Sorry, rant over. But I did start rereading it the other day and more and more I pick up little things like the fact that Melanie Wilkes (nee Hamilton) appears to be a stereotypical Victorian angel in the house (timid, weak, (dull), ) but then later on she stands up and protects Scarlet, the least likely to need someone like Melanie to stand beside her, and you realise she might seem like the sweet, innocent, 'perfect' girl but underneath her calm exterior she is steely and determined to do the best for her family and friends.
Or take Scarlet herself. She thinks she loves Ashley Wilkes (yes, that is Melanie's husband and no I promise you it is not some sappy romance) but in reality she wants to move into the new world in which it doesn't matter that she's a widow with a young, whining boy or that she's a woman, yet there's a small part of her which is too scared to let go of what the old represents: the parties, the flirting, the long hooped dresses, Ellen her beloved mother, Gerald her Irish father, the Tarleton twins (although how they ever expected to deal with the fact they both were in love with her, I don't know - probably they'd end up dueling for it!) and everything else that she loved about her home in Georgia. For her Ashley, who never moves into the present, is the one thing left that keeps her in the old ways despite her success in the new, modern world: she becomes a successful businesswoman, she marries twice more and she has a daughter, Bonnie. Oh, and she kind of falls in love (but only in the last three pages - sorry to spoil it for anyone).
So, yes, it isn't a romance. More like an epic or a saga about a number of woman, all of whom are strong, powerful, determined and who generally have control over the men in their lives! I guess that's why I love it. Scarlet may make mistakes (and believe me, she makes hundreds) but she never gives up, even after she has lost EVERYTHING. And that's what makes it so special, 75 years on.
Read it. Reread it. Love it.
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