Reviews

• Great reading!

  Learned so much about the historical background of the Civil War, southerners’ mindsets, and the aftermath of the reconstruction while enjoying the great story.

• Classical book

  I have read this book in many languages. However, the original language is still the Best! Story of love, history, and psychology of people without social media.

• 永遠に読みつがれて欲しい

  何度読んでも、スカーレットもレットもメラニーも登場人物は皆良い。 白い綿を実らせる赤い大地とそれを照らす南部の日差しとそこを過ぎるそよ風。南部は良いなぁ。 それにしても、あの150センチに満たない頑張り屋のシャイな女史がアトランタ市中の乱暴者の運転に跳ねられて命を落としたのはくれぐれも残念。 マーク・トウェインと共にアメリカ文学の金字塔を建てた女史の唯一の作品。読みつがれているし、永遠に読みつがれて欲しい一冊。

• Timeless Classic

  This English edition is a literary masterpiece. The plot's complexity and vivid characters make it a must-read. A timeless classic that resonates across generations.

• すたれない名作

  飽きずに読める名作。電子版は辞書検索が出来るので読みやすい

• Amazing book!

  I really think it a shame that I hadn't read this masterpiece until now. The movie was amazing but leaves out a lot of details that are in the book. Highly recommended to everyone!

• 探し回ってやっとこさ手に知れた本

  20代の時に映画を勘定し、この本を読みました。最後のセリフ【after all tomorrow is another day ！】この最後の言葉を読みたいが為に読んだのですが、この分は、日本では見つからず、Amazonでやっと見つけて、手に入れした。40年ぶりにtryして読みたいと思います

• 私だったら。

  明日はあすの風・・・ 「やるかやらないか、ただそれだけだ」。 私だったら最後はそんなセリフかな・・・ もう力強く前進するしかない！ 人生は。 洋書と日本書の違いに日本はすぐに上下巻とかに分けるけど海外は長編でも一冊にする。 私は前者派。 厚みで腕も疲れるけど、読み応えがある内容なだけに・・・重量感も大事かな？と。。。

• Indispensável

  Livro essencial para quem da literatura do século 20! A leitura é deliciosa!!!

• My musings on a classic!

  The first time I read Gone With the Wind, I was around sixteen years old. It made a lasting impression on me. I have probably read this book at least ten times during my youth and my young adult years and watched the movie as many times. I realized that it must have been thirty years since I last read it and decided it was time to read it again with new eyes. I downloaded it and also purchased the audio book to go along with it. I must say this has been a different experience listening to the audio along with the book. Linda Stephens is the narrator and truly brings this huge cast of characters to life. I could easily distinguish the different voices. She does an outstanding job with all the varying accents from Scarlett, to Rhett, to Mammy. Now at times, I did cringe when I listened to all the racist dialogue, but I tried to remember this is written when this was the normal attitude of that time, not how we feel today. Obviously Gone With the Wind is NOT politically correct to say the least! I think that it also important to understand that Margaret Mitchell was a gentile southern woman and her upbringing was vastly different from how my generation was raised. My mother was also raised during the same time period and even though she grew up in the north, her attitude was a bit prejudged as well. I thank God I became an adult in the seventies and have a much more enlightened attitude. With that being said, I also listened/read with knowledge of books written in my time. While Margaret Mitchell’s writing style is vastly different from the norm today, I am sure it was brilliant in 1936. I kept that in mind and focused on this epic story that swept me up in the midst of a war torn world and the aftermath of that war. I can understand why Ms. Mitchell took ten years to write this story. I cannot even imagine the amount of research she must have done to get the historical details accurate. I am not going to do a synopsis of the book other than to say that it covers the years of the Civil War and the reconstruction period that the south endured. Most individuals today have either read the book or watched the movie, at least my generation. Our children are aware of it as well, even if they have never read the book or watched the movie. When I read Gone With the Wind as a young girl, I think I concentrated on all the history and pageantry and not the character’s defects. While Scarlett is an incredibly narcissistic character, she does have an indomitable spirit and personality. I am not sure I could have grown up in those times where a woman’s only purpose in life was to be ornamental and where men believed them hen-witted and should not be concerned by any issues beyond beauty and refinement and the need to be a lady at all times, and not have been just like her. I would hope I would have been more like Melanie, but I doubt it. I am as strong-willed and as stubborn as Scarlett. I just do not like to admit it. Scarlett is a complex character with many layers to her personality and while I do not like her character, I do admire her tenacity and determination to survive and flourish in a changed world, so different than what she could have imagined as a young girl. Margaret Mitchell has written a character with such depth that it takes my breath away. If I could write a heroine with a tenth of her depth, I am sure it would be an immediate best seller. Rhett Butler is a rogue that as a reader I always love. For some reason, while it is not acceptable for a woman to be scandalous, it is desired in heroes as long as there is a tender, caring side to them. Rhett’s character has a huge arch that satisfied my need for ‘a bad boy gone good’. While I wish that their love story could have had a ‘Happily Ever After’, it is much more realistic for Rhett to give up on ever having Scarlett return his love and to grow so cynical that he finally does not “give a damn”. It would have been out of character if he had been able to forgive and forget. Well my musings are getting a bit deep so I will close. If you have not read this amazing book, I highly recommend it, but do read with an open mind to fully appreciate the artistry of the writing and the pageantry of a time long dead. Happy reading!

• Book jacket is damaged

  The book jacket has scratches and tears around the edges and it makes me curious whether this is actually new. But the crisp pages reassured me, though I'm incredibly disappointed by the wear and tears on the book jacket.

• Underrated

  I bought this book primarily because I am a huge fan of the film. To be honest, I wasn't expecting to be bowled over and sort of imagined a Mills Boon/Jilly Cooper type read - entertaining but not particularly substantial. Well, I was wrong. For context, my usual novels of choice are classics so I was pleasantly surprised to find this wouldn't be completely out of one with those. First clue is this book actually won the Pultizer Prize - so whilst it's not seen as 'serious' writing in our time, it was considered a masterpiece back in the day, the great American novel, etc. Yes, times were different then but I find it slightly sad that the book's reputation has fallen somewhat. Whilst it probably not 'top tier' next to the greats of Fitzgerald, Salinger, Dickens and so on, it's not a million miles away and to be honest, far better written than a lot of highly acclaimed novels today. To get over the inevitable - yes the book is racist. The KKK do feature but they are not seem as wholly positive - while some characters are in favour, interestingly our heroine and hero do not think highly of them. Yes, the n word is used and whenever a black person speaks their speech is rendered phonetic which is derogatory (as it's not done for the white people who would also be speaking with an accent). (Although, interesting I believe Bronte does a similar thing in Wuthering Heights with the servants speaking in a phonetic manner and the main characters not and this hasn't received as much comment.) Racist comments are made about the appearance of some blacks and there are some 'whitewashing' statements around how 'good' black slaves actually like being slaves and would never leave their masters, and the North has corrupted them etc etc. All of this is of course offensive and wrong. However, should we claim a book is 'bad' or ban it or not read it just because we disagree with some of the things it says? Whilst not a defence of these ideals at all, this book was written in a different time (far before the Civil Rights movement) and set in a time even more different (when black people were still 'property'). The ideas represented by the characters and the author themselves are (sadly) indicative of common opinion of the time, and whilst they are wrong and would not and should not be tolerated today, arguably you could not set the book during this period without giving voice to some of these opinions. As for the writing itself, I found it well written and highly entertaining. Fans of the film will enjoy it I think, on the whole it sticks remarkably close to the plot of the film (even some speech is the same in the film!), although notably Scarlett's first two children are not present in the film (but I think this was the right decision as I don't think they add much in the book to be honest). Yes, the book does drag in some places but saying that a lot of the content is relevant and I think you could probably only cut it down 50-100 pages or so without losing a lot of meaningful writing and events for the characters, which for a book this long I think is quite good. The characters are all 'real' and fleshed out, with the exception of the annoying Ashley (and the slaves as to be expected, unfortunately). He is slightly ridiculous but this is somewhat forgiven as I think he's meant to be. Rhett is somewhat darker in the book than the film, and some say that Scarlett is as well although actually I find the book makes her somewhat more human as we are privy to her inner thoughts and deep down she is a 'good' character and does a lot of 'bad' things for the right reasons. Overall, if you're a fan of the film or interested in a fiction of the American south/Civil War this is worth a read. The plot is cracking and whips along, covering a span of twenty odd years and many dramatic events. For a long novel I got through it relatively quickly as it is very readable and highly entertaining.

• Worth the read. Worth the money.

  It is easy to see why this novel has been so popular so long. It is beautifully written. Yes, there is racist language in it. Most of it is relevant to the story and the period, accurately reflecting the attitudes of the antibellum South. The edition is quite nice, and for the money, the hard-cover is a very good purchase.

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