Her Classic Book Of The Week… Gone With The Wind

With our hectic lives and all of the new books that we are trying to keep on top of, we can often forget about the classics, those books that we loved to re-visit or the books that we just haven’t got to quite yet. Every week, we pick a classic book of the week that is a favourite of ours in the office. Our classic pick this week is Gone with the Wind. "I'll think of it tomorrow, at Tara. I can stand it then. Tomorrow, I'll think of some way to get him back. After all, tomorrow is another day.” First published in 1936, Margaret Mitchell's southern epic, Gone with the Wind, took the world by storm. Within a couple of years, the film rights had been bought and two of the biggest stars in Hollywood were cast as the lead characters. Mitchell picked up the Pulitzer Prize for her novel in 1937 and the book has currently sold about 30 million copies. Set in the deep South just before the outbreak of the Civil War, the book revolves around Scarlett O'Hara, a young upper-class woman who spends most of her time trying to figure out how to get Ashley Wilkes to fall in love with her. However, after she meets Rhett Butler and Ashley marries his cousin Melanie, their entire lives change with the outbreak of the war. Although the main focus of the book is always Scarlett's love affairs, the book is perfectly set in the surroundings of the Civil War, its grief, its hardship on the area around Atlanta, the extreme loss that the families suffer and the absolute loyalty they have to those they love. However, even though she marries Rhett, Scarlett still loves Ashley and over the years, her lack of interest in her husband's life and the extreme sorrow they encounter through their marriage, she discovers she loves him only far too late. Gone with the Wind isn't exactly the shortest book in the world but it is entirely worth investing your time in it, if only to get a better idea of where the characters of Scarlett and Rhett originally came from. It's also exceptionally easy to read despite its length and you will find that even though you don't like Scarlett too much, you will always root for her. A classic masterpiece but be prepared to cry.