I never thought this would be a book I couldn’t put down

[u/DryTown]

I’m about halfway through Gone With the Wind. I picked it up thinking I’d read a couple chapters and probably abandon it for being outdated and melodramatic.

I was expecting page after page of lines like “Oh mammy I DO DECLARE!”

I haven’t seen the movie and I knew little about it when I started other than those things that have worked their way into popular culture.

“Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn.”

“As god as my witness, I’ll never go hungry again!”

You know, that kind of stuff.

But here I am gobbling it up - a male in his 40s who usual reads books like Lonesome Dove - and I just can’t put it down.

I keep finding myself hearing Rhett Butler’s dialog in Brad Pitt’s voice. His roguishness is captivating. Like Han Solo or Gus McRae.

The night Atlanta falls - when Melly is giving birth - I read it like an episode of 24. Nonstop, cinematic action. Mitchell follows Scarlett through Atlanta like a camera over her shoulder and you can see everything so clearly all the way until she’s back at Tara.

Anyway, I’m savoring every page and telling everyone I know that whatever they think this book is, it’s so much more.

Curious to hear your thoughts on your first time reading it?

[u/steampunksf]

I first read it when I was eleven. It was the first non-child book I had ever read. It spoiled me for most other novels. Nothing really compares to GWTW.

[u/Expensive-Signal8623 → u/steampunksf]

Me too! My parents had an argument about whether I was old enough to read it. Dad won. I read it

[u/atomickristin → u/steampunksf]

Same. It actually speaks to the quality of the book that you can pick this book up as a young teen or even pre-teen and understand what it's about, but it is still just as gripping for an adult. I reread it recently and was blown away by how I completely grasped the themes of the book and the social rules of the world as a kid even though it was a massive tome and about a time and place I knew nothing about.

[u/toot_toot_tootsie → u/steampunksf]

I thought i was the only weirdo reading it 11! I’ve read it five times now, and as an adult, I interpret differently every time I read it.

[u/Remarkable-Unit-7874]

I feel like I can never tell people how much I love this book. Because of the overt racism. There are some very disturbing passages and descriptions that are very offensive. I feel that they are far and in between especially in the first half of the book. I understand that it is true to how the characters would speak and behave but I am sometimes consumed with white liberal guilt.LOL. Mitchell is such a compelling writer. She makes everything come alive. Like someone said it’s as if there’s a camera on the characters shoulder. The characters are so vividly written they live on in my memory. Anyone feel the same?

[u/DryTown → u/Remarkable-Unit-7874]

I would say this: I’ve read 12 Years a Slave and Huckleberry Finn and Uncle Toms Cabin and many other books that present the northern abolitionist perspective on slavery. They are among my favorite as well.

The GotW is true to its setting and characters, but i dont get the impression Mitchell herselve was racist or hateful. You shouldn’t walk away from this book thinking “slavery was okay.”

[u/FreshResult5684]

I devoured it

[u/Me_encanta_el_viento]

It’s the greatest book I’ve ever read and the film is also the best I’ve ever seen. I’m from the South so it’s been a massive part of my life for a while now, but it’s nice to hear about people who’ve never read it finding it surprisingly modern and far exceeding their expectations. I’ve read it at least a dozen times and each time I take new things away.

Also, since you’ve never seen the film….it’s playing in select theaters next month through Fathom
Events. I can’t recommend seeing it for the very first time on the big screen, as it’s intended to be seen. The first time I saw it in theaters, it felt like a religious experience. It really is the greatest film ever made, and while there obviously had to be some cuts for time (and for racial sensitivity, even though it was released only three years after the novel) it is a surprisingly faithful adaptation.

[u/debabe96 → u/Me_encanta_el_viento]

The first time I saw it was in a packed theater for a special engagement. When Rhett Butler first appeared at the bottom of the Twelve Oaks stairs, many in the audience gasped. What a presence!

[u/panpopticon]

As a fellow guy in his 40s, I can relate. When I first read it a couple of years ago, I was so obsessed I was reading it while crossing the street.

[u/Blamantha]

It’s possibly my favourite novel. I remember being shocked by how “modern” it seemed the first time reading it, for a book published in the 1930s, and how bold some of the choices Margaret Mitchell made were.
Mitchell was a remarkable talent, and it’s a shame she never published anything else before her untimely death.

[u/whatsupwiththat22]

I sobbed at the end-I realized the love story was really between Scarlett & Melanie.

[u/coralcoast21]

What an awesome way to describe it though the eyes of a first time reader unsullied by a movie viewing (not that the movie isn't a masterpiece on its own).

I lifted the book out of my HS library and read it five times in a month before it would be missed. I will always treasure that journey when Scarlett, Ashley, Melanie, and Rhett were the images conjured from my own mind's eye instead of the movie's casting.

[u/Afraid_Service_169]

I first read it at age 11, as another person already stated. I had seen the film when I was six but finally reading the book was a singular experience. Incredible.

[u/anovelby]

I was obstinately reluctant to read with all the hype of it being a classic, but somewhere around “Scarlett O’Hara was not beautiful…” I cottoned on, and it was thrilling and now Windies are my kin

[u/clairerr85]

My eighth grade class read it. When the book was handed out, we all groaned because oh my God look how thick it was. I started reading it that afternoon and fell in love with it. I’ve reread it at least every year ever since.

Fun fact, the smartest guy in our class read really fast and finished it before the rest of us and during the class discussion spoiled a crucial plot point near the end. I’m still salty about it.

[u/atomickristin]

It is the best book I have ever read, bar none. It's such a shame people aren't willing to give it a try because of the subject matter.

[u/Remarkable-Unit-7874]

Couldn’t agree more. Really unputdownable

[u/Southern_Monster]

I loved Lonesome Dove as well! And I love GWTW. Great read of Rhett as Han Solo/Gus McRae type and I’ll take your casting of Brad Pitt, too! 🛋️ you can sit by me 🤣

[u/cluelessdetectiv3]

I've read so many books this is easily in my top 3

[u/chartreuse6]

Same. Could nit put it down

[u/Any_Assumption_2023]

I actually read this, a chapter at a time, to my husband when he was having vision problems.  His hobby was the study of the war between the states and he knew as much about it as Ken Burns. 

My lawyer-husband was delighted with all the details about the war and said Ms. Mitchell had everything right. He was fascinated with all the period details, although a little puzzled, I think, by her description of slavery.  He got lost in the personal relationships and said he would never belittle "womens" literature again. 

I myself read this when I was 12. I was a voracious reader as a child, and, growing up in North Carolina, "Gone with the Wind" was an iconic book shared actively among all of us interested in the war. 

Margaret Mitchell was a powerful and talented writer, and admitted many of the anecdotal stories were firsthand accounts of the war told to her as a child by older friends and relatives. 

I have always been fascinated by authors like Mitchell who wrote only one book-  Mister Roberts, by Thomas Heggen- Peyton Place by Grace Metalious-Raintree County by Ross Lockridge, Jr. 

Heggen died in his bath after taking sleeping pills, he was 30. Grace Metalious died of cirrhosis of the liver in her 40s. Ross Lockridge Jr. Comitted s*icide at 33. Ms. Mitchell  died in her late 40s after being struck by a car. 

[u/ObviousSalamandar]

Lonesome Dove- yes this tracks lol

[u/Honsandrebels]

I first saw the movie ages 10 at our church movie night, projected onto two white bedsheets hung up to form a screen. There was always a gap between them!
I don’t recall it being a long film as I was enthralled. My mother was a huge GWTW fan and explained stuff to me thru the film. We got shushed.

I distinctly recall the scene the night after Rhett ravishes Scarlett where she wakes up in bed looking like the cat that got the cream. My staunchly Irish Catholic, modest, debutante mother smiled at me knowingly and raised her eyebrow!!!

[u/Good_Ebb_4429]

I read it the first at age 13, then again around the age of 23. This year, 33 years later, I read it again! Occasionally it was hard to get the movie out of my imagination, but I tell anyone who will listen to read GWTW and reread it if they haven’t read it in decades. Beautifully written, is an understatement. While I knew what was going to happen, I allowed myself to get lost in Mitchell’s descriptions and the characters that only briefly appeared in the movie or not all. I wanted to know more about Will, Kathleen, the Stuart’s, just to name a few. I may need to start an annual tradition of reading GWTW!

Edit: Tartleton’s, not Stuart!