Back in the depths of the Depression in the 1930's a
petite Southern woman living in Atlanta sat at her manual typewriter, pecking away
for years at what would become the great American novel; a story of the old
South, set before, during and after the Civil War. The woman was Margaret Mitchell and her book (all
1037 pages of it), published in 1936, was to make her an overnight sensation. Her life would change dramatically and would
never be the same again. Later on after
she was repeatedly asked why she never wrote a sequel to her famous novel, she
answered simply that she never had the time and besides, that she didn't know
what happened to her heroine Scarlett O'Hara either!
GWTW as it came to be known is the story of a pampered
Southern belle, Scarlett O'Hara, whose safe and secure world is thrown into
chaos by the death and destruction of an un- imaginable event, the War Between
the States, as it unfolds in northern Georgia during the years 1861-65. It is
told from the viewpoint of the women left behind rather than the men in battle,
thus its perspective is unique among war novels. It's not about guts and glory so much as it
is about what Margaret Mitchell called "gumption", a quality that she
felt separated the survivors of the war from those who didn't, and that is part
of the reason that the novel sees its heroine not only through the War but
Reconstruction as well.
At this point you may be saying, "I saw the
movie!" Yes, haven't we all, maybe
several times. Produced in 1939 by David
O. Selznick and starring Clark Gable and Vivian Leigh in roles they were born
to play, the movie adaptation still stands today as one of the greatest films
of all time. But great as it is the film
is NOT the book, nor can it hope to translate the richness of 1037 pages into
four hours of film--think of it as a fine corollary to the novel but not a
substitute.
Finally as NY Times critic Donald J Adams said, "For
sheer readability it is surpassed by nothing in American fiction." And I would add, nothing to this day, except
perhaps Lonesome Dove!
Next time: the biggest of them all: War and Peace.
When I was at one of my piano lessons in the 8th grade, Mrs. Agnes (Tom's aunt) told me that I was old enough and should be reading GWTW. I did and we discussed it throughout the next months. I have since read it two more times and each time picked up something more from this wonderful book.
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