Gone With the Wind

Please use this sub-forum to discuss any classic books or any very old fiction books or series.
Forum rules
Authors and publishers are not able to post replies in the review topics.
Post Reply
User avatar
jain_shriya
Posts: 15
Joined: 01 Jun 2012, 03:32
Bookshelf Size: 0

Gone With the Wind

Post by jain_shriya »

Hello Everyone,

This is my first post on this forum (or in any forum i guess) and it has to be about my all time favourite novel: GONE WITH THE WIND by Margaret Mitchell!
I simply loved the 1500 page story of a country in its pleasant and most difficult times. This story has been beautifully carved out which pours out the genuine emotions of the people of that region. What makes this book even more interesting is that you can feel the emotions of the 'place' in different difficult times as well and how can I forget to mention the epic love story of Scarlett'OHara-Rhett Butler. If you are a girl, you will definitely fall in love with Rhett. It is not only the story, but the way in which Margaret Mitchell has said this story, which has made this book an epic read.You just cannot keep the book down.
I think every person who has even a little amount of interest in reading should read this book.
I am taking this book to my grave!
I would love to know your views on this book.. What do you think about it?
User avatar
LoniJo
Posts: 57
Joined: 31 May 2012, 09:01
Bookshelf Size: 0
Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-lonijo.html

Post by LoniJo »

I read Gone With the Wind for the first time in Jr. HIgh. I have read it several time since the I't one of my favorite reads. I've also seen the movie a few times (but I'll always choose the book over the movie!) I think one of the things I love about this book is how the characters, especially Scarlett, grow and develop through the story. Margaret Mitchell didn't get in a hurry to tell her story but made it full, well rounded, and complete.
User avatar
jain_shriya
Posts: 15
Joined: 01 Jun 2012, 03:32
Bookshelf Size: 0

Post by jain_shriya »

Agreed!....the way scarlett makes effort so that she and her near ones are not affected by the situation, is amazing...
I always find movies depressing (because they literally kill the story) if I have read the book.
I appreciate your comment.
User avatar
Sheila
Posts: 206
Joined: 09 Jul 2007, 12:31
Favorite Author: Impossible to pick
Favorite Book: Gone With The Wind
Bookshelf Size: 18

Post by Sheila »

Gone With The Wind is my favorite book has been since I was eight. The librarian at my school gave me her first edition copy, I could not put it down then or any other time I have reread it. Not only did I do I love the characters and the stories it tells, but it spark a passion in me for the Civil War, and other history of the South. I think that has mark of a great book when it touches so you explore the world beyond it pages, when it makes you want to know more.
User avatar
Hourglass
Posts: 63
Joined: 02 Jun 2012, 18:46
Favorite Author: Too many to choose
Favorite Book: I have many favorites
Currently Reading: Blood Song by Anthony Ryan
Bookshelf Size: 0

Post by Hourglass »

I thoroughly enjoyed Gone With the Wind. While it isn't on my favorites list, it is a permanent resident on my keeper book shelf. I have read several times. I couldn't stand the movie though. They left too much out and messed other things up. But I have found, more often than not, that the book is always better than the movie.
User avatar
Sheila
Posts: 206
Joined: 09 Jul 2007, 12:31
Favorite Author: Impossible to pick
Favorite Book: Gone With The Wind
Bookshelf Size: 18

Post by Sheila »

I agree that the book is much better than the movie. I however adore the movie I think Viven Leigh and Clark Glabe brought the characters to life very well. However I made the mistake of reading the sequel Scarlett by Alexandra Ripley. It was well written and a good story, I wished it wasn't using characters I knew and loved seeing as I felt they did things I don't think they would have in the hands of Margaret Mitchell
User avatar
Hourglass
Posts: 63
Joined: 02 Jun 2012, 18:46
Favorite Author: Too many to choose
Favorite Book: I have many favorites
Currently Reading: Blood Song by Anthony Ryan
Bookshelf Size: 0

Post by Hourglass »

I haven't ever read the sequel. I may read it just to see what happens in it.
User avatar
LoniJo
Posts: 57
Joined: 31 May 2012, 09:01
Bookshelf Size: 0
Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-lonijo.html

Post by LoniJo »

I also read the sequel and it was almost as if it was different people. Whoever wrote it just didn't capture the feel of the GWTW. The characters were just too different.
User avatar
jain_shriya
Posts: 15
Joined: 01 Jun 2012, 03:32
Bookshelf Size: 0

Post by jain_shriya »

I haven't read the sequel...i dont intend to read it...i just want to have the memory of GWTW and am scared Scarlett might ruin it.
And GWTW movie had cut the story a lot. From the entire movie I think only scarlett & rhett justified their characters from the books. I was also looking forward for Ashley, but he was very depressing in the movie.
User avatar
Sheila
Posts: 206
Joined: 09 Jul 2007, 12:31
Favorite Author: Impossible to pick
Favorite Book: Gone With The Wind
Bookshelf Size: 18

Post by Sheila »

Ashley was depressing in the movie, I think that had a lot to do with the fact that Leslie Howard did not want to play Ashley. I also think that Olivia De Havilland did good job as Melanie. I guess I just made my peace with that fact they had to cut from the book I know a lot is missing but the movie as it is; is just shy of four hours.

Some of my favorite quotes from the novel:

" 'You're so brutal to those who love you, Scarlett. You take their love and hold it over their heads like a whip.' " Rhett

"In the end what will happen will be what has happened whenever a civilization breaks up. The people who have brains and courage come through and the ones who haven't are winnowed out.' " Ashley

"For 'tis the only thing in the world that lasts...and to anyone with a drop of Irish blood in them the land they live on is like their mother...'Tis the only thing worth working for, fighting for, dying for." Gerald

"He never really existed at all, except in my imagination," she thought wearily. "I loved something I made up, something that's just as dead as Melly is. I made a pretty suit of clothes and fell in love with it. And when Ashley came riding along, so handsome, so different, I put that suit on him and made him wear it whether it fitted him or not. And I wouldn't see what he really was. I kept on loving the pretty clothes-and not him at all." Scarlett
User avatar
jain_shriya
Posts: 15
Joined: 01 Jun 2012, 03:32
Bookshelf Size: 0

Post by jain_shriya »

Sheila,
Thank you for the quotes...it brings back good memories of the book.... :)
User avatar
Hourglass
Posts: 63
Joined: 02 Jun 2012, 18:46
Favorite Author: Too many to choose
Favorite Book: I have many favorites
Currently Reading: Blood Song by Anthony Ryan
Bookshelf Size: 0

Post by Hourglass »

I love the last quote.

How do the characters change in the second book? Or would that be considered a spoiler?
User avatar
LoniJo
Posts: 57
Joined: 31 May 2012, 09:01
Bookshelf Size: 0
Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-lonijo.html

Post by LoniJo »

Hourglass wrote:I love the last quote.

How do the characters change in the second book? Or would that be considered a spoiler?
I don't think it's really a spoiler, and it's been a while since I read it, but......In GWTW everything was so real about the characters and events that it was like I was there......Scarlett was just a good book to read. (If that makes any sense) It didn't have the same feel or depth to it that GWTW had. I guess that's the best way of putting it. If I had never read GWTW it would have been a good book, but having been so enamored of GWTW, it just wasn't the same.....left me feeling like I was missing something, maybe?
User avatar
Hourglass
Posts: 63
Joined: 02 Jun 2012, 18:46
Favorite Author: Too many to choose
Favorite Book: I have many favorites
Currently Reading: Blood Song by Anthony Ryan
Bookshelf Size: 0

Post by Hourglass »

I wonder if the second book is on Kindle. You have me curious now. Not because I doubt you in any way. Sometimes I think books do better with out a sequel, but even so, I always read it to see.
User avatar
Sheila
Posts: 206
Joined: 09 Jul 2007, 12:31
Favorite Author: Impossible to pick
Favorite Book: Gone With The Wind
Bookshelf Size: 18

Post by Sheila »

They do have it on the Kindle it popped up on my recommendation list. I agree that there is something missing although the book itself is a good and well written book, but it does not have the magic Gone With The Wind did.

There was another book that was authorized by Marget Mitchell's estate Rhett Butler's People by Donald McCaig. I never read it, it is Gone with the Wind told from Rhett's perspective. I believe it would be interesting but I have yet to come across it.
Post Reply

Return to “Classic Books”