Book Review - Gone With The WindBook Review - Gone With The Wind

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Scarlett O'Hara, a charming 16 year old Southern belle, resides on the plantation held bythis website  her prosperous Irish immigrant father in Tara, Georgia, in 1861. Her mother is descended from French nobility. Young men are called to war after the first shots are fired at Fort Sumter, and the initial pages of the book provide background information and descriptions of life during this time.

When Scarlett finds out that the man she adores, Ashley Wilkes, is getting engaged to Melanie Hamilton, she is devastated. At a barbecue held at the Wilkes estate, Scarlett tells Ashley how she feels. Ashley informs Scarlett that despite his feelings for her, he will still wed Melanie due to the similarities between the two of them. Scarlett is simply too unique. At him, Scarlett loses it.

The roguish Rhett Butler is watching this scene and finally admits that he was listening in. Scarlett taunts him after he congratulates her on her "unladylike" actions. When Scarlett joins the gathering again, she finds out that war has been proclaimed. Charles, Melanie's brother, proposes, and she agrees. The two get married two weeks later.

Two months into the conflict, Charles succumbs to pneumonia, leaving Scarlett to care for the child she gives birth to on her own. Scarlett longs for her days as a single woman as widow customs for widows are strict-she must wear black and avoid conversations with young males.

To remain with Melanie and Pittypat, Melanie's aunt, Scarlett travels to Atlanta. Scarlett loves living in the city, and she starts to see Rhett more frequently. Although he is rude and direct, he exhorts Scarlett to defy Southern customs in a manner that thrills her. Running the siege is how Rhett is making money from the conflict. As the war rages on, everyone is concerned for Ashley's protection. At Gettysburg, Ashley is taken prisoner and imprisoned.

Scarlett would prefer to travel to Tara rather than Atlanta, but Melanie must remain because she is expecting. Once the Union force arrives in Atlanta, the city is set on fire. Melanie gives delivery while Atlanta is on fire. Rhett helps them flee the Yanks through the burning streets of Atlanta, but he leaves them outside the city so he can enlist in the Confederate army. Scarlett arrives at Tara after a terrifying journey through the jungle to discover that her mother has passed away, her father has gone insane, and the Yankees have looted their plantation. Scarlet makes a promise to her family that they will live and never go famished again.