Finallly! Reading Gone With the Wind!

[SheilaT]

4. I recently reread it.

I'd first read the novel when I was twelve, then reread it several times over the years. The recent reread was the first time in at least twenty years for me.

If GWTW came out today, it would be turned into a three or four part TV series, or possibly two rather long theatrical release movies, although I'd put my money on the former.

What shocked me the most in my recent reading of it is the incredible racism masquerading as fact.

Aside from that, it's an amazing novel. Mitchell knew how to tell a story and the shame is that she didn't write more. It took her a good ten years to write as she did a lot of research to get her Civil War battles correct. She also, I understand, tried very hard to make sure that no character in her book had the same name as any persons who had actually lived in that area back then. The story is that she hadn't even quite finished it and actually had no intention of submitting it for publication when an editor for Macmillan came to Atlanta, and some friend of Mitchell's was bragging that they were going to publish her novel and wasn't it too bad Margaret had nothing to publish. Mitchell got angry enough to give her manuscript to the editor and the rest is history.

There's also a story that the novel had been rejected a number of times before Macmillan accepted it, which simply is not true. The supposed rejections of GWTW is often held up to be a shining example of why people should persist at whatever. Which is not necessarily a bad piece of advice, but a fake story isn't a real good way to deliver the advice.