Gone with the Wind pdf book by Margaret Mitchelle is a novel by the American writer first published in 1936. The story is set in Clayton County and Atlanta, both in Georgia, during the American Civil War and Reconstruction Era. It depicts the struggles of young Scarlett O’Hara, the spoiled daughter of a well-to-do plantation owner, who must use every means at her disposal to claw her way out of poverty following Sherman’s destructive “March to the Sea”. This historical novel features a coming-of-age story, with the title taken from the poem “Non Sum Qualis eram Bonae Sub Regno Cynarae”, written by Ernest Dowson. Gone with the Wind was popular with American readers from the outset and was the top American fiction bestseller in 1936 and 1937. As of 2014, a Harris poll found it to be the second favorite book of American readers, just behind the Bible. More than 30 million copies have been printed worldwide. Gone with the Wind is a controversial reference point for subsequent writers of the South, both black and white. Scholars at American universities refer to, interpret, and study it in their writings. The novel has been absorbed into American popular culture. In this article, you will be able to download Gone with the wind by Magaret Mitchelle pdf as well as do the following:
Gone with the Wind pdf Book Summary
Margaret Mitchell’s page-turning, sweeping American epic has been a classic for over eighty years. Beloved and thought by many to be the greatest of the American novels, Gone with the Wind is a story of love, hope and loss set against the tense historical background of the American Civil War.The lovers at the novel’s centre – the selfish, privileged Scarlett O’Hara and rakish Rhett Butler – are magnetic: pulling readers into the tangled narrative of a struggle to survive that cannot be forgotten.
About Margaret Mitchelle Author of Gone with the wind pdf Book
Margaret Mitchell Author of Gone with the wind pdf Book was born 8 November 1900 in Atlanta, Georgia. After a childhood surrounded by relatives who had survived the Civil War she enrolled at Smith College, Massachusetts, but was forced to return to the family home after her mother’s death. After a difficult first marriage Mitchell became a reporter for the Atlanta Journal Sunday Magazine and was married again in 1925. In 1926, due to an ankle injury, Mitchell stopped work as a reporter and began to write the Civil War novel which would become Gone with the Wind (1936). She was persuaded by a friend at Macmillan to submit the novel and upon publication it sold more copies than any other novel in American history and was awarded a National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize. The 1939 Hollywood film adaptation garnered eight Oscars and became the highest-grossing film of all time in the US and Canada. Mitchell died tragically on 16 August 1949. Her novella Lost Laysen was published posthumously in 1996 and became a New York Times bestseller. By 2000 30 million copies of Gone with the Wind had sold in 40 languages.
Information about the book Gone with the wind (Amazon)
- Publisher : Vintage Classics (January 2, 2020)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 1072 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1784876119
- ISBN-13 : 978-1784876111
- Lexile measure : 1030L
- Item Weight : 1.6 pounds
- Dimensions : 5.08 x 1.8 x 7.8 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #479,567 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #775 in American Historical Romance (Books)
- #3,016 in 20th Century Historical Romance (Books)
- #3,595 in TV, Movie & Game Tie-In Fiction
- Customer Reviews: 4.8 out of 5 stars 708 ratings
Gone with the wind cast/ Major characters by Margaret Mitchelle
Scarlett O’Hara
Scarlett Katie O’Hara is the belle of the Clayton County. She is the protagonist of the novel and the author describes her as not being exactly beautiful but with a charm and an alluring figure that keep men wrapped around her fingers. She is selfish, greedy, ruthless, and insensitive but tries to hide those traits in herself and extol the ladylike virtues of her mother’s and her Mammy’s teachings. The devastation of the war soon brings those traits to the fore as she struggles against poverty and starvation. She is great with figures and a genius at managing businesses. However, she has an utter lack of imagination and no appreciation for music, poetry, politics, literature, or any form of art. She also has a proclivity to postpone thinking about things she finds bothersome to herself. Her most recurring words to herself are, “I’ll think about it later”.
Rhett Butler
Rhett Butler is the black sheep of a prestigious Southern family and is regarded as a scandalous reprobate by the genteel society of Atlanta. Like Scarlett, he is greedy, selfish, and does not conform to the conventions of society but while Scarlett tries to pretend to conform, he basks in being on the bad side of public opinion. He is wealthy, intelligent, well-traveled, and has a strong energetic personality. He is a good judge of character and sees Scarlett for who she truly is despite how much she tries to pretend. His influence on Scarlett would give her the courage to own up to many of her true traits.
Melanie Hamilton (later Mrs Melanie Wilkes)
She is a sharp contrast to Scarlett O’Hara. She is gentle, shy, selfless, kind, and has a generous heart that sees good in even the vilest of humans. She is frail and always sickly, an exterior that belies her strong will and unbeatable courage. She is an extremely devoted wife to Ashley Wilkes and loves Scarlett like a dear sister.
Ashley Wilkes
He is a courteous gentleman. Coolheaded and well respected among folks and very idealistic. He excels in all gentlemanly activities of the South—riding, hunting, dancing, and politics– but does them only half spiritedly because he lives more in an idealistic world in his mind that has a little touch with reality. He is an honorable man; he is physically attracted to Scarlett and yearns for her body, but refrains from having sexual relations with her because of his obligation to his wife Melanie. He would later get disillusioned with his idealism by the war and its resultant devastation.
Mammy
Mammy is a Negro woman who was a head slave and house servant to the O’Haras. She has a high sense of pride and is vehement in her belief of what should be the proper conduct for a lady. She is loyal, kind, and dedicated to her masters and continues to live with them by choice even after freedom for slaves was declared. She is set in the old ways she was born into, takes pride in being a slave to a prosperous plantation owner. Even as a slave, she stands her ground and knows how to make her stance known to her masters without getting any reproof. Her eventual assertion of her freedom to her owner (Scarlett) is arguably the pinnacle of her development as an admirable character. Rhett had once told Scarlett that hearts, like Mammy’s, are too valuable to be broken.
Gerald O’Hara
A good-humored but hot-tempered Irishman who built a prosperous plantation from nothing through hard work, grit, and luck. He has a choleric exterior but with a kind tender heart. He is headstrong and loves his land Tara and teaches Scarlett to love Tara too. He is extremely fond of his wife, Ellen, and proud of his accomplishment in marrying her and building Tara.
Ellen O’Hara
She is the epitome of Southern ladylike perfection. She is poised, “never sat with her back touching the back of a chair”, runs her household efficiently and dutifully, addresses everyone with formality, and has a steely quality that awes everyone. Her daughter Scarlett confused her with The Virgin Mary most times. But her ladylike disposition and dutiful service to her household was a coping mechanism for the lost lover of her youth.
Aunt Pittypat
A flimsy and childlike aunt to Scarlett’s first husband, Charles Hamilton. Indecisive, flippant, and always fainting at the slightest excitement. Loves gossip, is never taken seriously, and is often indulged by everyone as if she was a child.
Uncle Peter
Head slave and coachman of the Hamilton family. Makes all the decisions for Aunt Pittypat. A loyal servant that stood with his masters even after being freed.
Mrs Merriwether
A meddlesome matron of the respectable people of Atlanta. Always stands in judgment on what and who is acceptable in polite society or not. Pretentious loves to gossip and tries to bully everyone into doing her bidding.
Dr Meade
One of the most admired patrons of Atlanta. He is a medical doctor loved by the people and is pompous, boastful but pleasant. But he loses some pomposity and air of superiority when his two sons die in the war and the Confederacy gets defeated.
Pork
Gerald O’Hara’s valet. Takes great pride in being a house servant and not a field hand. One of the few slaves that did not desert the O’Haras when slaves were freed. Pork marries a slave called Dilcey from another household before the war began and feels grateful that his master agreed to buy his wife and stepdaughter and bring them to join him in the same household.
Will Benteen
An injured soldier nursed back to health at Tara after the war was lost. He is a calm, unexcitable person that soon becomes the confidante to everyone at Tara. His deftness at farming soon lifts the burden of running Tara off Scarlett’s shoulders.
Archie
A mysterious and taciturn injured soldier living in Melanie’s cellar. He has an ardent dislike for women, Negroes, and Yankees. He is one-eyed and one-footed and later revealed that he had been in prison for killing his wife because she cheated on him.
Tara
Tara is not a person but the home of the O’Haras. It is the one true love of Scarlett that endured when she lost everything else.
Suellen O’Hara
Suellen O’Hara is one of Scarlett’s two younger sisters. Suellen and Scarlett have a strong sibling rivalry and also a dislike for each other. they are both similar in their insensitivity, selfishness, and greed but while Scarlett has ambitions to become rich, Suellen’s only ambition is to get married.
Prissy
Dilcey’s daughter sent to live with Scarlett in Atlanta. She is silly and mischievous and has a propensity to claim expertise on things she is clueless about.
Themes explored in Gone with the wind by Margaret Mitchelle
The Transformation of Southern Culture
Gone with the Wind is both a romance and a meditation on the changes that swept the American South in the 1860s. The novel begins in 1861, in the days before the Civil War, and ends in 1871, after the Democrats regain power in Georgia. The South changes completely during the intervening years, and Mitchell’s novel illustrates the struggles of the Southern people who live through the Civil War era.
The novel opens in prewar Georgia, where tradition, chivalry, and pride thrive. As the Civil War begins, the setting shifts to Atlanta, where the war causes the breakdown of traditional gender roles and power structures. When the South loses the war and the slaves are freed, putting a stop to the Southern way of life, the internal conflict intensifies. White men fear black men, Southerners hate profiteering or domineering Northerners, and impoverished aristocrats resent the newly rich. Mitchell’s main characters embody the conflicting impulses of the South. Ashley stands for the Old South; nostalgic and unable to change, he weakens and fades. Rhett, on the other hand, opportunistic and realistic, thrives by planting one foot in the Old South and one foot in the New, sometimes even defending the Yankees.
The Importance of Land
In Chapter II, Gerald tells Scarlett that “[l]and is the only thing in the world that amounts to anything.” At critical junctures Scarlett usually remembers that land, specifically Tara, is the only thing that matters to her. When Scarlett escapes to Tara from Atlanta during the war, she lies sick and weak in the garden at neighboring Twelve Oaks and the earth feels “soft and comfortable as a pillow” against her cheek. After feeling the comfort of the land, she resolves to look forward and continue the struggle with newfound vigor. Scarlett prizes land even over love. When Ashley rejects Scarlett’s proposed affair, he gives her a clump of Tara’s dirt and reminds her that she loves Tara more than she loves him. Feeling the dirt in her hand, Scarlett realizes that Ashley is right. At the end of the novel, when all else is lost, Scarlett thinks of Tara and finds strength and comfort in its enduring presence.
Overcoming Adversity with Willpower
Scarlett manages to overcome adversity through brute strength of will. She emerges as a feminist heroine because she relies on herself alone and survives the Civil War and Reconstruction unaided. She rebuilds Tara after the Yankee invasion and works her way up in the new political order, taking care of helpless family members and friends along the way. Mitchell suggests that overcoming adversity sometimes requires ruthlessness. Scarlett becomes a cruel businesswoman and a domineering wife, willingly coarsening herself in order to succeed. Other characters succeed by exercising willpower, among them Old Miss Fontaine, who watched Indians scalp her entire family as a child and then gritted her teeth and worked to raise her own family and run a plantation. Rhett Butler also wills his way to success, although he covers up his bullheaded willpower with a layer of ease and carelessness.
Read reviews on Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchelle
Editorial reviews and praise for the book
“Beyond a doubt one of the most remarkable first novels produced by an American writer. It is also one of the best.” — The New York Times
“The best novel to have ever come out of the South…it is unsurpassed in the whole of American writing.” — The Washington Post
“Fascinating and unforgettable! A remarkable book, a spectacular book, a book that will not be forgotten!” — Chicago Tribune
“Gone with the Wind is one of those rare books that we never forget. We read it when we’re young and fall in love with the characters, then we watch the film and read the book again and watch the film again and never get tired of revisiting an era that is the most important in our history. Rhett and Scarlet and Melanie and Ashley and Big Sam and Mammy and Archie the convict are characters who always remain with us, in the same way that Twain’s characters do. No one ever forgets the scene when Scarlet wanders among the wounded in the Atlanta train yard; no one ever forgets the moment Melanie and Scarlet drag the body of the dead Federal soldier down the staircase, a step at a time. Gone with the Wind is an epic story. Anyone who has not read it has missed one of the greatest literary experiences a reader can have.” — James Lee Burke, bestselling author of The Tin Roof Blowdown
“I first read Gone with the Wind in grade school–a boy of the upper South who’d seen the great movie and felt compelled to learn what lay behind it, all thousand-plus pages worth. No page disappointed me. What other American novel surpasses its eagerness to tell a great story of love and war; what characters equal the cantankerous passions of Scarlett and Rhett? Even Scott Fitzgerald spoke well of it. What more could I ask, even seven decades later?” — Reynolds Price
“In my own personal life, I find many similarities to Scarlett’s: The whole 17-inch waist thing notwithstanding, I do love a barbecue, both for the food and the men–I have been known to “eat like a field hand and gobble like a hawg”–I admit that at least on one occasion I may have feigned interest in some guy to further my own interests–I have fought tooth, toenail and tirelessly for my family–I learn slow but I learn good–and even so, I still adore the prospect of dealing with most things…Tomorrow.” — Jill Conner Browne, The Sweet Potato Queen, bestselling author of The Sweet Potato Queens’ First Big-Ass Novel
“In 1936 I was in E.M. Daggett Junior High in Ft. Worth, Texas. By some chance I was able to read Gone with the Wind early on. Then and now, I found it one of the great experiences of a young life. I still list it as one of my 10 favorite books.” — Liz Smith, nationally syndicated columnist
“Not just a great love story, Gone with the Wind is one of the most powerful anti-war novels ever written. Told from the standpoint of the women left behind, author Margaret Mitchell brilliantly illustrates the heartbreaking and devastating effects of war on the land and its people.” — Fannie Flagg, Academy Award nominated-author
“Let’s say you’ve read Gone with the Wind at least twice, and seen the movie over and again. So, here’s a thought. Buy this handsome paperback edition, just for Pat Conroy’s preface. This passionate, nearly breathless love letter is a Song of Solomon to Margaret Mitchell, Scarlett O’Hara, and Conroy’s beautiful, GTW-obsessed mother. Indeed, his luminous preface packs a durable wallop, just like the epic Pulitzer prize-winning work that inspires it.” — Jan Karon, author of The Mitford Years series
“GWTW is an indelible portrait of a unique time and place, American’s greatest political and moral conflict, and the myths that surround it — an all absorbing spectacle of a read even for postmodern readers. Mitchell vividly portrays the disillusionment and devastation of war, the ignorance of the uninitiated, and the transformation of arrogance into tenacity that shaped the first “new South.” All the details of history and place come together as a rich backdrop for those unforgettable characters: shallow and selfish Scarlett, sincere Melanie, moony-eyed Ashley, and the sage, pragmatic, dashing, and rakish Rhett Butler–the most enduring heartthrob of American literature has produced. I’d reread the book for the thrill of Rhett alone!” — Darnell Arnoult, author of Sufficient Grace
“For sheer readability I can think of nothing it must give way before Miss Mitchell proves herself a staggeringly gifted storyteller.”
–The New Yorker
Customer reviews on Barnesandnoble for Gone with the wind by Margaret Mitchelle
Anonymous
5 out of 5 stars.
6 years ago
Very Good
Very good writing. Characters are well thought out and stay true to themselves Good story about the days of the War Between the States and Yankee Reconstruction.
Bookworm1951
5 out of 5 stars.
6 years ago
Margaret Mitchell’s Timeless Classic. One You Will Read Over And …
Margaret Mitchell’s timeless classic. One you will read over and over again. Superb character development and story line. Takes you from pre-civil war times through the fall of the south, the post-war struggle and finally to more prosperous times. A saga of love, hate, failure and triumph. This huge novel has it all!!!! The book is more detailed and in depth than the movie. If you’ve only seen the movie, you don’t know the full story. I would highly recommend this novel. Wish I could give it more than 5 stars!
BookwormMama2014
4 out of 5 stars.
6 years ago
In 1861, Scarlett O’Hara Is The Belle Of Georgia. Young, Passionat …
In 1861, Scarlett O’Hara is the belle of Georgia. Young, passionate and full of life. But when war comes, she is faced with hardships that she never even dreamed possible. “Hardships make or break people. “Follow Scarlett O’Hara and her family through the destruction and despair of the Civil War and the years that followed in Reconstruction. With the old way of life dead and gone, will she wilt away along with many others of her previous status and class? Or will she find the gumption to press on and strive for survival, no matter the cost? Her love for one man blinds her to the truth about herself and those around her. After everything she has been through, will she lose the one thing she desires above all else? “After all, tomorrow is another day.” *If you are not familiar with this story please be aware of a few minor spoilers** I have grown up watching Gone With the Wind, but somehow, I never got around to reading the book. I am happy to check this one off of my “Bucket (Reading) List”. Very long, (hence my relative blogging silence) but worth every word. Margaret Mitchell’s descriptions are so detailed! I could feel the Southern sun upon my skin and could smell the scent of the magnolias growing around Tara. If you have seen the movie you will know that this is not a happy tale. But there are very valuable lessons to be learned. After reading the last page today, I was thinking about what I wanted to say in my review. And I think that what stood out to me the most, is that sometimes we are so blinded by what we think we want, what we have idolized for so long, that we can not see true happiness when it stares us in the face. There have been times in my life that I wanted my life to go in a particular direction, but the Lord changed my course. For a time it was challenging to see the good in the situation. But I would come to the realization that if I had continued down that path, I would have been miserable. Instead, I am exactly where I need to be and am continuing to learn to put my trust in God, knowing that He knows best and that He is guiding my steps. For all of her faults, Scarlett is a woman I can admire. No matter what life threw at her, she would not let herself be beaten. Her determination for survival drove her to extremes. But survive she did.
Customer reviews on Amazon for Gone with the wind by Margaret Mitchelle
Frank A.
5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely amazing
Reviewed in the United States on June 13, 2020
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I’m not the biggest reader of fiction but I could not put this book down. I’m big history, and biography reader. This book has history in it…it lets you know how the people of the south lived before, during and after the war. It’s a love story, tragedy, it’s about perseverance.
I finished it two weeks ago and I want to read it again. I’ve seen the movie about a hundred times in my life….I watched the movie again as soon as I finished the book and it made the movie much better. As you watch you’ll understand more about each character, especially Rhett Butler. I think he’s my favorite character..
As time goes by history changes, it shouldn’t but it does. It’s weird timing that I chose to read this book. Coronavirus had me out of work for five weeks, and there’s no way I was gonna be locked at home watching horrible media talking about this virus. I woke up yesterday to find out that people want to ban this book, and the movie has been pulled off HBO streaming service. The good news however is the movie is number one on Amazon and iTunes as of today. God Bless America.
America has a cemetery where confederate soldiers are buried side by side with union soldiers. I think it was meant to show solidarity, forgiveness and also to never forget what it was about. We have elected leaders that want to destroy the cemetery… they never gave it a thought in their lives but I guess they’ll destroy anything if they think it could give them one extra vote. Nothing has changed since the civil war. The North came down south after the war in what they called reconstruction. They pushed for freed black men to vote while ex confederate men couldn’t. They didn’t care about healing, they cared about power. They wanted republicans to hold office in the south. They fixed elections and got rich by the results. Did the North care about slavery? I’m sure some did in their hearts, but they also took advantage of the situation.
When someone writes a book about fictional characters during a historical event they usually do research to make sure the surroundings around the characters are accurate. From what I’ve studied about the civil war, this book nails it while also giving us one of the best fictional story of all time. It gave us Scarlett O’Hara… every American needs to read this book not ban it.
Larry Feign
5.0 out of 5 stars One of the top 5 books I’ve ever read
Reviewed in the United States on January 6, 2016
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Who would have thought that a 1037-page, 80-year-old novel about a spoiled, petulant teenager in petticoats would completely suck me in, and turn out to be one of the greatest novels of all time? Everything about this book is beyond superlative–vivid characters, settings that live and breathe, but especially Margaret Mitchell’s prose. It would be worthwhile for any writer to study her sentences, every one of which flows with living motion, without a single flowery word. The dialogues between Scarlett and Rhett make sparks fly off the pages!
One could criticize the liberal use of racially offensive terms and the portrayal of happy slaves, but I would disagree. Within the world so meticulously created by the author, a bygone world, for all its faults, that was seen as being in equilibrium before its downfall, to have done otherwise would have been false. This is truly the Great American Novel, in the top 5 of the greatest books I’ve ever read, and I suggest that you will thank yourself for reading it. My only regret about finishing Gone With the Wind is that now I can never again read it for the first time.
Katie Turner
5.0 out of 5 stars A tough book to rate
Reviewed in the United States on February 25, 2016
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Hoo boy, this is a hard one to describe. I should point out that I’m from Atlanta born and raised and read this book multiple times as a kid and LOVED it. But re-reading it as an adult it’s really hard to get past the egregious and inescapable racism that permeates it. On the one hand the main story is a good one, well written and well told. Scarlett is a great character, a true female antihero who’s complex and maddening and very human. Margaret Mitchell has a gift for characterization and story telling and the writing is generally fantastic.
BUT
But it’s un-apologetically racist, the characterizations of the non-white parties are cringe-inducing and as a rational adult it’s hard to swallow the book’s smug assurance that most slaves were happy, that Reconstruction was tyranny and that the white landowners of the antebellum South were the true victims of the Civil War. As a young white bookworm with liberal parents who was anxious to believe that racism and civil rights issues were a thing of the past I was able to forgive these flaws but now in this racially charged day of deep income and racial inequality it’s a lot harder to just ignore that side of the novel.
On the other hand is it unjustifiably written off as fluff because of its female author in a way that, say, Rudyard Kipling and Mark Twain novels are not? Yes I believe it is. Is it feminist? I think a case can be made for that too. But as for how many stars to give it I need multiple categories. For racism it gets zero stars, for a well told love story that ponders the complexity of female friendships as well as the nature of desire and the ways we lie to ourselves in the name of love it gets five. Beyond that and regarding its place in the literary canon, I am unqualified to say.
William R. Woods
5.0 out of 5 stars A really great novel
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 14, 2020
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This is the 3rd time I have read what is a highly complex work which is set against the backdrop of the American Civil War, told from the point of view of the civilians of the southern states. Written by a woman in the 1930s the main theme is how the central character starts as a totally selfish 16 year old female & traces her journey to self- knowledge. But it also includes brilliant passages describing a wide range of topics, from the beauty of the countryside to the grief of those learning of the death of friends & relatives at Gettysburg.
It is very frank about the attitudes of the whites towards the blacks on which the easy lifestyle of the rich was based though the two chief male characters, who are very different, both realise that the system could not & should not continue.
But if you what you want is a gripping read don’t let these comments put you off!
london123
5.0 out of 5 stars Gripping, beautiful and devastating
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 6, 2018
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I was a bit dubious about this, as it’s not my usual thing and I’ve somehow gone a lifetime without seeing the whole movie all the way through, but bought it on a friend’s recommendation. Was totally rapt. A truly ripping yarn, epic love story, and evocative nostalgia for times and places lost to history (if they ever truly existed at all). I particularly enjoyed the foreword in this edition as a context-setter before starting: it made a sensitive but affectionate critique of the book, it’s status as cultural capital, and the legions of devotees who have made it famous.
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