Review: Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell (Preface by Pat Conroy)

Title: Gone with the Wind
Author: Margaret Mitchell
Publisher: Scribner
Publication Date: November 1, 2007 by Scribner (first published June 30, 1936)
Edition: ebook (1,052 pages)
Genres:

• Fiction
• Classics
• Historical Fiction
• Romance

Literary Awards:

• National Book Award for Novel (1936)
• Pulitzer Prize for Novel (1937)

Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This epic novel tells the story of Scarlett O'Hara, a young woman of sixteen in 1861, when the Civil War commences. And it follows her life through that period of history, continuing into the reconstruction era. At the beginning of the novel, Scarlett is focused on the romantic conquest of Ashley Wilkes, the son of a wealthy plantation owner and friend since childhood. But her plans take a very different turn when Ashley chooses another young lady and the Civil War alters her life in ways she could never have imagined.

This book can be read on so many levels: as a romance; as a historical novel about the progress and aftermath of the Civil War in the south; and, as a chronicle of the perspective of the Civil War from a southern viewpoint.

I first read Gone with the Wind just after graduating from high school. My mom read it when it was first published in 1936, and it became one of her favorite books, perhaps, her most loved book. She reread it often, and we discussed it regularly after I first read it. I don't think I have cried over a book so much before or since. It became a personal and real story to me, even though I knew it was fiction. The characters took on real stature.

I have reread it four times since that first time. This last time, I decided to read the edition with the preface written by Pat Conroy. I thought it would offer me more perspective because he was from the south and a southern fiction writer. It certainly did that, and more. I believe I now have a better understanding of the Civil War than I could have gotten from history books--all because of the perspective Pat Conroy brings to the Civil War and this novel. To say more about this would give too much away. Suffice it to say, this novel is enhanced considerably by Pat Conroy's preface, and I recommend this edition because it will give the reader an eye opening look inside a way of life that is no more. But a way of life that still reverberates in our culture and politics to this very day.

I recommend this book to anyone who loves literature, romance, the classics and history.