Gone with the Wind

Name: Gone with the Wind
ISBN: 9787531729655

Margaret Munnerlyn Mitchell / Li Zhi / 杨晶Apr 2016

4.5

Word count: 63K words
Chapters: 35
ISBN: 9787531729655

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Summary

Gone with the Wind is a novel about war, but Margaret Mitchell does not focus on the battlefield. Apart from the moving scene of wounded soldiers lying across the Five Points square before Atlanta falls, she devotes little space to other battle scenes. As the first novel to narrate the American Civil War from the perspective of a Southern woman, it concentrates on the experiences and feelings of the women left at home, who suffer the hardships of war. It traces their course from their initial reverence for and wholehearted support of the war, through the pain of losing loved ones and their forced submission to the fate of defeat, to their arduous efforts to rebuild their homes with determination after the war. Some are demoralized by defeat, lose their former fighting spirit, and cannot adjust to their shattered postwar lives. Others overcome the psychology of defeat, face harsh reality squarely, and become strong people who press forward undaunted.

Editor's review

Gone with the Wind shifts its lens from the battlefield to the kitchens, hospital wards, and ruins behind the lines, letting war emerge through shortages of food and clothing, the absence of loved ones, and the burning of cities. Scarlett is no conventionally virtuous heroine: she is selfish, stubborn, and calculating, yet each loss unleashes an astonishing will to survive—and it is precisely this imperfection that makes her stand up to rereading. What the novel does best is refuse to rush moral judgment on its characters, instead laying bare the conflicts among respectability, love, class, and survival, so that readers see the choices and costs of different women as the old Southern order collapses. It is long and emotionally dense, suited to immersive reading over an extended holiday; watch for the narrator's complicated attitude toward the old Southern order and slavery, and you can both enjoy the story and understand why a classic must be read with historical awareness.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who like long novels centered on women's growth and the rise and fall of families
Readers interested in life behind the lines during the American Civil War and in Reconstruction history
Mature readers who can accept characters' moral flaws and are willing to discuss complex human nature
Writers who want to study scene staging, character arcs, and the pacing of a long novel

Not a good fit for

Readers who only want battlefield action and military strategy
Readers who prefer light, sweet romance with happy endings
Readers too busy with schoolwork to read a long novel in anything but fragments

Reading tips

First sort out how the relationships among Scarlett, Rhett, Melanie, and Ashley change, then read in sections divided by before and after the war.
After each part, note one key choice Scarlett makes and its cost, and observe how she turns from a girl into a businesswoman.
When you come to lyrical passages about old Southern life, slow down and distinguish the characters' perspectives from the narrator's voice.
Read alongside a timeline of major events of the American Civil War and Reconstruction so you don't treat the novel as your only historical source.

版权信息
前言
名师导读
推荐序
略施小计避“战争”
郝思嘉心底的秘密
束腰中见淑女风范
十二棵橡树的野餐会
野餐会上的王后
查理的求婚
白瑞德撞见了郝思嘉的秘密
郝思嘉成为了查理的妻子
郝思嘉成了寡妇
亚特兰大的小资产者
郝思嘉亚特兰大的护工生活
亚特兰大的义卖会
希礼对思嘉的托付
老人军和童子军去打仗
战争逼近亚特兰大
战争的恐惧
希礼的孩子要出生
思嘉逃离亚特兰大
思嘉回到了塔拉的家
思嘉撑起塔拉这个家
思嘉和媚兰的塔拉保卫战
战争结束后的塔拉
郝思嘉重返亚特兰大
思嘉探望狱中的白瑞德
郝思嘉成为肯尼迪夫人
思嘉成为了瑞德的妻子
瑞德是一个好父亲
郝思嘉的明天依然是新的一天
阅读反馈
读后感
编者寄语

FAQ

Why does Gone with the Wind rarely show the battlefield directly?

The author's focus is the home front: food shortages, the influx of wounded, destroyed homes, and relatives dying in the war—these indirect experiences also constitute war narrative. Through women's daily lives, the novel shows how war changes family structures, class identities, and individual fates, which is closer to ordinary people's experience than combat description alone.

Scarlett is not a good person, so why does she still appeal to readers?

She has a fierce will to survive and a talent for action, always finding concrete ways to cope with famine, ruin, and social rejection; at the same time, her selfishness, vanity, and blind spots in love are written without disguise. She is not a moral model but a person fighting to survive in a collapsing order, and this complexity makes readers both repelled and sympathetic.

Do I need to know American history before reading Gone with the Wind?

You don't need to have read a general history first, but knowing the basic background of the Civil War and Reconstruction will make it easier to understand the decline of old Southern families, the economic hardships, and the characters' choices. You can start with a brief timeline before entering the novel; when you reach passages about race and class, keep a sense of historical distance and don't take characters' words as the author's final judgment.

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About the author

Margaret Munnerlyn Mitchell Author · American · 1900–1949

Margaret Mitchell (1900–1949) was an American woman writer and journalist, born in Atlanta, Georgia. In her lifetime she published only one novel, Gone with the Wind (1936), set against the backdrop of the American Civil War and Reconstruction and depicting the changes in Southern society amid war and the fates of its characters. It won the Pulitzer Prize in 1937 and was adapted into the film Gone with the Wind in 1939. Besides Gone with the Wind, the library holds various editions, including a six-volume set, a two-volume set, a fortieth-anniversary collector's edition, and a complete translation collector's edition, all classified under foreign literature and world classics. Public information about her life and writing career is limited, and her literary influence rests mainly on this work. She died in a car accident in 1949.

Li Zhi Author · Chinese · 1972

Li Zhi was born in 1972 in Xiangxiang, Hunan. He holds a PhD in philosophy from Peking University and completed postdoctoral research in journalism and communication at Fudan University. A former professor at Communication University of China, he is now a professor and doctoral supervisor at Renmin University of China, focusing on international communication, cultural diplomacy, and international relations. His works include Cultural Diplomacy, International Political Communication, and Introduction to Global Communication Studies, and he has translated about ten books, including Marxism After Marx. The library holds 22 of his works, mainly foreign literature and world classics such as Anne of Green Gables, Gone with the Wind, Jane Eyre, Pride and Prejudice, The Secret Garden, Selected Sherlock Holmes Stories, The Good Soldier Švejk, and Dream of the Red Chamber, spanning mystery, social fiction, and classical literature. His academic background and translation practice lend his versions both accuracy and readability, giving him some influence in popularizing classics; public information on his translation style and specific experience is limited.

杨晶 Author

Yang Jing's publicly available information is limited, and details of the author's identity and life are not clearly established in the source materials. Judging from the existing works, Yang Jing is closely associated with the compilation and editing of foreign literary classics, including such major novels as Gone with the Wind, Anne of Green Gables, Jane Eyre, A Tale of Two Cities, and The Red and the Black, as well as mystery and detective works such as Selected Sherlock Holmes Stories, and essay collections and social satires such as A Pipe Smoker's Notes and The Good Soldier Švejk. The collection contains twenty-one related works, commonly classified under foreign literature, world classics, mystery and detective fiction, essays and miscellaneous writings, social novels, and classical literature. This suggests a focus on presenting foreign literature in forms accessible to Chinese readers, with selections balancing popular readability and literary-historical value.