As of yesterday, June 30, Gone with the Wind (the book) is 88 years old! I found a copy in the house that my family rented when I was in fifth grade. I started reading it and just couldn’t stop! I so admired Scarlett–and I always joke that I learned how to flirt from reading about her. How she said to look at a man across the room and smile as though you know a secret, then coyly look away . . . and how to walk slightly pigeon-toed so that your hoop skirt sways enticingly . . . how did Margaret Mitchell know that? They weren’t wearing hoop skirts in her day!
I wasn’t very sophisticated as a fifth grader, so I believed Scarlet when she said Rhett didn’t love her, and as she ran home through the fog after Miss Melly’s death, her epiphany nearly knocked me over. I don’t think I ever got over that feeling, and it taught me what a well-written book can do. Amazing, isn’t it?
Yesterday Garrison Keillor quoted the first line in his almanac post, but he got it wrong. It’s this: Scarlett O’Hara was not beautiful, but men seldom realized it when as caught by her charms as the Tarleton twins were. What a great way to start a novel . . .
Every character in that book came off the page and seemed absolutely real. And when I saw the movie, I liked it, but it didn’t have the power of the book–probably because the camera can’t let us inside a character’s head the way a book can. Still, the movie is a classic, and for folks who can’t or won’t read a 1056-page book, it’s a good second best.
Have you read Gone with the Wind? Did you love it as much as I did? Do tell!
Angie
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I read Gone With The Wind when I was in 7th or 8th grade, right before there was a revival at theaters around the country (I won’t say what year that was, hehe). We were visiting my grandmother in upstate New York when I got to the fog scene and I was reading by the hall light because I was supposed to be asleep by then. Someone TURNED OFF THE LIGHT!! Of course, I had to turn it back on to “go to the bathroom” so I could finish. It was the first time I remember thinking how much better the book was than the movie.
Interestingly, my sister and I had a discussion this week about the scene in the field right before the movie intermission: she said it was a carrot Scarlett ate and I said it was a radish. It turns out she remembered the movie better and I remembered the scene from the book better. 😉
Yes, I would have said radish–which was in the book. Don’t even remember the movie’s carrot. :-). But who can forget, “As God is my witness, I’ll never be hungry again!” ?
Absolutely!
I’ve always loved the movie so I was super excited when I had a chance to visit the house where Margaret Mitchell wrote Gone With the Wind several years ago. I bought a copy of the book in the gift shop and read it for the first time after that and loved it. I felt like I finally got to really know why Scarlett was the way she was and understand her better.
I’ve always been amazed at people who portray Scarlett as a spoiled, scheming woman . . . yes, she was those things, but she was also clever and passionate and strong and determined–so many admirable things! I think the movie just doesn’t do her justice. You have to read the book to get the full picture of her personality. :-). How cool that you got to visit the house!
I’ve read Gone with the Wind at least five times. Maybe more. When I was a girl in the 50s and early 60s, the movie came to a Boise theater every year, and my grandma went to see it every year. Don’t know how many times she read the book. But I didn’t read the book until I was about 20.
The line that captured me decades ago and has held me all these years is from chapter six, describing Melanie: “. . . her brown eyes, eyes that had the still gleam of a forest pool in winter when brown leaves shine up through quiet water.” Brown leaves shining up through quiet water. Oh, that word picture.
Yes, that is poetic! I was more into the dialogue. Used to read it with a tape recorder, playing all the parts. 🙂
That book got me through 7th grade. I still have my beat-up paperback version. Sometime during college, I saw the movie on the big screen with my mother, and every woman there sighed at the first shot of Clark Gable looking up the stairs at Vivien Leigh. The man had been gone for years, and women were still swooning. What a legacy! 🙂
Yep. He had “it,” whatever it is. 🙂
Yes, and yes. I too enjoyed the movie.I think I came closer than most movies made from books. Most books are better, but I have read two books that weren’t!
I have to admire them for doing justice to the book–though they left out two children. Poor kids–movie goers never got to know Ella and Wade Hampton!
I read GWTW several times as a teen, and I recently re-read in a few months ago. It still a 5-star novel for me, but I now have the maturity and experience to appreciate much more of the story and the writing than I did previously.
And despite its length, I had trouble putting it down.
That’s the hallmark of a good book–you lose yourself in the story, no matter how long it is. I haven’t read many like that, but there are a few!
GWTW is still my all time favorite. I have read it 3 times and wish I had time to read it again. I liked the movie in some ways but the book did it for me. I got 2 copies in my library. I also have a DVD & VHS copy of the movie.
It’s certainly a keeper!
I read the book, for the first time, when I was a teenager. I had already seen the movie a number of times, so was surprised at how much more the book had in it. I hated it when the book ended.
Happily a literature class in college had GWTW as one of the books we studied, and, I was very happy to once again read an old friend.
My mom loved this movie, and think of her whenever it is on or talked about. It would be great to watch it one more time with her. Thanks for reminiscing.
Any time! So happy that GWTW is a family memory for you!