Gone with the Wind

The pampered
daughter of a wealthy Georgian plantation owner of Irish descent,
sixteen-year-old Scarlett O'Hara soon realizes that young men can’t resist
her charms, despite her forthright manners and her refusal to embrace her
mother’s ladylike ways. Her romantic intrigues lead her to an early marriage,
but when the war between the Union and the Southern States breaks out and she
is left a young widow, Scarlett’s life is turned upside down, and she finds
herself embroiled, together with the world surrounding her, in a long
struggle for survival.

Both a coming-of-age tale and a historical epic, Gone with the Wind is
regarded as one of the great American novels, and is perhaps one of the most
popular stories in the Western canon. Famously inspiring the iconic 1939
Oscar-winning film starring Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable, it is Margaret
Mitchell’s only published novel, and a living testament to the irrepressible
resilience of the American spirit.