Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell (1941 edition)

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Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell (1941 Edition) Hardback copy of Margaret Mitchell's classic novel 'Gone With The Wind'Published in 1941 by Macmillan and Co. St. Martin's Street, London, the book has blue cloth boards, embossed titles to the spine, 795 pages, complete with dust jacket.In overall good condition, minor tears and creases to the dust jacket, some page edges not properly trimmed (printer's error). Gone with the Wind , first published in May 1936, is a romance novel written by Margaret Mitchell, who won the Pulitzer Prize for the book in 1937. The story is set in Clayton County, Georgia and Atlanta during the American Civil War and Reconstruction. The novel depicts the experiences of Scarlett O'Hara, the spoiled daughter of a well-to-do plantation owner, who must use every means at her disposal to come out of the poverty she finds herself in after Sherman's March to the Sea. The book is the source of the 1939 film of the same name.Margaret Mitchell began writing Gone with the Wind in 1926 to pass the time while recovering from an auto-crash injury that refused to heal. In April, 1935, Harold Latham of Macmillan, an editor who was looking for new fiction, read what she had written, and saw that it could be a best-seller. After Latham agreed to publish the book, Mitchell worked for another six months checking the historical references, and rewrote the opening chapter several times. Mitchell and her husband, John Marsh, a copy editor by trade, edited the final version of the novel. Mitchell wrote the book's final moments first, and then wrote the events that lead up to it. As to what became of her star-crossed lovers, Rhett and Scarlett, after the novel ended, Mitchell did not know, and said, "For all I know, Rhett may have found someone else who was less difficult." Gone with the Wind is the only novel by Mitchell published during her lifetime.The author tentatively titled the book, Tomorrow is Another Day, from the last line of the novel. Other proposed titles included: Bugles Sang True, Not in Our Stars, and Tote the Weary Load. The title Mitchell finally chose is from the first line of the third stanza of the poem, Non Sum Qualis Eram Bonae sub Regno Cynarae, by Ernest Dowson:I have forgot much, Cynara! gone with the wind,Flung roses, roses riotously with the throng,Dancing, to put thy pale, lost lilies out of mind...Scarlett O'Hara uses the title phrase when she wonders to herself if her home on a plantation called "Tara" is still standing or if it is "gone with the wind which had swept through Georgia." In a general sense, the title is a metaphor for the departure of a way of life that existed in the South prior to the Civil War. When taken in the context of Dowson's poem about "Cynara," the phrase "gone with the wind" alludes to erotic loss. The word "gone" means "run," not vanished. The poem expresses the regrets of someone who has lost his passionate feelings for his "old passion," Cynara.Margaret Mitchell arranged Gone with the Wind chronologically, basing it on the life and experiences of the main character, Scarlett O'Hara, as she grew from adolescence into adulthood. (During the time span of the novel, from 1861 to 1873, Scarlett ages from sixteen to twenty-eight years.) The literary technique applied in telling the story is Bildungsroman, which is a type of novel concerned with the moral and psychological growth of the protagonist. The growth and education of Scarlett O'Hara is influenced by the events of her time. Mitchell used a smooth linear narrative structure. The novel is known for its "readability." The plot (narrative) is rich with vivid characters.Gone with the Wind takes place in the southern United States of America in the state of Georgia during the American Civil War (1861–1865) and the Reconstruction Era (1865–1877) that followed the war. The novel unfolds against the backdrop of rebellion wherein seven southern states, Georgia among them, have declared their secession from the United ... read more

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