Gone With The Wind (volume 1) by Margaret Mitchell

The journey

Part of the America 1850 reading journey

How it got on the shelf

It’s a bit of a mystery as no one in the house will own up to buying it, but it has been there a while, intimidating in its bulk and close knit print in this 1996 (60^th anniversary) paperback edition. It probably arrived as a second hand, but clearly unread, makeweight in a buy three for a pound offer; picked up due to its inclusion in both the BBC Big Read best 100 novels of all time and the Channel 4 books of the century list.

The Review

This thousand page blockbuster is helpfully split into two volumes, which will allow a two part review. There may be some spoilers below but the main story will be familiar from the film and, of course, history.

Volume 1 is very much the story of southern belle Scarlett O’Hara, eldest of four daughters of Gerald and Ellen. He of rough and ready Irish extraction, she with French ancestry, which gives Scarlett unrivalled beauty dangerously mixed with a belief that life is for living and convention is for others. Life on the Tara plantation suits her down to the ground as she keeps all the young beaux dancing to her tune, although the only one she really wants (Ashley Wilkes) is proving resistant to her charms.

The war with the North is coming, but the South’s preparation more resembles that for just another, if rather large, summer ball – what colour uniform should the Georgia cavalry wear, and should they let the ‘poor whites’ join, even if their horses are a bit of a disgrace? Indeed much of part 1 could be mistaken for a haberdasher’s manual as organdie, muslin, lace, silk and taffeta combine to great effect (in the ladies’ dresses rather than the gentlemen’s uniforms).

The coming war produces a scramble for husbands and, despite a desperate last ditch attempt by Scarlett (witnessed by the dashing, if socially unacceptable, Rhett Butler), Ashley opts for another. Scarlett settles on the rebound for an unlikely alternative but her marriage proves short-lived though productive, leaving her a widow and single parent at just 17 years old.

In part 2 Scarlett, restless at Tara, takes up an offer to move to the bustling town of Atlanta, moving in with Ashley’s wife, Melly and her aunt. As the war cranks up and the Yankee blockade begins to bite Scarlett is distressed at the consequent shortage of new dresses and hats with even ribbons hard to come by. Not to worry, for Rhett Butler, now  a ‘blockade runner’ is able to keep her well supplied, tempting her out of her widow’s weeds and wheedling his way into the ladies’ society.

By part 3 the war dominates as the confederate army struggles and is driven back towards Atlanta. Reality finally hits Scarlett as she is pressed into helping at the hospital and keeping the home going with Aunt Pittypat, as useful as her name suggests, the increasingly pregnant Melly, and of course the last remnants of their loyal  ‘blacks’ . These latter are treated throughout a bit like favoured household animals for whom affection is held but who need to be scolded and occasionally beaten for their own good.

When the unthinkable happens and Atlanta falls Scarlett needs all her innate Irish practicality, independent nature and sheer cussedness to get her though some tough situations (with a little help from Rhett before he, better late than never, heads off in support of the now lost cause). Scarlett heads back to Tara with her motley crew, not knowing whether it will still be standing, whether her family will still be there or how they will survive. Her transformation is illustrated through her reckless exposure to the elements and the ever present danger of freckles, and the selfless destruction of her petticoat to provide a halter for a stray cow encountered on the journey. More dramatic trials await her at Tara.

By the end of volume 1 the war has been lost and along with it the comfortable plantation life, the cotton crops and worst of all the youth of the South; will Ashley and Rhett be numbered among them?