I would much prefer long in-depth book review videos. There are so few adult book reviewers who make good well thought out in depth reviews. There is definitely a market and an audience for the long reviews. I highly encourage you to make more

45 years since I read GWTW and I haven't read a more convincing character in literature in all the time since! About time I read it again.

I have the attention span of a gold fish so I can can’t sit down to read the book. BUT you can usually find me listening to Linda Stevens narrating the book WHICH ONLY MAKES THIS BOOK MORE OF MY ALL TIME FAVORITE like HOLY HECK this is my favorite book. Without question.

Happy you're back and I greatly enjoyed this video. I don't think this is a book I need to have in my life, but I appreciate how much thought you put into your experience.

Welcome back!!! It has been 30 years since I read GWTW and your review has me wanting to read it again!

I’m glad you’re encouraging readers to think critically about the book. It’s such a relief to see a review of Gone with the Wind that isn’t simply “it’s racist, so we shouldn’t look at it”

So good to see you! Your enthusiasm for Gone With the Wind makes me want to my copy right now. I've owned mine for a year now (found one in good condition at a used book sale) but it wasn't on my immediate TBR. But now I will seriously think about reading it. Thanks!!

1) So glad you’re back. I disagreed with a LOT of your last video, but it wasn’t anything like a deal-breaker with me. 2) I have still not read Gone With the Wind, but I love the film (can still clearly remember when I first saw it, with my mother). 3) The novel is one of my wife’s all-time favorites and one of my brother’s all-time favorites. Your praise joins theirs in a cacophony of badgering. Perhaps I’ll read it for March of the Mammoths next year? 4) You’re one of the best Booktubers we have, so keep making videos.

Welcome back, your videos have been missed! I honestly never would have considered reading this book either, in fact I've dismissed both it and the movie several times, but this review has me so intrigued, I have to read this myself and hopefully be challenged in the same way. Thanks!

Glad you are back , always enjoyed your videos! I must confess I haven't read Gone With the Wind. I'm still not sure I want to, but I enjoyed the video 😁

I read GWTW last year for the first time at the age of seventy-five. Though liking your review, I wish you had commented on two aspects of the novel. First, the brilliant writing style. Mitchell uses every conceivable writing device like the master novelist that she is: alliteration, metaphor, simile, irony, parallel structure, and so on. Second, all of the major characters in the book are composites of actual people that Mitchell had researched or had heard about from her family members, especially her grandmother. For instance, Rhett Butler is 60% George Trenholm of Fraser, Trenholm & Company of Charleston, South Carolina, 30% Trenholm's son, and 10% Mitchell's first husband, "Red" Upshaw. At first, I thought the name "Rhett" was a romanticised version of "Red," but that is not the case. One of Trenholm's closest business associates in Charleston had the surname "Rhett." So what we have with GWTW is not just a great historical novel but Southern history disguised as a romantic novel. Keep up the excellent work.

Great review! Such an important book and now one of my all time favorites. I couldn't put it down.

I am a big fan of the book and movie, but the way I view it has changed considerably through the years. I'm 59 now, and first experienced GWTW at 13. Ms. Mitchell was a young lady in the Roaring 20's, around lots of older people who remembered the Victorian era quite well. Many were horrified at the new freedoms for women, like voting, working outside the home, short skirts, no corset, bobbed hair, and so on. The stark difference between the rights she had as a woman in the 20th century, vs. the rights of a woman of 1861, must of given her a great deal of food for thought. Margaret Mitchell's mother was a suffragette. I have no doubt that would have influenced Ms. Mitchell's view of women's rights as well. I feel this plays a major part in the subtext of GWTW. I wonder what Scarlett would of been like, had she been allowed to pursue a career like a modern woman? Keep in mind, Scarlett never had a chance to pursue any profession, or consider doing anything with her life besides becoming a wife. Part of this story to me is about the stupid, power play rules many societies impose on women, and how it distorts our relationships with others, and ourselves. Scarlett is not allowed to use her natural talents for math or business. Instead, she has it drilled into her head to be a man-trap from the time she can understand the concept. It's seen as totally right and perfectly normal to do this. I think her corset is almost a symbol of the myriad of rules she must follow, or be cast out of society. I know the book goes into much great length about all the rules a lady has to follow to still be considered a lady. In many ways, the well off white women in this book are imprisoned by their society. They rely on men in the book, the men let them horribly down, and there really isn't much they can do about it, because of the rules. They certainly could not go into a bank and ask for a small business loan, etc. Scarlett had to fight not only the Yankees, but a world very hostile to the idea of her survival independent of men. I'm not excusing her, though. You're right, she is no Feminist icon. She's a lot messier than that. She's a natural business woman. It does not mean she's a saint. Far from it. I know we all like our spunky Victorian women motivated only by good, since they are setting such a great example of overcoming the system. In this case, it's a lot more realistic, and uncomfortable.

I’m glad your back. I couldn’t make it through *that* video , but I’ve enjoyed everything else you have done on your channel so I’ve stuck around. I’ve owned a copy of Gone With The Wind for years but I haven’t summed up the courage to read it yet.

Hi Rick, this is the best video of yours I have seen. Very carefully put together; it opened a new way for me to think about this book.

Nice to see you! I read Gone With The Wind during my 16th summer. I loved the drama but skimmed over the detailed war bits. I can’t believe you read it twice over a month. That is next level. I am glad I read it, but I’ll never read it again. I don’t have the patience for drama I once did. Great video.

You are such a cutie it makes your reviews more palatable. Absolutely love GWTW, both the book and the film. I’ve read it times in my life and definitely want to read it again before I leave this world. I’ve seen the film more times than I can count.

I loved your review. I read GWTW initially when I was 13 years old. I grew up in Jonesboro, GA, where the fictitious Tara was. And, although I was horrified at some of scarlet’s behavior, I could forgive her (while not justifying her) given that she was terrified in her circumstances. A very young woman facing down an invading army! My own ancestors were invaded as well. Two of my 2 X great grandfathers did not return. So their widows and orphans had to somehow survive. We are so lucky to live in reasonable safety.

I read this book 20 times and probably several decades before you were born, but you’ve given me some fresh perspectives on it, and I thank you for that. Good work 🙂

For Every Southern, the "book" is our story ! (5th generation Georgian) My family farm/homestead was destroyed & burned by the yankees located in southeast county of Georgia; Upson County, in the community of "logtown" ! the community "never" recovered ! Please People, the movies is GOOD/GREAT "BUT" the BOOK is OUTSTANDING to understanding native Georgians !

This is probably one of the best book reviews of GWTW I’ve seen. Welcome back!

There's a certain sensitivity that comes with be(com)ing a seasoned reader - you understand what makes an essay different from a short story to a novel to an autobiography. poetry is another paradigm we come to appreciate later, an acquired taste of sorts. Especially, the sensitivity in "how it feels, not how it looks" was different in the classics. I go back to A tale of two cities every so often. A book that is on my list is The Unabridged Journal of Sylvia Plath for the sheer emotional intimacy. Somehow it makes it okay to "feel" and not rationalize emotions as we're becoming more incline towards by the day. The relatability of the character comes from seeing him/her through the gamut of life experiences. And GWTW has been built layers upon layers because it shows several dynamics. As if literally living in her shoes makes it easier and more accommodative of ourselves through different phases. And suddenly the greys are there but the need to make a gradation from black to white is not necessary nor pressing, just being in it is okay; we're all only human.

Just finished reading Gone With The Wind for the first time last night and I know for a fact this book and its insufferable unscrupulous yet extraordinary characters of a by gone era marked me for life. I will always carry a little bit of Scarlet O'hara with me. This is a truly beautiful book that will be read and it will touch people theough the passing of generations. I stumbled upon your video last night and absolutely loved your experience with this book. It resonates a lot with my experience in many aspects - specially when it comes to the race discussions. Inevitably I subscribed to your channel as I couldn't resist your many other book review videos. Keep up the good work!

Look who's back! Haha. Bookmarking for the morning (it's getting late here in Ontario 😂). I loved gone with the wind so I'm excited to watch! (Beware,I like the edit function hahaha)

Fab to see you back Rick, I did wonder if you were permanently MIA! I have to admit that I’d always thought of Gone With the Wind as a kind of standard romance novel, probably not helped by watching clips of the movie as a kid, it was only recently that I’d noticed it appearing on a few best of lists. Your discussion of it has given me further food for thought and I appreciated the different angles you came at it from particularly the race and YA aspects. Sometimes dislikable characters are what make a book great, I just read The Sea, The Sea with a truly egotistical, misogynistic and deluded narrator but I still loved the reading experience. I’m in awe that you read this twice and think it’s fantastic you loved it so much, a kick up the butt for me to not dismiss a book because you think you know what it’s about.

So glad you are back. 🙆‍♀️

It's both a great book and film. Both very eloquent and timeless in their themes. No White guilt from me.

Thanks for this awesome review! I'm going to read the novel after years of putting it aside. I am in love with the film; it was perfectly cast (except Ashley i feel) ESPECIALLY VIVIEN LEIGH AS SCARLETT O'HARA; you should watch it just for that. Upon my 3rd view of the film, I had a lot of insights that I never had in the past. One should really chew this material. It's such an education. Can't wait to read it! Having said that, I read the sequel despite not having read the original. Lol. So i went from watching the film, to reading the sequel, to wanting to read the novel. Idk how it's going to affect my reading...but i'm excited!

Enjoyed very much your review, Rick MacDonnell. I've been puttering with the idea of giving this book a reread. One of the surprise delights of the book, when I first read it, was the character Will Benteen, perhaps the most admirable in the book yet trimmed from the film.

I read it once a year; it's my southern duty.

Just found you. I've read GWTW probably 10 times and love it more every time. Your review was pretty fair. Just 2 things: "raze" MEANS "to the ground" so "razed to the ground" is painfully redundant. Second: Scarlett was married 3 times: Charles, Frank, Rhett. Happy reading!

Fascinating account. Welcome back. I'm going to have to re-read GWTW. Would love to hear your analysis of the book of "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" by L. Frank Baum.

I feel the same way about it, I’m obsessed with GWTW despite all the problems with it.

GWTW has been my favorite film of all time and I am just now reading the book at 60yo. I am surprised how different the the book is from the movie. I am still reading it and enjoying every page. Your review is inciteful and wonderfully accurate. There are times when I feel I should hate Scarlett, but I end up loving her. I am looking forward to finishing the book and seeing how it changes my view of the film. Thank you for an excellent job, well done!

I haven't read Gone with the Wind, but this video makes me want to pick it apart.

The book tells the truth about an era, and just because you don’t like the facts doesn’t mean you should not like the book. “Don’t kill the messenger” as they say. And I’m sorry but if you don’t realize that Scarlet is an unreliable narrator and if you’re not prompted to say “You’re an idiot” several times while reading this book, then you’re a moron too. And I do think that Margaret Mitchell intended her to be an unreliable narrator, just not about the theme of Race. But Scarlet is completely unaware of anything that is not right under her nose or slapping her in the face. Politically, socially, emotionally, interpersonally, she’s not an intelligent person. She’s just got a lot of gut. The true hero of this book is Rhett Butler. He’s way ahead of his time and he’s espouses interesting philosophies. He’s my favorite character.

This review made my month, my day, my year. I have been in love with Gone With the Wind since an age I can't remember. I was introduced to the movie first back when TNT aired it for the first time on cable. Yes, I'm that many years old. After that I would carry around a sad looking red paperback copy of the book everywhere, but never finish it until young adulthood. I have lost count of the number of copies I have acquired over the years, but I always go back to that red Warner books movie cover edition that is now held together with washi tape. It's just a magical, comfort read to me. The writing, the characters, the settings, the circumstances draw me in every time. People could say because I'm Southern I'm biased, but I don't agree. It's just a great book that sometimes makes me feel (white) guilty for loving so much.

One correction: Scarlett married thrice

Thanks for the review! I agree with others who are happy it was long and you took your time with it. Scarlett really is a fascinating character because we truly have sooo many reasons to despise her, yet we don’t. Maybe it reveals some of the shallowness and selfishness that exists inside all of us that we can’t help but like or relate to her in some way. The only thing I really don’t agree with in your review is that she learns nothing by the end. In the end I think Scarlet really does learn what Melanie really meant to her. That she was the only female friend she ever really had that meant anything. I think she also finally learns what everyone has been trying to tell her about the importance of being with someone who understands you. That her and Ashley don’t have in common the things that matter most. She learns the difference between Love and Lust. That Ashley only lusted for her, but nothing more. Rhett only ever acted out his lust with Belle, but really loved Scarlett. She basically learns all these lessons too late ha ha but she still learned them.

I've adored this book since I first read it as a child. I would be interested in your thoughts on Scarlett by Alexandra Ripley.

one of my favorite books of all time

Great Frankenstein entry.. I like this video all the more because of that

Lovely review. I too read GWTW twice. You should watch the movie filmed in 1939. It is amazing and close to the book.

Margaret Mitchell wrote characters with blood in their veins. Scarlett had gumption and the book sold us on that quality as the driving force of survival. Scarlett intuitively knew the depth of her own greed and I believe she sought out Ashley to tame her wild Irish soul as her father had with her elegant, French mother. To her mind Ashley brought dignity and redemption. Her refusal to accept that loss was the same blinding force that got her through the war and reconstruction. The tenderhearted Christian, Melanie, understood that Scarlett's gumption was necessary and she forgave her everything because they needed her and she trusted Ashley's honor. Melanie spent her moral capital defending Scarlett because she had enough self awareness and security to understand and appreciate Scarlett's value. It is a great story. The book takes it to another level.

I loved this review

Margaret Mitchell was very clear that she wrote the original text as a black comedy & was surprised at how many people took the story literally. So have I! 🧐

Glad you enjoyed the novel. I just re-read it after 20+ years. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it the first time and this second reading was just as engaging. It is fantastic storytelling with excruciatingly vile content. Mitchell certainly helped perpetuate the myth of the Lost Cause. I would never call Scarlett a feminist but she is certainly a kick-ass young woman who gets shit done. You mentioned Scarlett being an unreliable narrator, a phrase I wouldn't use to describe her, but you (I think) related it to her naivete. I saw Rhett and some of the other characters as Mitchell's way of highlighting and correcting her ignorance.

👋Hello Stranger 👍Welcome back☕️I missed your videos🌻Gone With The Wind is my friend Stefan's favourite book & movie😪He's made me sit through the movie at Christmas 😭In every scene someone dies😡It was torture🤢 Don't be a stranger ☘️🍀👍

i love your youtuve videos. i think this was a beautiful review and if i every become a famour writer my main goal will you for you to review my book/s. your a legend man im glad your back.

Glad you are back. If every person who read _Gone With the Wind_ was required to watch your video before or afterwards I would not have a problem with this book being considered a great novel. Since that is impossible, I can't, as a historian, bring myself to praise this book. The damage that it has done in perpetuating the myth, as you point out, of the American South before and after the Civil War is incalculable. It has normalized the idea that slavery wasn't that bad, that enslaved people were happy, content, to simple to be on their own, etc. Your identification of the class system of the South is spot on. I don't think Mitchell had any real enlightened purpose in her portrayal of Scarlet or the South or Slavery. I think as you said, she loved the Antebellum South and idealized it as a better simpler time spoiled by the end of slavery and the Civil War. Your video is great.

I am right three now and read gone with the wind the first time.when I was twenty Each time I read it I saw something different. The first time, I just thought it was a romantic story set during the civil wsr.the second time I really got into.the relationships between scarlett and Rhett and scarlett and Ashley and to a lesser degree between melanie and scarlett and felt do sorry for scarlett losing Rhett and felt terrible for scarlett. Agsin when I saw the movie and Rhett said ",frankly. My dear I don't give a damn" Now, on u tube portions of the.movie are shown and all of a sudden I see the whole story as a person going back to their roots which is the land and I mean the actual soil Which is the name of the plantation.: : "Tara" as in terra firma Scarlett. As she lays across the stairs sobbing at the Los of Rhett. Scarlett, hears the voice of her father telling her to remember tara, the basically homestead of the family To me, this is the gist of the story this is your soul. Girl, and you need to go back to it

Isn't "the South losing, and then losing some more" the bread and butter of Faulkner?

What did you think of all the main characters hating the Confederacy?

I got about half way through. I’m not going to offer too much criticism because I think that you’re a very small channel that isn’t striving for *HUGE* numbers. Also you’re obviously not a futurist and you’re suffering very much from today’s ideology. In the same way you’re critical of the author in her views of the time... I would just say, think about the 5 minutes (of 20) you’ve spent into stating that *YOU* understand white privilege. I thought this was “an excruciatingly deep dive into gone with the wind”.... not “the explanation and expectations of double think and self sacrifice involved with appeasing the modern hive mind. Also, gone with the wind”. Good luck man. I’m going to watch the rest of your video. Thanks for the content and for your time! 👍🏻

I love GWTW sooooooo much

Whoa, I'm glad to see you back! Killing it with this convo! I wish I could get your mojo...started my own channel and my demeanor is still kinda wobbly. I tagged you in the Ten BookTuber Personalities Tag in case you'd want to take a crack at it. My channel = Marian Ryan. Cheers!

You explained this book greatly. Specially, about Scarlet and her personality, ofcourse a bad one. And privilege, that opens the door of so many opportunities,that many people doesn't get, because of their race, or religion, or ethnicity,or sex

Come to think of it, Uncle Peter had more sense than any Yankee she had ever met. This was something Aunt Pitty believed about her coachman. Scarlett's first husband remarks of him, "The trouble is that he owns us, body and soul and he knows it." Margaret was true to her characters. Most writers are too wishy-washy about conforming to the tastes of their own contemporaries.

Came to your channel in one of those "this led to that" kinds of way; quite enjoyed your analysis of GWTW. I first read the book 50 years ago after seeing the film in an anniversary re-release and was surprised at how deep the story was, how huge the story was; the film had "sweep" but was largely a melodrama, the novel has a strangely mystical, mythical, revisionist romanticized mournfulness that is deeply, deeply disturbing; the glittering, genteel, beautiful "Old South" that sadly far too many folks believe actually existed. To (largely) focus your review on the character of Scarlett is, to some degree, to focus your review on the myth of Southern white females, the Steel Magnolias ( to steal another cliche), the Great Ladies. Scarlett is the "New South", Melanie the embodiment of the "Old". I grew up in the south. I grew up with the vestiges of this myth, the fable of the vanished beautiful cotton kingdom, the strong yet genteel plantation princesses and the chivalrous knights who laid down their lives for honor and a great many of the older people I knew when I was young referred to GWTW with deep reverence and respect, almost as if it were some sacred text, a document to a lost world. The novel is an exceptionally enjoyable read, but profoundly flawed. I have owned a fair number of copies (paperbacks don't last). Mitchell is a astonishing storyteller and an outstanding historical researcher; her descriptions of battlefields and troop movements and military campaigns are highly accurate. I've reread the novel a great many times; it is, after all, the "War and Peace" of its' day, the "Dr. Zhivago" of 1936. I last read it a few years back and agree with you that perhaps it is a story about class more than a story about race and equally agree with you that the people of color are given no voice of their own. It troubled me in 1969 and continues to trouble me today that Mammy's actual children are never spoken of and she most certainly would have had to have children if she was a "Mammy" ( a wet-nurse) to both Ellen and Scarlett, and yet, not a word or clue as to who they are and (more importantly) where they are. So sorry for the long message; unfortunately, GWTW casts a long shadow over my conscience: a myth I grew up with and rejected, a depiction of a world still sought after and mourned by some, a novel I enjoy and yet am embarrassed by enjoying it because there is so very much that is truly, truly wrong about it. I look forward to watching your other reviews. It's a great way of pass this Covid confinement.

3 husbands

Love longer videos, but 3 minutes of explanation??

just had a good name.

so twilight but with confederates instead of vampires. .... ....

Scarlett is a prime example of an anti-hero. She's a morally corrupt character that makes selfish decisions for her own gain even if those decisions make her seem the villain to the other characters in the story. We see through that brash and non-conforming inner-dialogue she has that it is harnessed for her own and other's survival during the harshest of times. The novel has some of the richest descriptive elements, making settings so vivid and characters come alive so well it is almost like you are hearing their voices and seeing them in the pages.

I am not as liberal thinking as you although I am Asian, but I think your review is excellent. There are too many people who seem to be censorious about the book because of its racial attitudes. I think the book is instructive because of its racist attitudes. You show that we, with the advantage of hindsight, can handle the racist ideas expressed. The book is an excellent historical artifact, and it is also a wonderfully entertaining.

The way you feel about GWTW is the way I feel about Heart of Darkness. That said, I need to read this. Also, did *not* think I was going to grear you call out white feminism in this video, lol. Sounds like scarlett was a real #bossbabe by the end of the book. Or perhaps a #mompreneur?

Felt like a long intro...

You obviously believe you cannot be wrong. Let’s debate let’s set up a livestream. I’m down don’t back down.

I doubt you read it. Too many mistakes show your dishonesty

Did you really read the book? She had one child who died in an accident

To me the book is a psychological study of narcissism and survival!! And Margaret Mitchell never said Scarlett was a good person!! God I can't stand how we judge things of yesterday with today's wokeness!! It was a character study of a human first.

Currently reading Gone with the wind for the first time have not seen the movie. I agree the book has so many racist things going about it but I’m determined to see it through although as a biracial woman when first starting I wanted to throw the book across the room with the way she described the slaves and I almost died about the pickanini BS I do see the appeal in the love triangle between scarlet Rhett and Ashly in my mind though scarlet is nothing more than a confederate Becky sharp therefore Margaret Mitchell not all she’s cracked up to be

Just finished the book. Greatest book I've ever read. But racist as fuck.

Gave up at 9 minutes. Be more concise please