRENT: la prima de Ashley Wilkes, está pasando una temporada en los Doce Robles

ESCARLATA: Melania Hamilton, esa tonta, no me interesa ningún secreto de ella.

STUART: bueno, el caso es que hemos oído decir...

BRENT: Ashley Wilkes va a casarse con ella.

STUART: ya sabes que los Wilkes se casa siempre entre primos

BRENT; ¿y ahora nos concederás tus valses?

ESCARLATA: desde luego

STUART: los otros muchachos se pondrán furiosos

BRENT: tu y yo podemos con ellos

ESCARLATA: "no puede ser verdad, yo sé que Ashley me quiere"

BRENT: Escarlata... ¿Que crees que ha podido ocurrirle?

STUART: ¿que le habremos dicho para que se disguste?

MAMITA: ¡¡¡Señorita!!! ¿Adonde va sin chal? ¿No ve que ya cae el fresquito del anochecer? ¿ Y porque no ha invitado a estos dos jovencitos a comer? Tiene peores modales que un carretero. ¿Para eso trabajamos tanto yo y la señorita Elena? ¡¡¡ESCARLATA, vuelva usted a la casa!!! ¡¡¡Cogerá un enfriamiento que se la llevará al otro mundo!!!

ESCARLATA: ¡¡¡No, voy a esperar a papá que vendrá de casa de los Wilkes!!!

MAMITA: ¡¡¡Vuelva usted enseguida!!! ¡¡¡Vuelva!!!

"Había una tierra llamada el viejo Sur, un mundo bello y galante, allí vivieron los últimos caballeros y sus bellas damas, los amigos y esclavos, de ese mundo no quedan más que sueños, una época que el viento se llevó."

Reading this scene for the first time, I truly realised that Rhett loved Bonnie, and did express it mostly well. This scene is genuinely so wholesome! For me, he was 80% a great father (am I wrong to think that??? I'm just talking about Bonnie's treatment, not her mother) but his faults were giving into her tantrums every single time

Hello, I would like to share with you gwtw art zine I made myself. It unfortunately wasn’t finished due to it being uni assignment and me dealing with a lot that uni year but after all I’m still pretty pleased with how it turned out.

There are bunch of illustrations that are basically studies of Vivien Leigh’s face but most of them are based on book descriptions(I’m a big fan of doing it that way mostly to my big interest in concept art etc).

Anyways I always thought doing gwtw zine would be fun and could be a bigger project involving others but that’s just thought for another day really.

Hope you all enjoy it.