瑪格麗特·米切爾的《飄》其影響可謂深遠。但是1949 年米切爾去逝時，她的私人信件及文稿，甚至連《飄》的原始打字稿全部都被銷毀了。至此，人們一直認為米切爾生前衹有一部作品傳世。然而，50 年後的今天，世人發現米切爾在創作《飄》之前寫成的另一個令人喜愛的故事，這就是中篇小說《失去的萊鬆島》。
該書的發現披露了真實生活中的一個浪漫故事，這就是米切爾與她年輕的戀人安吉爾的愛情故事。安吉爾的後代將這部手稿，以及米切爾的信件、照片一直保存了半個多世紀，今天終於將它們交到了有關米切爾生平的博物館長手中。
該小說圍繞南太平洋的一個火山島構築了一個令人激動的、愛情與榮譽的故事。
Mitchell, who is best known as the author of Gone with the Wind, was believed to have only written one full book during her lifetime. However, when she was 15, she had written the manuscript to Lost Laysen -- a romance set in the South Pacific. She gave the two notebooks containing the handwritten work to a suitor named Henry Love Angel, who kept the manuscript along with a number of letters Mitchell had sent him. Angel died in 1945, but Lost Laysen remained undiscovered until his son found the manuscript while preparing to donate the letters to the Road to Tara Museum.
Lost Laysen was first published in 1996 by the Scribner imprint of Simon & Schuster (ISBN 0684824280 . Edited by Debra Freer, the book includes an extensive introduction telling the story of Mitchell and Angel's relationship, complete with photographs and reproductions of some of her letters.
該書的發現披露了真實生活中的一個浪漫故事，這就是米切爾與她年輕的戀人安吉爾的愛情故事。安吉爾的後代將這部手稿，以及米切爾的信件、照片一直保存了半個多世紀，今天終於將它們交到了有關米切爾生平的博物館長手中。
該小說圍繞南太平洋的一個火山島構築了一個令人激動的、愛情與榮譽的故事。
Mitchell, who is best known as the author of Gone with the Wind, was believed to have only written one full book during her lifetime. However, when she was 15, she had written the manuscript to Lost Laysen -- a romance set in the South Pacific. She gave the two notebooks containing the handwritten work to a suitor named Henry Love Angel, who kept the manuscript along with a number of letters Mitchell had sent him. Angel died in 1945, but Lost Laysen remained undiscovered until his son found the manuscript while preparing to donate the letters to the Road to Tara Museum.
Lost Laysen was first published in 1996 by the Scribner imprint of Simon & Schuster (ISBN 0684824280 . Edited by Debra Freer, the book includes an extensive introduction telling the story of Mitchell and Angel's relationship, complete with photographs and reproductions of some of her letters.
《亂世佳人》（GONE WITH THE WIND）是好萊塢影史上最值得驕傲的一部曠世經典文學電影，影片放映時間長達4小時，觀者如潮。其魅力貫穿整個20世紀，有好萊塢“第一巨片” 之稱。影片當年耗資400多萬美元，歷時三年半完成，其間數次更換導演，銀幕上出現了60多位主要演員和9000多名配角演員。在1939年的第12屆奧斯卡奬中一舉奪得八項金像奬，轟動美國影壇。這部耗資巨大，場景豪華，戰爭場面宏大逼真的歷史文學題材影片，以它令人稱道的藝術成就成為美國電影史上一部經典作品，令人百看不厭。
1861年南北戰爭爆發的前夕，塔拉莊園的千金小姐郝思嘉愛上了另一莊園主的兒子艾希利，但艾希利卻選擇了郝思嘉的表妹——溫柔善良的韓媚蘭為終身伴侶。郝思嘉出於妒恨，搶先嫁給了韓媚蘭的弟弟查爾斯。不久，美國南北戰爭爆發了。艾希利和查爾斯作為徵兵上了前綫。查爾斯很快就在戰爭中死去了。郝思嘉成了寡婦， 她內心卻一直對艾希利念念不忘。
一天，在一次舉行義賣的舞會上，郝思嘉和風度翩翩的商人白瑞德相識。白瑞德開始追求郝思嘉，但遭到她的拒絶。郝思嘉一心衹想着去追求艾希利，結果也遭到拒絶。
在戰爭中，美國南方軍遭到失敗，亞特蘭大城裏擠滿了傷兵。郝思嘉和表妹韓媚蘭自願加入護士行列照顧傷兵。目睹了戰亂帶來的慘狀之後，任性的郝思嘉成熟了不少。這時，從前綫傳來消息，北方軍快打過來了，不少人傢驚惶地逃離傢園，開始了不安定的流浪生活。正在此時，韓媚蘭不巧要生孩子了，郝思嘉衹好留下來照顧她。
在北方軍大軍壓境之日，郝思嘉哀求白瑞德幫忙護送她和剛生下孩子的韓媚蘭回塔拉莊園。白瑞德告訴郝思嘉他不能目睹南方軍潰敗而不去助一臂之力，他要參加南方軍作戰，他留下一把手槍並和郝思嘉擁吻告別。郝思嘉衹好獨自駕駛馬車回到塔拉莊園，而這時傢裏已被北方軍士兵搶先洗動一空，母親在驚嚇中死去。昔日美好的傢園變成了荒涼的棲息地，郝思嘉面對這一切悲慘時，表現出了女人少有的堅毅，她决定重建傢園。
不久，戰爭結束了。但是生活依然困苦。北方來的統治者要莊園主繳納重稅，郝思嘉在絶望中去亞特蘭大城找白瑞德借錢，卻得知他已被關進監獄。歸來的途中，郝思嘉遇上了本來要迎娶她妹妹的暴發戶弗蘭剋，為了要重振破産的傢業，她騙取弗蘭剋和自己結了婚。
郝思嘉在弗蘭剋經營的木材廠非法雇用囚犯，並和北方來的商人大做生意。此時，白瑞德用錢賄賂從而恢復了自由。兩人偶然碰面，再次展開愛恨交織的關係。
弗蘭剋和艾希利因加入了反政府的秘密組織，在一次集會時遭北方軍包圍，弗蘭剋中彈死亡，艾希利負傷逃亡，在白瑞德幫助下回到韓媚蘭身邊。郝思嘉再次成為寡婦。此時，白瑞德前來嚮她求婚，她終於與一直愛她的搞私運軍火和糧食致富的白瑞德結了婚。婚後，夫妻二人住在亞特蘭大的豪華宅邸中。一年後，他們的女兒邦妮出生，白瑞德把全部感情投註到邦妮身上。郝思嘉偶然翻閱艾希利的照片被白瑞德發現，終於導致了二人感情的破裂。其後，在艾希利的生日會前夕，郝思嘉與艾希利相見時熱情的擁抱引起旁人非議，韓媚蘭雖然不相信他們之間有曖昧關係，但白瑞德卻心生懷疑。
當郝思嘉告訴白瑞德她已經再次懷孕時，白瑞德懷疑地問那是誰的孩子，郝思嘉在羞怒之下欲打白瑞德，卻不慎滾下樓梯引起流産。白瑞德感到內疚，决心同郝思嘉言歸於好，不料就在他倆談話時，小女兒邦妮在騎馬時意外墜地而死。與此同時不幸的事也在另一個家庭裏發生，韓媚蘭終因操勞過度臥病不起。臨終前，她把自己的丈夫艾希利和兒子托付給郝思嘉，但要求她保守這個秘密，郝思嘉不顧一切撲嚮艾希利的懷中，緊緊擁抱住他，站在一旁的白瑞德無法再忍受下去，衹好轉身離去。面對傷心欲絶毫無反應的艾希利，郝思嘉終於明白，她愛的艾希利其實是不存在的，她真正需要的是白瑞德。
當郝思嘉趕回傢裏告訴白瑞德，她是真正愛他的時候，白瑞德已不再相信她。他决心離開郝思嘉，返回老傢去尋找美好的事物，被遺棄的郝思嘉站在濃霧迷漫的院中，想起了父親曾經對她說過的一句話：“世界上唯有土地與明天同在。”她决定守在她的土地上重新創造新的生活，她期盼着美好的明天的到來。
《飄》-主要演員介紹
剋拉剋·蓋布爾
剋拉剋·蓋布爾剋拉剋·蓋布爾
剋拉剋·蓋布爾，1901年出生於美國俄亥俄州的農村小鎮，母親在他十個月大時便去世了，父親在他三歲時另娶圖書館職員珍妮為繼母。珍妮無所出，視剋拉剋．蓋博如親生子。十四歲時，父親賣掉田産，到奧剋拉荷馬州去當油井工人，剋拉剋不願意隨父親搬傢，乃離傢出走，到當地的一傢劇院打工，從此展開了他日後的演藝生涯。就外形而論，剋拉剋．蓋博並不算是英俊小生，主要是有一對特大號的招風耳。在他投身電影界參加試鏡時，曾先後被米高梅公司副總裁艾文泰爾伯格取笑他有一雙蝙蝠翅膀一樣的大耳朵，雷毫萍公司老闆霍華休斯更刻薄地說他的耳朵像一輛打開了兩扇門的計程車。雖然這些影壇大亨並不欣賞剋拉剋．蓋博，但女同胞卻愛他愛得要死。首先是年齡比蓋博大兩歲的女演員法蘭西絲杜芙娜。他倆在波特蘭城訂婚後，杜芙娜就積極地運用自己的關係為蓋博打天下，安排他在新戲中演出角色，又介紹他認識戲劇圈中有頭有臉的人物。蓋博因此結識了年齡比他大十四歲的資深女演員約瑟芬狄倫，她同時也是劇壇著名的演技指導，門生甚多。蓋博在狄倫女士的大力引薦下，演出機會增加了不少。他在投桃報李之下，拋棄了未婚妻，於1924年與約瑟芬狄倫結婚。
參與作品：
《娛樂世界續集》 (1976) 、《米高梅公司的喜劇電影回顧 》(1964) 、《碧港豔遇》 (1960) 、《太平洋潛艇戰 》(1958) 、《教師之戀 》(1958) 、《金漢豔奴》 (1957) 等
費雯·麗
費雯·麗（Vivien Leigh) (1913年11月5日－1967年7月7日)。原名費雯·瑪麗·哈特利（Vivien Mary Hartley），英國電影演員。她成功地飾演《亂世佳人》的斯佳麗·奧哈拉和《欲望號街車》的布蘭奇·杜波依斯，兩度獲得奧斯卡最佳女主角。1999年，她被美國電影學會選為百年來最偉大的女演員第16 名。
費雯·麗費雯·麗
主要作品：
1965《愚人船》1951《欲望號街車》（獲奧斯卡最佳女主角奬）1946《Caesar and Cleopatra》 1941《漢米登夫人》1940《21 Days》 1940 《魂斷藍橋》1939《亂世佳人》 《飄》（獲奧斯卡最佳女主角奬） 1938《Sidewalks of London》 1937 《Storm in a Teacup》 1937《Dark Journey》 1937《Fire Over England》
《飄》-經典片段
瑞德離開郝思嘉後，Scarlett O’Hara最後坐在樓梯的臺階上說——“After all， tomorrow is another day。”
思嘉在回到被毀的傢園後,在山頭上說----“上帝為我作證,上帝為我作證,北佬休想將我整垮.等熬過了這一關,我决不再忍饑挨餓,也决不再讓我的親人忍饑挨餓了,哪怕讓我去偷,去搶,去殺人.請上帝為我作證,我無論如何都不再忍饑挨餓了!”
點評
有人說這部電影最經典的場面是Scarlett O’Hara在戰爭後回到被毀的傢園，在園中手握紅土發誓，無論去偷去搶都不會讓傢人挨餓那段，因為那時她的眼神和表情真的特別震撼人。這樣說我也不反對，因為這實在是一部太經典的片子，經典的場面太多，各人有各人的偏愛。我倒是情願選擇這個：以後，明天就是新的一天了。什麽是愛？什麽是恨？愛和恨可以象兩條永不相交的平行綫，愛和恨也可能衹需要一縷陽光就可以消融。珍惜擁有的人是幸福的，因為我們總是並不確切知道我們需要的到底是什麽。太多的人衹有在失去的時候，纔知道去珍惜。泰戈爾有一句詩我特別喜歡：如果錯過太陽時你流淚了，那麽你也將錯過星星了。歷盡滄桑，你要學會忽略過去。因為——tomorrow is another day。
“不要不辭而別，我的愛人。
我看望了一夜，現在我臉上睡意重重。
衹恐我在睡中把你丟失了。
不要不辭而別，我的愛人。
我驚起伸出雙手去摸觸你，我問自己說：
“這是一個夢麽？"
但願我能用我的心係住你的雙足，緊抱在胸前！
不要不辭而別，我的愛人。”
——泰戈爾《園丁集》
《飄》-人物性格
斯佳麗
一個貓一樣的女人。有着貓一樣的目光，貓一樣的微笑，貓一樣的步伐和貓一樣的敏捷。那麽，這個貓一樣的女人提供給我們是怎樣的一些對待生活、對待愛情、對待睏難和挫折的態度和經驗呢？
亂世佳人亂世佳人
第一她在睏難的時候敢於承擔責任，雖然也有動搖，但最後仍然承擔責任,比如她救了玫蘭妮，她重振塔拉莊園, 後來長期扶助阿希禮一傢等等。
第二她敢於去愛、無怨無悔，她的整個青春都在愛着阿希禮，沒有回報但她仍沒有放棄努力，直到能力的極限為止。
第三知錯能改，當她最後明白她之前所為是錯誤時，她馬上嚮瑞特道歉，請求原諒。
總的來說，斯佳麗堪稱巾幗不讓須眉的奇女子，人中竜鳳，難怪瑞特這樣的牛人也拜倒在她的石榴裙下。每次看《亂世佳人》，每次都有不同的收穫。年輕時看，討厭虛榮愛出風頭的斯佳麗，喜歡純潔善良的玫蘭妮，不喜歡油腔滑調的瑞特巴特勒，喜歡溫文爾雅的阿希禮，喜歡南方如畫的景緻和田園牧歌式的生活，不喜歡北方的浮華和放蕩。後來看了多次之後，不由得對斯佳麗敬佩起來，原本是一個弱女子，任性而年青，第一次結婚是一時的衝動報復，嫁給了不愛的男孩，讓自己成為了年輕的寡婦。第二次結婚是為了一傢人的生存，搶走了妹妹的心上人，肯尼迪。肯尼迪雖然是一個半老頭子，卻不是斯佳麗的對手，面對她的冷酷和無情，他束手無策。最終為了斯佳麗差點遭受的侮辱去報復窮白人而被人擊斃，不幸枉死，卻從未享受過斯佳麗的一點愛。於是斯佳麗再次成為寡婦，而且還是個有錢的寡婦。在那個戰火紛飛的年代，為了答應過阿希禮照顧玫蘭妮的一句承諾，在北軍就要攻占亞特蘭大的時候，斯佳麗又果斷地替玫蘭妮接生，並找到瑞特衝破重重阻礙和關卡，回到了鄉下老傢－－塔拉莊園。在又饑又餓之時，她又遭受了母親病亡、父親癡呆、傢裏被劫，一窮二白的多重打擊，她不屈不撓，帶頭種田幹活，喝令妹妹下床摘棉花，並照顧玫蘭妮和小波，支撐一傢人的生計，那時她頂多也不過是個二十來歲的小姑娘，本應是個在母親懷裏撒嬌的小姑娘。可是面對如此巨大的睏難，她沒有選擇逃避，而是勇敢挑起傢裏的重擔，以常人難以企及的毅力抗爭命運，每每看到斯佳麗舉着蘿蔔嚮天盟誓，决不願讓傢人再受苦挨餓時，我總是覺得拍片導演對光綫和背景的運用是那麽巧妙和藝術， 它那麽生動地刻劃了思嘉渴望安定、渴望生存、渴望富裕的強烈而真實的內心情感。我覺得那時的她，已完成了最艱難的嬗變，由一隻醜陋的毛毛蟲破繭而出變成了美麗的蝶，自由而高貴，那時的思嘉就像一個女神－－－渴望富有、並為此能不擇手段的欲望女神。
剛強、堅韌
無論是面對戰爭的廢墟和硝煙、母親和父親的去世、生活的貧窮艱難還是女兒的夭折，在和她承受同樣的痛苦和艱難的人們當中，她都是最剛強、最堅韌的一個和最先從痛苦和艱難中走出來的一個。當斯佳麗面對着已是滿目傷痕泰勒莊園時，她的堅韌和剛強令她這個傢中的長女擔起傢長的重擔。在影片的末尾，她還堅定地告訴我們：Tomorrow is another day。
虛榮
這應該是一個貶義詞了，可是，斯佳麗的虛榮心似乎格外的可愛，在她的身上，虛榮似乎也變成了褒義詞。有位名模曾說：“女孩子總是要有一點虛榮心的，無論這虛榮心表現在什麽方面。”當斯佳麗扯下母親唯一的遺物——窗簾，無論如何也要用它做一件漂亮的衣服，還將它披在身上憧憬着新衣服的樣子時，她的虛榮心使她成了一個看起來不孝的女兒，但她的這種做法（也就是她的虛榮心）是當時拯救全家的唯一出路。由虛榮心而使全家人都有了生存下去的希望，這樣的虛榮心也不應該算是值得摒棄的。
貪婪
這總應該是個貶義詞了。但是，斯佳麗的貪婪不僅是有情可原的，在某種程度上來講還是難能可貴的。戰後的泰勒莊園在北方軍的控製之下，母親的去世和父親的崩潰使斯佳麗——傢中的長女擔起了“傢長”的重擔。斯佳麗一傢人過着艱辛的生活。戰爭使她貧窮，貧窮繼之以饑餓。然而最可怕的是無錢交稅險些失去生活來源的土地，為了借錢交稅，斯佳麗勾引了妹妹的情人，繼而當起了一傢小店的老闆娘。在經歷這一切後，她明白了她所處的是一個什麽樣的社會以及在這個社會中錢的重要性。所以，當她擁有了當前她所需要的錢之後，她自然會想擁有更多的錢。在她追求“更多的錢”的過程中，她表現出了一個早期資本主義的資本傢所必須具有的優秀品質——貪婪。
殘忍與自私
這兩個詞無論用在什麽人身上似乎都應該是表貶義的詞語，特別是以溫和、善良為美德的女性。但是，斯佳麗的殘忍與自私在某種適度上卻是值得褒揚的。首先，在社會轉型的時期，人的觀念需要從傳統的觀念轉變成為新型的、與社會發展相適應的觀念。不能在第一時間內轉變觀念的人就失去了領導時代的主動權。斯佳麗就是一個在第一時間內轉變觀念，接受了新的社會和社會制度、新的價值觀念、新的生活方式，並且成為了一個小資本傢的女人，在這一點，她是非常了不起的。而且，在剛剛建立了資本主義制度時，自私和殘忍對於一個資本傢來說是生存和發展的關鍵。在資本主義社會，對世界的博愛已經是阻礙資本的自身生存和發展的一個因素，此時，自私與殘忍就成了強者的優點。
美麗
斯佳麗為我們提供了一種對待愛情的態度。她美麗，但她衹是適當地運用她的美麗來得到她所喜愛的東西，從來不用自己的美貌來玩弄愛情，無論是自己的還是他人的愛情。斯佳麗是美麗的，但美麗不是擁有愛情的必備條件——你可以沒有斯佳麗那樣美麗動人，但你也有權利去追求屬於自己的愛情。
綜上所述，我們得出了這樣的一個結論：
斯佳麗，貓一樣的女人，剛強的、堅韌的、虛榮的、貪婪的、殘忍的、自私的女人，女人的典範。
思嘉這個人，很可悲，可悲到了一種可笑的程度。
就像她自己意識到的的，“她對她所愛過的兩個男人哪一個都不理解，因此到頭來兩個都失掉了。現在她纔恍惚認識到，如果她當初瞭解艾希禮，她是决不會愛他的；而如果她瞭解了瑞德，它就無論如何都不會失掉他了。”
她一直不明白戰後的人們為什麽會去追憶戰前，直到邦妮死後，她纔明白了原因，但是，哪些可以與她追憶過往的人，已經由於她自己的疏遠，排斥已經越來越遠，而她的那些“新朋友”卻也無法使思嘉高興起來。
一直很喜歡瑞德離開前的那一段話，“思嘉，我從來不是那樣的人，不能耐心的拾起一些碎片，把它們粘合在一起，然後對自己說這個修補好了的東西跟新的完全一樣。一樣東西破碎了就是破碎了——我寧願記住它最好時的模樣，而不想把它修補好，然後終生看着那些破碎了的地方。也許，假使我還年輕一點——可是我已經這麽大年紀了，不能相信那種純屬感情的說法，說是一切都可以從頭開始。我這麽大年紀了，不能終生背着謊言的負擔，在貌似體面地幻滅中過日子。我不能跟你生活在一起同時又對你說謊，而且我决不能欺騙自己。就是現在，我也不能對你說謊話啊！我是很想關心你今後的情況的，可是我不能那樣做。”
如果沒有瑞德，思嘉是不完整的，哪麽《飄》也就不能被稱為“名著”了。思嘉，自私，虛榮，貪婪，剛強，堅韌。如果說這些形容詞用在別人身上，衹怕全部都是貶義的，但是對思嘉而言，我倒覺得有點像是褒義詞。其實，就像瑞德說的，“我們都是流氓，我們都是無賴。”他對於自己與思嘉的分析是很透徹的，也正因為他的這些分析，《飄》纔會被無數人所拜讀，思嘉也纔完整。
關於電影版《飄》 ——《亂世佳人》，我衹能說，我看完電影就喜歡上了費雯麗。因為她所演繹的思嘉真的就像活着的一樣，讓我再一次感受到了思嘉的美，思嘉的一切。
瑞德
我必須承認，對我來說，《亂世佳人》的吸引力之所以這麽大，和剋拉剋蓋博主演的瑞特巴特勒絶對有關係。
當然，斯佳麗眯着那雙像貓那樣的緑眼，迷人而妖媚，同樣也讓人傾倒。她是個讓女人都能為之神魂顛倒的女人，她自私、冷酷、無情、聰明、不擇手段、堅強，卻不乏善良、美麗、脆弱；她是一個高不可攀的女神，讓許多女人都夢想着能像她那樣，集財富、美貌、能幹、堅強於一身，讓瑞特那樣的男人能夠為她而傾倒。至少我曾經就那樣想過。但我認為，瑞特給我們這些女性觀衆帶來的卻更多是對愛情和婚姻的甜美幻想，他是那麽瀟灑倜儻，那麽玩世不恭，那麽自信過人，富有並充滿了成熟男人的魅力，該是多少女性心目中的偶像啊。
在這裏，簡單回閃思嘉和瑞特相遇、相識、相愛的幾個片段，就能讓人對瑞特愛我所愛，堅持自兒，富有個性的男性魅力印象深刻：
片段一：瑞特第一次見到斯佳麗是在十二像樹園的燒烤會上。斯佳麗嚮所有的男士賣弄風情，卻發現瑞特正註意她，斯佳麗嚮身邊的女伴抱怨說：“他看我的樣子，就像我沒穿衣服”可見瑞特給人的感覺不是溫文爾雅，富有紳士風度，對世事的有種別人所不具備的強大洞察力和影響力，表明了他與一般的南方男人不同點：現實、大膽而富有進攻性，當他躲在書房裏偷聽斯佳麗大膽地嚮阿希禮表露愛慕，但因遭到婉拒，她氣急敗壞地搧了阿希禮一個耳光，並砸碎了一個小花瓶時，他吹了一個口哨，於是他被斯佳麗指責為不是一個紳士，而他同時也反唇相譏斯佳麗不是一個真正的淑女，讓斯佳麗氣極。倆人第一次相見就是一次愛情的交鋒。
片段二：斯佳麗因查爾斯病亡到亞特蘭大散心，正在服喪的她，十分渴望能再度飛旋於舞池中，表現了她在內心裏對無拘無束、自由生活的嚮往和憧憬。是瑞特看出了她的心思，並出重金替她撬開了那個壓抑而沉悶的社會道德囚籠，使她走上了和別的南方女人最不相同的命運之路。這正是斯佳麗反叛舊的社會道德標準邁出的關鍵性一步，而這一步，如果沒有瑞特暗中片段三：瑞特為了幫助斯佳麗重返故裏，拼死弄了一匹身負重傷的老馬，並幫助她把玫蘭妮抱到馬車上，同時一路歷經辛苦，並在即將要到達的時候，瑞特看到許多南方兵前仆後繼，視死如歸，深感震撼，並决定上戰場，為保衛傢園盡一份力。這時可以看出，為了心愛的女人，他能出生入死； 同樣，面臨傢園被毀之境，他也是一個熱血之人，導演在這裏纔嚮我們描繪了一個深藏在平日玩世不恭外表下，也具有一顆為榮譽甘灑熱血之心的典型南方男性的形象。在這裏我們看到，雖然瑞特平日裏非常精明、現實，但他骨子裏其實還是一個南方人。
片段四：瑞特在經歷了喪女之痛和斯佳麗在精神上的背叛後，面對玫蘭妮的之死，對一切都灰心失望至極，回傢收拾行李，返回自己的故鄉，查爾斯頓。當愚蠢的斯佳麗最後發現自己已深愛瑞特時，纔發現已最終失去了自己最心愛的人。瑞特最後走得十分幹脆，讓斯佳麗深感懊悔。直到這裏，我們纔聽到那顆曾經為愛而柔軟的心破碎的聲音，同時也因為破碎而對斯佳麗變得“冷酷無情”，這裏的瑞特纔讓我們感覺到，這個男人敢愛敢恨，處理事情十分幹脆利落，極富男性魅力。
瑞德這個人敢愛敢恨，就如上文所說，他不願拾起破碎的感情，所以纔會在最後變得那麽冷酷無情。這個人物很富有男性魅力，就像思嘉所擁有的女性魅力，同樣使人沉醉。
他們兩個的結合，確實就像瑞德所說，“珠聯璧合”。但是，在瑞德的現實與思嘉的幻想中，瑞德失敗了，他的感情也因此真正的破碎了。
而剋拉剋·蓋博的演繹更是無可挑剔，在那種翩翩風度背後的嘲弄，在那種沉穩冷靜背後的狂放不羈，都是讓人頗為迷醉的。
艾希禮與媚蘭
再說說阿希禮和玫蘭妮，他們是相似的，具備南方的一切美德，有知識，有文化，有思想，有修養。
玫蘭妮基本上是完美的，她善良，仁慈又不乏勇氣，斯佳麗摘棉花時，她想幫忙，斯佳麗殺人時她也幫忙，除了瑞特，她是斯佳麗的另一個支持者。我做過小範圍的調查，先看書的基本都喜歡斯佳麗，而先看電影的則喜歡玫蘭妮。我覺得美蘭妮太好了，好得不真實，而斯佳麗是有血有肉的，是真實的，有缺點也有優點。
阿希禮是真實的，他是個活在過去的人，時世變遷，他不想面對，他是缺乏勇氣的。他不愛斯佳麗，又不說不愛她。斯佳麗走投無路找他時他衹給了她莊園的紅土，後來知道斯佳麗賣了自己，他說他該去搶劫，他也衹是說說吧，估計不會去的，這一點，他確實不如拖着軍刀想幫斯佳麗對付逃兵的美蘭妮。
亂世佳人裏的人物都是完美的，如果沒有美蘭妮的淑女風範，怎能體現出斯佳麗的桀驁不遜。沒有阿希禮的懦弱，怎能體現出瑞德的風範呢？
斯佳麗的奶媽.瑪格麗特
溫暖，可靠，安全。象母親一樣時刻保護她的孩子斯佳麗。
理智，聰明，現實而且冷靜，帶一些黑人的狡猾。她懂斯斯佳麗，支持她，愛她，雖然沒有多說什麽，但是她一直是斯佳麗的靠山，堅強有力。
忠誠，固執，可愛。對自己的寶貝，那是不顧一切的去保護；雖然衹是一個傢奴，但她有自己所要維護的處事原則。
黑人奶媽的形象刻畫的非常成功。 由此扮演黑媽的演員哈蒂·麥剋丹尼爾(Hattie McDaniel）戰勝了奧麗維亞(玫蘭妮)獲得了第十二屆奧斯卡最佳女配角奬，據說是歷史上第一個獲得奧斯卡奬的黑人。哈蒂將其特有的幽默感註入奶媽瑪格麗特一形象中，臺詞念得完美無缺，與斯佳麗的扮演者費雯麗配合默契，猶如緑葉扶紅花，結果兩人雙雙獲奬。由於奶媽一角的成功，哈蒂後來幾乎壟斷了銀幕上所有的黑人保姆角色，在許多影片裏可以看到她那肥胖、溫順、饒舌的形象。
《飄》-幕後花絮
時代背景：美國內戰；
地點：美國南方；
戲劇高潮：火燒亞特蘭大。
在如此壯麗的時代畫捲上演繹出一個極不尋常的愛情故事，開創了以真實而遼闊的歷史背景加虛構人物故事的愛情史詩片先河(該傳統發展出《日瓦戈醫生》和《泰坦尼剋號》等佳作)。這部早期的彩色片保持了瑪格麗特·米切爾原著的韻味和深度，既有色彩渾厚的大場面(如女主角跨過遍地傷員的鏡頭)，又有對人物命運的細緻刻畫(請註意黑人女僕的性格)。無論你認為素材像莎翁名劇還是像庸俗肥皂劇，影片取得驚人的藝術和商業成就。英文片名《飄》(即《隨風而去》)出自美國詩人歐內斯特·道森的一句詩。女主角的經典壓軸臺詞“明天是新的一天”乃原作出版前的暫定名。本片榮獲奧斯卡最佳影片、最佳導演、最佳女主角、最佳女配角等七項大奬。1994年的續集《郝斯佳》(Scarlett)是一部長達360分鐘的電視劇，豪華製作，服裝布景等下了血本。故事講郝斯佳跟白瑞德離婚後依然藕斷絲連，她甚至回到愛爾蘭，被控謀殺等等。影片根據雷普利小說改編。
影片拍攝耗資390萬美元，在當時僅屈居於《賓虛》和《地獄天使》之後。在小說出版的一個月後，製片人大衛·塞爾茲尼剋就用5萬美元買下了小說的電影拍攝權，對於新人的處女作來講，這個價碼在當時可謂是天文數字。在1942年塞爾茲尼剋的製片公司解散時，他又嚮小說作者瑪格麗特·米歇爾支付了5萬美元的分紅。瑪格麗特筆下艾什利和梅蘭尼的人物原型都是她的表兄妹，多剋和馬蒂相愛，但他們是虔誠的天主教徒，有血緣關係的親屬是嚴禁結婚的。後來，多剋離開了馬蒂，到西部成了不法之徒，而馬蒂則作了修女。
片中失火的場景是最先拍攝的，包括1933年《金剛》中使用的布景均被付之一炬，這段膠片長113分鐘，共耗資25000美元，當時的火情十分猛烈，以至不知情的公衆以為米高梅都化為灰燼了，報警電話響作一團。
在拍攝斯嘉麗從火中逃生的畫面時，劇組需要一匹瘦骨嶙峋的老馬，幾經尋找，終於物色到一匹，然而當幾周後馬被帶到片場，原先清晰可見的肋骨痕跡因為增重已經蕩然無存，由於時間緊迫，化妝師衹好在馬的肋骨部位畫出陰影。
《飄》-經典臺詞
美國電影學院每年都會為一些特別的電影項目評出前100名。05年取得經典臺詞榜第一的電影《亂世佳人》是剋拉剋·蓋博在1939年出演的的一句臺詞。那是白瑞德對郝思嘉說的一句話：“坦白說，親愛的，我一點也不在乎。”“蓋博的這句臺詞被人們在不同的場合引用，”鮑博說。“無論男女，當他們陷入一種並沒有完全投入的戀愛關係時，想要控製局面，就會用到這句話。”
《飄》-所獲奬項
本片在第十二屆奧斯卡金像奬（1939）中榮獲八項大奬：
最佳女主角奬（Best Actress）.........................費·雯麗（Vivien Leigh）
最佳女配角奬（Best Supporting Actress）......哈蒂·麥剋丹尼爾（Hattie McDaniel）
最佳影片奬（Best Picture）...........................《亂世佳人》（Gone With the Wind）
最佳導演奬（Best Director）..........................維剋多·弗萊明（Victor Fleming）
最佳編劇奬（Best Screenplay）....................悉尼·霍華德 （Sidney Howard）
最佳藝術指導（Best Art Direction）...............Lyle R. Wheeler
最佳攝影奬（Best Cinematography）............Ernest Haller & Ray Rennahan
最佳剪輯奬（Best Film Editing）....................Hal C. Kern & James E. Newcom
《飄》-點評
有人說這部電影最經典的場面是Scarlett O’Hara在戰爭後回到被毀的傢園，在園中手握紅土發誓，無論去偷去搶都不會讓傢人挨餓那段，因為那時她的眼神和表情真的特別震撼人。這樣說我也不反對，因為這實在是一部太經典的片子，經典的場面太多，各人有各人的偏愛。我倒是情願選擇這個：以後，明天就是新的一天了。什麽是愛？什麽是恨？愛和恨可以象兩條永不相交的平行綫，愛和恨也可能衹需要一縷陽光就可以消融。珍惜擁有的人是幸福的，因為我們總是並不確切知道我們需要的到底是什麽。太多的人衹有在失去的時候，纔知道去珍惜。
泰戈爾有一句詩我特別喜歡：如果錯過太陽時你流淚了，那麽你也將錯過星星了。歷盡滄桑，你要學會忽略過去。因為——tomorrow is another day。
《飄》-《飄》獲選英國史上最受歡迎電影
根據英國電影學院近日進行的一項評選，由老牌影星剋拉剋·蓋博和費文麗主演的描寫美國內戰的影片《飄》榮獲英國歷史上最受歡迎影片奬。根據電影票的銷售數量統計，自從1940年在英國上映以來，已有3500萬觀衆觀看了《飄》。《音樂之聲》名列第2，自從1938年上映以來，有3000萬人觀看。名列第3和第4的分別是《白雪公主和七個小矮人》(2800萬人)和《星球大戰》(2070萬人)。這次入選最受歡迎的十部電影排行榜的電影三分之一來自英國，其中名列第5的是《枯木逢春》。這次評選活動的主辦方表示：“這是英國歷史上第一次評選最受觀衆喜愛的影片。”位列6到10名的影片分別是《黃金時代》、《森林王子》、《泰坦尼剋》、《地獄聖女》以及《七宗罪》。
Title
The title is taken 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". The novel's protagonist, Scarlett O'Hara, also uses the title phrase in a line in the book: when her home area is overtaken by the Yankees, she wonders to herself if her home, a plantation called Tara, is still standing, or if it was "also gone with the wind which had swept through Georgia". More generally, the title has been interpreted as referring to the entire way of life of the antebellum South as having "Gone with the Wind". The prologue of the movie refers to the old way of life in the South as "gone with the wind…."
The title for the novel was a problem for Mitchell. She initially titled the book "Pansy", the original name for the character of Scarlett O'Hara. Although never seriously considered, the title "Pansy" was dropped once MacMillan persuaded Mitchell to rename the main character. Other proposed titles included "Tote the Weary Load" and "Tomorrow is Another Day", the latter taken from the last line in the book; however, the publisher noted that there were several books close to the same title at the time, so Mitchell was asked to find another title, and "Gone with the Wind" was chosen.
Plot
This section's plot summary may be too long or overly detailed. Please help improve it by removing unnecessary details and making it more concise. (April 2009)
Overview
Scarlett O'Hara is the daughter of an Irish immigrant who has risen from humble origins to become materially and socially successful in the deep south of 1861. He owns a plantation named Tara in Georgia. Scarlett is infatuated with Ashley Wilkes, who, although attracted to her, marries his cousin, Melanie Hamilton. Wilkes is genuinely ambiguous about his feelings toward Scarlett. He knows his feelings run deep, and are both emotional and sexual in nature; but he never resolves whether to act upon his feelings, or to renounce them and definitively reject Scarlett’s flirtations, in favor of his wife and his social position. And though he never sins in the flesh, the novel clearly implies that he does so in his heart, leading Scarlett along; limited only by his weakness in making a decision as to what ultimately, he should do.
At the party announcing Ashley's engagement to Melanie, Scarlett meets Rhett Butler, who has a reputation as a rogue. As the Civil War begins, Scarlett accepts a proposal of marriage from Melanie's brother, Charles Hamilton, who soon dies of disease in training. Scarlett's main concern regarding his death is that she must wear black and cannot attend parties. After the war, Scarlett inherits Tara and manages to keep the place going. When Scarlett cannot get money from Rhett to pay the taxes on Tara, she marries her sister's fiancé, Frank Kennedy, takes control of his business, and increases its profitability with business practices that make many Atlantans resent her. Frank is killed when he and other Ku Klux Klan members raid a shanty town where Scarlet was assaulted while driving alone. Remorseful after Frank's death, Scarlett marries Rhett, who is aware of her passion for Ashley but hopes that one day she will come to love him instead. Scarlett eventually comes to realize that she does love Rhett, but only once the couple has been through so much that Rhett has fallen out of love with her.
Part one
Scarlett O'Hara is the belle of the County. Her flirtatiousness and charm won the hearts of many men in Clayton County, Georgia. At sixteen years old, however, she begins the trials that will completely overtake her life for the next twelve years. She does this by having an impromptu marriage with the bashful Charles Hamilton to save face and make her real love—Ashley Wilkes—jealous. However, soon after their wedding, Charles and all the other men in Georgia who are able to bear arms, go to war against the Yankees at the start of the Civil War. After six weeks of being in camp, Charles dies of measles. With Charles's death, Scarlett's main concern is that, in order to conform to society, she must dress in black mourning clothes and attend no parties.
Parts two and three
Scarlett moves to Atlanta to stay with her sister-in-law and Ashley’s wife, Melanie Wilkes and Melanie's Aunt Pittypat. Melanie grows to love Scarlett like a sister; however, Scarlett is very self-centered and resents Melanie. Scarlett meets Rhett Butler again while in Atlanta; he is attentive to her and she uses him (and his money) when it is convenient. Rhett has a bad reputation and is "not received" in polite society. Ashley is able to come home for Christmas from the war and stay with the ladies. At the end of his stay, Scarlett promises him that she will keep Melanie safe. With the help of Rhett and her personal slave, Prissy, Scarlett delivers Melanie's child Beau in the middle of a battle and leads Melanie, the baby and Prissy to safety back at Tara. The Civil War is ending and the northern army is marching through Georgia laying waste to the country. Upon her arrival, Scarlett hears the news of the death of her beloved mother, Ellen, of typhoid. Scarlett stays at Tara Plantation and tries to keep it solvent and care for its inhabitants.
Part four
Scarlett hears that Tara is about to be charged an enormous amount of tax by the new corrupt local government which she cannot pay. She decides to go to Atlanta and charm Rhett into paying the bill. After offering herself to Rhett as his mistress and being refused, however, Scarlett marries Frank Kennedy, who has enough money to pay the tax on Tara. Frank is the fiancé of Scarlett's sister Suellen so she deceives him into thinking that Suellen is engaged to someone else in Clayton County.
With money borrowed from and then repaid to Rhett, Scarlett buys two timber mills and proceeds to make them very profitable. Her actions are considered very inappropriate for a woman by Atlanta society. As she travels home from it one night, she is attacked. Frank, Ashley, and many other men in the newly formed Ku Klux Klan avenge her attack. In the fight, Frank is killed.
A few months later Scarlett marries Rhett, who has become very rich by dubious means during the War.
Part five
Scarlett and Rhett start to enjoy their new life together. They have a child named Eugenia Victoria "Bonnie Blue" Butler, who becomes Rhett’s pride and joy. They live happily until Scarlett’s old infatuation with Ashley takes over. When Bonnie is killed in a riding accident Scarlett in the first flush of grief tells Rhett that she blames him. Rhett is heartbroken over the death of his beloved daughter. He drinks heavily and finally decides, after the death of Melanie Wilkes, to leave Scarlett forever. However, Scarlett realizes that she loves Rhett and never truly loved Ashley, but merely an idea of him. She confesses this to Rhett, but he is adamant. The book ends on an ambiguous note, as she decided to return to the familiarity of her beloved Tara, where she will find a way to win Rhett back: "Tomorrow is another day!".
Characters
Butler family
* Rhett Butler – Scarlett's love interest and third husband, often publicly shunned for scandalous behavior, sometimes accepted for his charm. He is financially a very shrewd man and initially appears to love Scarlett dearly.
* Eugenia Victoria "Bonnie Blue" Butler – Scarlett and Rhett's pretty, beloved daughter.
Wilkes family
* Ashley Wilkes – The gallant Ashley married his unglamourous cousin, Melanie, because she represented all that he loved and wanted in life, that is, the quiet and happy life of a Southern gentleman of the "Twelve Oaks" plantation. Ashley Wilkes marries Melanie Hamilton as an arranged marriage between the Wilkes-Hamilton families; in which the marriage of cousins (which Ashley and Melanie are) is the practice; when necessary to preserve the blood line and social position of the family. As such, Wilkes is not, in the strictest sense, brought to marriage by love, money, or sexual infatuation; but by a sense of duty to preserve the socio-economic status quo of a world which he personally enjoys and agrees with; and believes this marriage will support and sustain.
Wilkes becomes a soldier for the Confederate cause though he personally would have freed the slaves his father owned had the war not erupted, or at least that is what he claimed. Although many of his friends and relations were killed in the Civil War, Ashley survived to see its brutal aftermath. He remains the object of Scarlett's daydream of infatuated devotion, even throughout her three marriages. She is simply obsessed with unobtainable Ashley. Believing that she was in love with him, Scarlett imagined Ashley to be the "perfect man", leaving her unable to love another.
* Melanie Hamilton Wilkes – Ashley's wife and cousin, her character is that of the genuinely humble, serene and gracious Southern woman. As the story unfolds, Melanie becomes progressively physically weaker, first by childbirth, then the effects of war, and ultimately illness. She had her own unique inner spirit of perseverance, as did Scarlett. Melanie loved Ashley, Beau, and Scarlett unwaveringly, and dutifully supported the Confederate cause, revealing the naivete of her character.
* Beau Wilkes – Melanie's and Ashley's lovable son.
* India Wilkes – Ashley's sister. Almost engaged to Stuart Tarleton, she bitterly hates Scarlett for stealing his attention before he is killed at Gettysburg. Lives with Aunt Pittypat after Melanie kicks her out for accusing Scarlett and Ashley of infidelity.
* Honey Wilkes – another sister of India and Ashley. Originally hoped to marry Charles Hamilton until Scarlett marries him; following the war, she marries a man from Mississippi, and moves to his home state with him.
* John Wilkes – Owner of Twelve Oaks Plantation and patriarch of the Wilkes family. Killed during the Civil War.
O'Hara family
* Scarlett O'Hara – The wilful protagonist of the novel, whose travails the novel follows throughout war and reconstruction. She marries Charles Hamilton, Frank Kennedy and Rhett Butler, all the time wishing she was married to Ashley Wilkes instead. She has three children, one from each husband: Wade Hampton Hamilton (son to Charles Hamilton), Ella Lorena Kennedy (daughter to Frank Kennedy) and Eugenia Victoria "Bonnie Blue" Butler (deceased daughter to Rhett Butler).
* Gerald O'Hara – Scarlett's impetuous Irish father.
* Suellen O'Hara – Scarlett's selfish sister.
* Carreen O'Hara – Scarlett's timid, religious sister who, in the end of the story, joins a convent.
* Ellen O'Hara – Scarlett's gracious mother, of French ancestry.
Other characters
* Mammy – Scarlett's nurse from birth; a slave. Cited by Rhett as "the real head of the household." She has a no-nonsense attitude and is outspoken and opinionated. She chastises Scarlett often. She is extremely loyal to the O'Haras, especially Scarlett, whom she cares for like a daughter.
* Prissy – A young slave girl who features in Scarlett's life. She is portrayed as flighty and silly.
* Pork – The O'Hara family's butler, favored by Gerald.
* Dilcey – Pork's wife, a strong, outspoken slave woman of mixed Indian and Black decent, Prissy's mother.
* Charles Hamilton – Melanie's brother, Scarlett's first husband, shy and loving.
* Frank Kennedy – Suellen's former beau, Scarlett's second husband, an older man who only wants peace and quiet. He originally asks for Suellen's hand in marriage, but Scarlett steals him to save Tara. He is portrayed as a pushover who will do anything to appease Scarlett.
* Belle Watling – a brothel madam and prostitute; Rhett is her friend. She is portrayed as a kind-hearted country woman and a loyal confederate. At one point she states she has nursing experience.
* Archie – an ex-convict and former Confederate soldier who is taken in by Melanie. Has a strong disliking for all women, especially Scarlett. The only woman he respects is Melanie.
* Jonas Wilkerson – former overseer of Tara, father of Emmie Slattery's illegitimate baby. After being dismissed because of the aforementioned he eventually becomes employed by the Freedmen's Bureau, where he abuses his position to get back at the O'Haras and becomes rich.
* Emmie Slattery – later wife of Jonas Wilkerson, whom Scarlett blames for her mother's death.
* Will Benteen – Confederate soldier who seeks refuge at Tara and stays on to help with the plantation, in love with Carreen but marries Suellen to stay on Tara, and repair her reputation. He is portrayed as very perceptive and lost half of his leg in the war.
* Aunt Pittypat Hamilton – Charles and Melanie's vaporish aunt who lives in Atlanta.
* Uncle Peter – Aunt Pittypat's houseman and driver, he is extremely loyal to Pittypat.
Setting
* Tara Plantation – The O'Hara home and plantation
* Twelve Oaks – The Wilkes' plantation.
* Peachtree Street – location of Aunt Pittypat's home in Atlanta
The novel opens in April 1861 and ends in the early autumn of 1873.
Politics
The book includes a vivid description of the fall of Atlanta in 1864 and the devastation of war (some of that aspect was missing from the 1939 film). The novel showed considerable historical research. According to her biography, Mitchell herself was ten years old before she learned that the South had lost the war. Mitchell's sweeping narrative of war and loss helped the book win the Pulitzer Prize on May 3, 1937.
An episode in the book dealt with the early Ku Klux Klan. In the immediate aftermath of the War, Scarlett is assaulted by poor Southerners living in shanties, whereupon her former black slave Big Sam saves her life. In response, Scarlett's male friends attempt to make a retaliatory nighttime raid on the encampment. Northern soldiers try to stop the attacks, and Rhett helps Ashley, who is shot, to get help through his prostitute friend Belle. Scarlett's husband Frank is killed. This raid is presented sympathetically as being necessary and justified, while the law-enforcement officers trying to catch the perpetrators are depicted as oppressive Northern occupiers.
Although the Klan is not mentioned in that scene (though Rhett tells Archie to burn the "robes"), the book notes that Scarlett finds the Klan abominable. She believed the men should all just stay at home (she wanted both to be petted for her ordeal and to give the hated Yankees no more reason to tighten martial law, which is bad for her businesses). Rhett is also mentioned to be no great lover of the Klan. At one point, he said that if it were necessary, he would join in an effort to join "society". The novel never explicitly states whether this drastic step was necessary in his view. The local chapter later breaks up under the pressure from Rhett and Ashley.
Scarlett expresses views that were common of the era. Some examples:
* "How stupid negroes were! They never thought of anything unless they were told." — Scarlett thinks to herself, after returning to Tara after the fall of Atlanta.
* "How dared they laugh, the black apes!...She'd like to have them all whipped until the blood ran down...What devils the Yankees were to set them free!" — Scarlett again thinking to herself, seeing free blacks after the war.
* However, she is kind to Pork, her father's trusted manservant. He tells Scarlett that if she were as nice to white people as she is to black, a lot more people would like her.
* She almost loses her temper when the Yankee women say they would never have a black nurse in their house and talk about Uncle Peter, Aunt Pittypat's beloved and loyal servant, as if he were a mule. Scarlett informs them that Uncle Peter is a member of the family, which bewilders the Yankee women and leads them to misinterpret the situation.
* It was mentioned that only one slave was ever whipped at Tara, and that was a stablehand who didn't brush Gerald's horse. The only time Scarlett hit a slave was when Prissy was hysterical.
* Scarlett at one point criticized Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin, saying no one treated their slaves that badly.
Inspirations
As several elements of Gone with the Wind have parallels with Margaret Mitchell's own life, her experiences may have provided some inspiration for the story in context. Mitchell's understanding of life and hardship during the American Civil War, for example, came from elderly relatives and neighbors passing war stories to her generation.
While Margaret Mitchell used to say that her Gone with the Wind characters were not based on real people, modern researchers have found similarities to some of the people in Mitchell's own life as well as to individuals she knew or she heard of. Mitchell's maternal grandmother, Annie Fitzgerald Stephens, was born in 1845; she was the daughter of an Irish immigrant, who owned a large plantation on Tara Road in Clayton County, south of Atlanta, and who married an American woman named Ellen, and had several children, all daughters.
Many researchers believe that the physical brutality and low regard for women exhibited by Rhett Butler was based on Mitchell's first husband, Red Upshaw. She divorced him after she learned he was a bootlegger amid rumors of abuse and infidelity. Some believe he was patterned on the life of George Trenholm.
After a stay at the plantation called The Woodlands, and later Barnsley Gardens, Mitchell may have gotten the inspiration for the dashing scoundrel from Sir Godfrey Barnsley of Adairsville, Georgia.
Belle Watling was based on Lexington, Kentucky, madam Belle Brezing.
Martha Bulloch Roosevelt, the mother of US president Theodore Roosevelt may have been an inspiration for Scarlett O'Hara. Roosevelt biographer David McCullough discovered that Mitchell, as a reporter for The Atlanta Journal, conducted an interview with one of Martha's closest friends and bridesmaid, Evelyn King Baker, then 87. In that interview, she described Martha's physical appearance, beauty, grace, and intelligence in detail. The similarities between Martha and the Scarlett character are striking.
Reception
The sales of Margaret Mitchell's novel in the summer of 1936, at the virtually unprecedented price of three dollars, reached about one million by the end of December. Favorable critics found in the novel and its success an implicit rejection of what one reviewer dismissed as "all the thousands of technical tricks our novelists have been playing with for the past twenty years," while from the ramparts of the critical establishment almost universally male reviewers lamented the book's literary mediocrity and labeled it mere "entertainment." [citation needed]
Symbolism
Over the past years, the novel Gone with the Wind has also been analyzed for its symbolism and treatment of archetypes. For example, Scarlett has been characterized as a heroic figure struggling and attempting to twist life to suit her own personal wishes in society. The land is considered a source of strength, as in the plantation Tara, whose name is almost certainly drawn from the Hill of Tara in Ireland, a mysterious and poorly-understood archeological site that has traditionally been connected to the temporal and/or spiritual authority of the ancient Irish kings. It also represents the permanence of the land in a rapid changing world. Scarlett’s beautiful, perky hats take part of the symbolism as well. They show her feminine side and how she wants nothing more than to be the most attractive woman and the center of attention.
Sequels
Although Mitchell refused to write a sequel to Gone With The Wind, Mitchell's estate authorised Alexandra Ripley to write the novel Scarlett in 1991.
Author Pat Conroy was approached to write a follow-up, but the project was ultimately abandoned.
In 2000, the copyright holders attempted to suppress publication of Alice Randall’s The Wind Done Gone, a book that retold the story from the point of view of the slaves. A federal appeals court denied the plaintiffs an injunction against publication in Suntrust v. Houghton Mifflin (2001), on the basis that the book was parody protected by the First Amendment. The parties subsequently settled out of court to allow the book to be published. After its release, the book became a New York Times bestseller.
In 2002, the copyright holders blocked distribution of an unauthorised sequel published in the U.S, The Winds of Tara by Katherine Pinotti, alleging copyright infringement. The story follows Scarlett as she returns to Tara where a family issue threatens Tara and the family's reputation. In it Scarlett shows just how far she will go to protect her family and her home. The book was immediately removed from bookstores by publisher Xlibris. The book sold in excess of 2,000 copies within 2 weeks before being removed. More recently, in 2008, Australian publisher Fontaine Press re-published "The Winds of Tara" exclusively for their domestic market, avoiding U.S. copyright restrictions.
A second sequel was released in November 2007. The story covers the same time period as Gone with the Wind and is told from Rhett Butler’s perspective – although it begins years before and ends after. Written by Donald McCaig, this novel is titled Rhett Butler's People (2007).
Adaptations
Gone With The Wind has been adapted several times for stage and screen, most famously in the 1939 film starring Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh.
On stage it has been adapted as a musical Scarlett (premiering in 1972). The musical opened in the West End followed by a pre-Broadway tryout in 1973 (with Lesley Ann Warren as Scarlett). The book was again adapted as a musical called Gone With The Wind which premiered at the New London Theatre in 2008 in a production directed by Trevor Nunn.
The Japanese Takarazuka Revue has also adapted the novel into a musical with the same name. The first performance was in 1977, performed by the Moon Troupe. It has been performed several times since by the group, the most recent being in 2004 (performed by the Cosmos Troupe).
There has also been a French musical Autant en Emporte le Vent, based on the book.
Awards
The novel won the 1937 Pulitzer Prize and was adapted into an Academy Award-winning 1939 film of the same name. The book was also adapted during the 1970s into a stage musical Scarlett; there is also a 2008 new musical stage adaptation in London's West End titled Gone With The Wind. It is the only novel by Mitchell published during her lifetime. It took her seven years to write the book and a further eight months to check the thousands of historical and social references. The novel is one of the most popular books of all time, selling more than 30 million copies. Over the years, the novel has also been analyzed for its symbolism and treatment of archetypes.
Time magazine included the novel in its TIME 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005.
1861年南北戰爭爆發的前夕，塔拉莊園的千金小姐郝思嘉愛上了另一莊園主的兒子艾希利，但艾希利卻選擇了郝思嘉的表妹——溫柔善良的韓媚蘭為終身伴侶。郝思嘉出於妒恨，搶先嫁給了韓媚蘭的弟弟查爾斯。不久，美國南北戰爭爆發了。艾希利和查爾斯作為徵兵上了前綫。查爾斯很快就在戰爭中死去了。郝思嘉成了寡婦， 她內心卻一直對艾希利念念不忘。
一天，在一次舉行義賣的舞會上，郝思嘉和風度翩翩的商人白瑞德相識。白瑞德開始追求郝思嘉，但遭到她的拒絶。郝思嘉一心衹想着去追求艾希利，結果也遭到拒絶。
在戰爭中，美國南方軍遭到失敗，亞特蘭大城裏擠滿了傷兵。郝思嘉和表妹韓媚蘭自願加入護士行列照顧傷兵。目睹了戰亂帶來的慘狀之後，任性的郝思嘉成熟了不少。這時，從前綫傳來消息，北方軍快打過來了，不少人傢驚惶地逃離傢園，開始了不安定的流浪生活。正在此時，韓媚蘭不巧要生孩子了，郝思嘉衹好留下來照顧她。
在北方軍大軍壓境之日，郝思嘉哀求白瑞德幫忙護送她和剛生下孩子的韓媚蘭回塔拉莊園。白瑞德告訴郝思嘉他不能目睹南方軍潰敗而不去助一臂之力，他要參加南方軍作戰，他留下一把手槍並和郝思嘉擁吻告別。郝思嘉衹好獨自駕駛馬車回到塔拉莊園，而這時傢裏已被北方軍士兵搶先洗動一空，母親在驚嚇中死去。昔日美好的傢園變成了荒涼的棲息地，郝思嘉面對這一切悲慘時，表現出了女人少有的堅毅，她决定重建傢園。
不久，戰爭結束了。但是生活依然困苦。北方來的統治者要莊園主繳納重稅，郝思嘉在絶望中去亞特蘭大城找白瑞德借錢，卻得知他已被關進監獄。歸來的途中，郝思嘉遇上了本來要迎娶她妹妹的暴發戶弗蘭剋，為了要重振破産的傢業，她騙取弗蘭剋和自己結了婚。
郝思嘉在弗蘭剋經營的木材廠非法雇用囚犯，並和北方來的商人大做生意。此時，白瑞德用錢賄賂從而恢復了自由。兩人偶然碰面，再次展開愛恨交織的關係。
弗蘭剋和艾希利因加入了反政府的秘密組織，在一次集會時遭北方軍包圍，弗蘭剋中彈死亡，艾希利負傷逃亡，在白瑞德幫助下回到韓媚蘭身邊。郝思嘉再次成為寡婦。此時，白瑞德前來嚮她求婚，她終於與一直愛她的搞私運軍火和糧食致富的白瑞德結了婚。婚後，夫妻二人住在亞特蘭大的豪華宅邸中。一年後，他們的女兒邦妮出生，白瑞德把全部感情投註到邦妮身上。郝思嘉偶然翻閱艾希利的照片被白瑞德發現，終於導致了二人感情的破裂。其後，在艾希利的生日會前夕，郝思嘉與艾希利相見時熱情的擁抱引起旁人非議，韓媚蘭雖然不相信他們之間有曖昧關係，但白瑞德卻心生懷疑。
當郝思嘉告訴白瑞德她已經再次懷孕時，白瑞德懷疑地問那是誰的孩子，郝思嘉在羞怒之下欲打白瑞德，卻不慎滾下樓梯引起流産。白瑞德感到內疚，决心同郝思嘉言歸於好，不料就在他倆談話時，小女兒邦妮在騎馬時意外墜地而死。與此同時不幸的事也在另一個家庭裏發生，韓媚蘭終因操勞過度臥病不起。臨終前，她把自己的丈夫艾希利和兒子托付給郝思嘉，但要求她保守這個秘密，郝思嘉不顧一切撲嚮艾希利的懷中，緊緊擁抱住他，站在一旁的白瑞德無法再忍受下去，衹好轉身離去。面對傷心欲絶毫無反應的艾希利，郝思嘉終於明白，她愛的艾希利其實是不存在的，她真正需要的是白瑞德。
當郝思嘉趕回傢裏告訴白瑞德，她是真正愛他的時候，白瑞德已不再相信她。他决心離開郝思嘉，返回老傢去尋找美好的事物，被遺棄的郝思嘉站在濃霧迷漫的院中，想起了父親曾經對她說過的一句話：“世界上唯有土地與明天同在。”她决定守在她的土地上重新創造新的生活，她期盼着美好的明天的到來。
《飄》-主要演員介紹
剋拉剋·蓋布爾
剋拉剋·蓋布爾剋拉剋·蓋布爾
剋拉剋·蓋布爾，1901年出生於美國俄亥俄州的農村小鎮，母親在他十個月大時便去世了，父親在他三歲時另娶圖書館職員珍妮為繼母。珍妮無所出，視剋拉剋．蓋博如親生子。十四歲時，父親賣掉田産，到奧剋拉荷馬州去當油井工人，剋拉剋不願意隨父親搬傢，乃離傢出走，到當地的一傢劇院打工，從此展開了他日後的演藝生涯。就外形而論，剋拉剋．蓋博並不算是英俊小生，主要是有一對特大號的招風耳。在他投身電影界參加試鏡時，曾先後被米高梅公司副總裁艾文泰爾伯格取笑他有一雙蝙蝠翅膀一樣的大耳朵，雷毫萍公司老闆霍華休斯更刻薄地說他的耳朵像一輛打開了兩扇門的計程車。雖然這些影壇大亨並不欣賞剋拉剋．蓋博，但女同胞卻愛他愛得要死。首先是年齡比蓋博大兩歲的女演員法蘭西絲杜芙娜。他倆在波特蘭城訂婚後，杜芙娜就積極地運用自己的關係為蓋博打天下，安排他在新戲中演出角色，又介紹他認識戲劇圈中有頭有臉的人物。蓋博因此結識了年齡比他大十四歲的資深女演員約瑟芬狄倫，她同時也是劇壇著名的演技指導，門生甚多。蓋博在狄倫女士的大力引薦下，演出機會增加了不少。他在投桃報李之下，拋棄了未婚妻，於1924年與約瑟芬狄倫結婚。
參與作品：
《娛樂世界續集》 (1976) 、《米高梅公司的喜劇電影回顧 》(1964) 、《碧港豔遇》 (1960) 、《太平洋潛艇戰 》(1958) 、《教師之戀 》(1958) 、《金漢豔奴》 (1957) 等
費雯·麗
費雯·麗（Vivien Leigh) (1913年11月5日－1967年7月7日)。原名費雯·瑪麗·哈特利（Vivien Mary Hartley），英國電影演員。她成功地飾演《亂世佳人》的斯佳麗·奧哈拉和《欲望號街車》的布蘭奇·杜波依斯，兩度獲得奧斯卡最佳女主角。1999年，她被美國電影學會選為百年來最偉大的女演員第16 名。
費雯·麗費雯·麗
主要作品：
1965《愚人船》1951《欲望號街車》（獲奧斯卡最佳女主角奬）1946《Caesar and Cleopatra》 1941《漢米登夫人》1940《21 Days》 1940 《魂斷藍橋》1939《亂世佳人》 《飄》（獲奧斯卡最佳女主角奬） 1938《Sidewalks of London》 1937 《Storm in a Teacup》 1937《Dark Journey》 1937《Fire Over England》
《飄》-經典片段
瑞德離開郝思嘉後，Scarlett O’Hara最後坐在樓梯的臺階上說——“After all， tomorrow is another day。”
思嘉在回到被毀的傢園後,在山頭上說----“上帝為我作證,上帝為我作證,北佬休想將我整垮.等熬過了這一關,我决不再忍饑挨餓,也决不再讓我的親人忍饑挨餓了,哪怕讓我去偷,去搶,去殺人.請上帝為我作證,我無論如何都不再忍饑挨餓了!”
點評
有人說這部電影最經典的場面是Scarlett O’Hara在戰爭後回到被毀的傢園，在園中手握紅土發誓，無論去偷去搶都不會讓傢人挨餓那段，因為那時她的眼神和表情真的特別震撼人。這樣說我也不反對，因為這實在是一部太經典的片子，經典的場面太多，各人有各人的偏愛。我倒是情願選擇這個：以後，明天就是新的一天了。什麽是愛？什麽是恨？愛和恨可以象兩條永不相交的平行綫，愛和恨也可能衹需要一縷陽光就可以消融。珍惜擁有的人是幸福的，因為我們總是並不確切知道我們需要的到底是什麽。太多的人衹有在失去的時候，纔知道去珍惜。泰戈爾有一句詩我特別喜歡：如果錯過太陽時你流淚了，那麽你也將錯過星星了。歷盡滄桑，你要學會忽略過去。因為——tomorrow is another day。
“不要不辭而別，我的愛人。
我看望了一夜，現在我臉上睡意重重。
衹恐我在睡中把你丟失了。
不要不辭而別，我的愛人。
我驚起伸出雙手去摸觸你，我問自己說：
“這是一個夢麽？"
但願我能用我的心係住你的雙足，緊抱在胸前！
不要不辭而別，我的愛人。”
——泰戈爾《園丁集》
《飄》-人物性格
斯佳麗
一個貓一樣的女人。有着貓一樣的目光，貓一樣的微笑，貓一樣的步伐和貓一樣的敏捷。那麽，這個貓一樣的女人提供給我們是怎樣的一些對待生活、對待愛情、對待睏難和挫折的態度和經驗呢？
亂世佳人亂世佳人
第一她在睏難的時候敢於承擔責任，雖然也有動搖，但最後仍然承擔責任,比如她救了玫蘭妮，她重振塔拉莊園, 後來長期扶助阿希禮一傢等等。
第二她敢於去愛、無怨無悔，她的整個青春都在愛着阿希禮，沒有回報但她仍沒有放棄努力，直到能力的極限為止。
第三知錯能改，當她最後明白她之前所為是錯誤時，她馬上嚮瑞特道歉，請求原諒。
總的來說，斯佳麗堪稱巾幗不讓須眉的奇女子，人中竜鳳，難怪瑞特這樣的牛人也拜倒在她的石榴裙下。每次看《亂世佳人》，每次都有不同的收穫。年輕時看，討厭虛榮愛出風頭的斯佳麗，喜歡純潔善良的玫蘭妮，不喜歡油腔滑調的瑞特巴特勒，喜歡溫文爾雅的阿希禮，喜歡南方如畫的景緻和田園牧歌式的生活，不喜歡北方的浮華和放蕩。後來看了多次之後，不由得對斯佳麗敬佩起來，原本是一個弱女子，任性而年青，第一次結婚是一時的衝動報復，嫁給了不愛的男孩，讓自己成為了年輕的寡婦。第二次結婚是為了一傢人的生存，搶走了妹妹的心上人，肯尼迪。肯尼迪雖然是一個半老頭子，卻不是斯佳麗的對手，面對她的冷酷和無情，他束手無策。最終為了斯佳麗差點遭受的侮辱去報復窮白人而被人擊斃，不幸枉死，卻從未享受過斯佳麗的一點愛。於是斯佳麗再次成為寡婦，而且還是個有錢的寡婦。在那個戰火紛飛的年代，為了答應過阿希禮照顧玫蘭妮的一句承諾，在北軍就要攻占亞特蘭大的時候，斯佳麗又果斷地替玫蘭妮接生，並找到瑞特衝破重重阻礙和關卡，回到了鄉下老傢－－塔拉莊園。在又饑又餓之時，她又遭受了母親病亡、父親癡呆、傢裏被劫，一窮二白的多重打擊，她不屈不撓，帶頭種田幹活，喝令妹妹下床摘棉花，並照顧玫蘭妮和小波，支撐一傢人的生計，那時她頂多也不過是個二十來歲的小姑娘，本應是個在母親懷裏撒嬌的小姑娘。可是面對如此巨大的睏難，她沒有選擇逃避，而是勇敢挑起傢裏的重擔，以常人難以企及的毅力抗爭命運，每每看到斯佳麗舉着蘿蔔嚮天盟誓，决不願讓傢人再受苦挨餓時，我總是覺得拍片導演對光綫和背景的運用是那麽巧妙和藝術， 它那麽生動地刻劃了思嘉渴望安定、渴望生存、渴望富裕的強烈而真實的內心情感。我覺得那時的她，已完成了最艱難的嬗變，由一隻醜陋的毛毛蟲破繭而出變成了美麗的蝶，自由而高貴，那時的思嘉就像一個女神－－－渴望富有、並為此能不擇手段的欲望女神。
剛強、堅韌
無論是面對戰爭的廢墟和硝煙、母親和父親的去世、生活的貧窮艱難還是女兒的夭折，在和她承受同樣的痛苦和艱難的人們當中，她都是最剛強、最堅韌的一個和最先從痛苦和艱難中走出來的一個。當斯佳麗面對着已是滿目傷痕泰勒莊園時，她的堅韌和剛強令她這個傢中的長女擔起傢長的重擔。在影片的末尾，她還堅定地告訴我們：Tomorrow is another day。
虛榮
這應該是一個貶義詞了，可是，斯佳麗的虛榮心似乎格外的可愛，在她的身上，虛榮似乎也變成了褒義詞。有位名模曾說：“女孩子總是要有一點虛榮心的，無論這虛榮心表現在什麽方面。”當斯佳麗扯下母親唯一的遺物——窗簾，無論如何也要用它做一件漂亮的衣服，還將它披在身上憧憬着新衣服的樣子時，她的虛榮心使她成了一個看起來不孝的女兒，但她的這種做法（也就是她的虛榮心）是當時拯救全家的唯一出路。由虛榮心而使全家人都有了生存下去的希望，這樣的虛榮心也不應該算是值得摒棄的。
貪婪
這總應該是個貶義詞了。但是，斯佳麗的貪婪不僅是有情可原的，在某種程度上來講還是難能可貴的。戰後的泰勒莊園在北方軍的控製之下，母親的去世和父親的崩潰使斯佳麗——傢中的長女擔起了“傢長”的重擔。斯佳麗一傢人過着艱辛的生活。戰爭使她貧窮，貧窮繼之以饑餓。然而最可怕的是無錢交稅險些失去生活來源的土地，為了借錢交稅，斯佳麗勾引了妹妹的情人，繼而當起了一傢小店的老闆娘。在經歷這一切後，她明白了她所處的是一個什麽樣的社會以及在這個社會中錢的重要性。所以，當她擁有了當前她所需要的錢之後，她自然會想擁有更多的錢。在她追求“更多的錢”的過程中，她表現出了一個早期資本主義的資本傢所必須具有的優秀品質——貪婪。
殘忍與自私
這兩個詞無論用在什麽人身上似乎都應該是表貶義的詞語，特別是以溫和、善良為美德的女性。但是，斯佳麗的殘忍與自私在某種適度上卻是值得褒揚的。首先，在社會轉型的時期，人的觀念需要從傳統的觀念轉變成為新型的、與社會發展相適應的觀念。不能在第一時間內轉變觀念的人就失去了領導時代的主動權。斯佳麗就是一個在第一時間內轉變觀念，接受了新的社會和社會制度、新的價值觀念、新的生活方式，並且成為了一個小資本傢的女人，在這一點，她是非常了不起的。而且，在剛剛建立了資本主義制度時，自私和殘忍對於一個資本傢來說是生存和發展的關鍵。在資本主義社會，對世界的博愛已經是阻礙資本的自身生存和發展的一個因素，此時，自私與殘忍就成了強者的優點。
美麗
斯佳麗為我們提供了一種對待愛情的態度。她美麗，但她衹是適當地運用她的美麗來得到她所喜愛的東西，從來不用自己的美貌來玩弄愛情，無論是自己的還是他人的愛情。斯佳麗是美麗的，但美麗不是擁有愛情的必備條件——你可以沒有斯佳麗那樣美麗動人，但你也有權利去追求屬於自己的愛情。
綜上所述，我們得出了這樣的一個結論：
斯佳麗，貓一樣的女人，剛強的、堅韌的、虛榮的、貪婪的、殘忍的、自私的女人，女人的典範。
思嘉這個人，很可悲，可悲到了一種可笑的程度。
就像她自己意識到的的，“她對她所愛過的兩個男人哪一個都不理解，因此到頭來兩個都失掉了。現在她纔恍惚認識到，如果她當初瞭解艾希禮，她是决不會愛他的；而如果她瞭解了瑞德，它就無論如何都不會失掉他了。”
她一直不明白戰後的人們為什麽會去追憶戰前，直到邦妮死後，她纔明白了原因，但是，哪些可以與她追憶過往的人，已經由於她自己的疏遠，排斥已經越來越遠，而她的那些“新朋友”卻也無法使思嘉高興起來。
一直很喜歡瑞德離開前的那一段話，“思嘉，我從來不是那樣的人，不能耐心的拾起一些碎片，把它們粘合在一起，然後對自己說這個修補好了的東西跟新的完全一樣。一樣東西破碎了就是破碎了——我寧願記住它最好時的模樣，而不想把它修補好，然後終生看着那些破碎了的地方。也許，假使我還年輕一點——可是我已經這麽大年紀了，不能相信那種純屬感情的說法，說是一切都可以從頭開始。我這麽大年紀了，不能終生背着謊言的負擔，在貌似體面地幻滅中過日子。我不能跟你生活在一起同時又對你說謊，而且我决不能欺騙自己。就是現在，我也不能對你說謊話啊！我是很想關心你今後的情況的，可是我不能那樣做。”
如果沒有瑞德，思嘉是不完整的，哪麽《飄》也就不能被稱為“名著”了。思嘉，自私，虛榮，貪婪，剛強，堅韌。如果說這些形容詞用在別人身上，衹怕全部都是貶義的，但是對思嘉而言，我倒覺得有點像是褒義詞。其實，就像瑞德說的，“我們都是流氓，我們都是無賴。”他對於自己與思嘉的分析是很透徹的，也正因為他的這些分析，《飄》纔會被無數人所拜讀，思嘉也纔完整。
關於電影版《飄》 ——《亂世佳人》，我衹能說，我看完電影就喜歡上了費雯麗。因為她所演繹的思嘉真的就像活着的一樣，讓我再一次感受到了思嘉的美，思嘉的一切。
瑞德
我必須承認，對我來說，《亂世佳人》的吸引力之所以這麽大，和剋拉剋蓋博主演的瑞特巴特勒絶對有關係。
當然，斯佳麗眯着那雙像貓那樣的緑眼，迷人而妖媚，同樣也讓人傾倒。她是個讓女人都能為之神魂顛倒的女人，她自私、冷酷、無情、聰明、不擇手段、堅強，卻不乏善良、美麗、脆弱；她是一個高不可攀的女神，讓許多女人都夢想着能像她那樣，集財富、美貌、能幹、堅強於一身，讓瑞特那樣的男人能夠為她而傾倒。至少我曾經就那樣想過。但我認為，瑞特給我們這些女性觀衆帶來的卻更多是對愛情和婚姻的甜美幻想，他是那麽瀟灑倜儻，那麽玩世不恭，那麽自信過人，富有並充滿了成熟男人的魅力，該是多少女性心目中的偶像啊。
在這裏，簡單回閃思嘉和瑞特相遇、相識、相愛的幾個片段，就能讓人對瑞特愛我所愛，堅持自兒，富有個性的男性魅力印象深刻：
片段一：瑞特第一次見到斯佳麗是在十二像樹園的燒烤會上。斯佳麗嚮所有的男士賣弄風情，卻發現瑞特正註意她，斯佳麗嚮身邊的女伴抱怨說：“他看我的樣子，就像我沒穿衣服”可見瑞特給人的感覺不是溫文爾雅，富有紳士風度，對世事的有種別人所不具備的強大洞察力和影響力，表明了他與一般的南方男人不同點：現實、大膽而富有進攻性，當他躲在書房裏偷聽斯佳麗大膽地嚮阿希禮表露愛慕，但因遭到婉拒，她氣急敗壞地搧了阿希禮一個耳光，並砸碎了一個小花瓶時，他吹了一個口哨，於是他被斯佳麗指責為不是一個紳士，而他同時也反唇相譏斯佳麗不是一個真正的淑女，讓斯佳麗氣極。倆人第一次相見就是一次愛情的交鋒。
片段二：斯佳麗因查爾斯病亡到亞特蘭大散心，正在服喪的她，十分渴望能再度飛旋於舞池中，表現了她在內心裏對無拘無束、自由生活的嚮往和憧憬。是瑞特看出了她的心思，並出重金替她撬開了那個壓抑而沉悶的社會道德囚籠，使她走上了和別的南方女人最不相同的命運之路。這正是斯佳麗反叛舊的社會道德標準邁出的關鍵性一步，而這一步，如果沒有瑞特暗中片段三：瑞特為了幫助斯佳麗重返故裏，拼死弄了一匹身負重傷的老馬，並幫助她把玫蘭妮抱到馬車上，同時一路歷經辛苦，並在即將要到達的時候，瑞特看到許多南方兵前仆後繼，視死如歸，深感震撼，並决定上戰場，為保衛傢園盡一份力。這時可以看出，為了心愛的女人，他能出生入死； 同樣，面臨傢園被毀之境，他也是一個熱血之人，導演在這裏纔嚮我們描繪了一個深藏在平日玩世不恭外表下，也具有一顆為榮譽甘灑熱血之心的典型南方男性的形象。在這裏我們看到，雖然瑞特平日裏非常精明、現實，但他骨子裏其實還是一個南方人。
片段四：瑞特在經歷了喪女之痛和斯佳麗在精神上的背叛後，面對玫蘭妮的之死，對一切都灰心失望至極，回傢收拾行李，返回自己的故鄉，查爾斯頓。當愚蠢的斯佳麗最後發現自己已深愛瑞特時，纔發現已最終失去了自己最心愛的人。瑞特最後走得十分幹脆，讓斯佳麗深感懊悔。直到這裏，我們纔聽到那顆曾經為愛而柔軟的心破碎的聲音，同時也因為破碎而對斯佳麗變得“冷酷無情”，這裏的瑞特纔讓我們感覺到，這個男人敢愛敢恨，處理事情十分幹脆利落，極富男性魅力。
瑞德這個人敢愛敢恨，就如上文所說，他不願拾起破碎的感情，所以纔會在最後變得那麽冷酷無情。這個人物很富有男性魅力，就像思嘉所擁有的女性魅力，同樣使人沉醉。
他們兩個的結合，確實就像瑞德所說，“珠聯璧合”。但是，在瑞德的現實與思嘉的幻想中，瑞德失敗了，他的感情也因此真正的破碎了。
而剋拉剋·蓋博的演繹更是無可挑剔，在那種翩翩風度背後的嘲弄，在那種沉穩冷靜背後的狂放不羈，都是讓人頗為迷醉的。
艾希禮與媚蘭
再說說阿希禮和玫蘭妮，他們是相似的，具備南方的一切美德，有知識，有文化，有思想，有修養。
玫蘭妮基本上是完美的，她善良，仁慈又不乏勇氣，斯佳麗摘棉花時，她想幫忙，斯佳麗殺人時她也幫忙，除了瑞特，她是斯佳麗的另一個支持者。我做過小範圍的調查，先看書的基本都喜歡斯佳麗，而先看電影的則喜歡玫蘭妮。我覺得美蘭妮太好了，好得不真實，而斯佳麗是有血有肉的，是真實的，有缺點也有優點。
阿希禮是真實的，他是個活在過去的人，時世變遷，他不想面對，他是缺乏勇氣的。他不愛斯佳麗，又不說不愛她。斯佳麗走投無路找他時他衹給了她莊園的紅土，後來知道斯佳麗賣了自己，他說他該去搶劫，他也衹是說說吧，估計不會去的，這一點，他確實不如拖着軍刀想幫斯佳麗對付逃兵的美蘭妮。
亂世佳人裏的人物都是完美的，如果沒有美蘭妮的淑女風範，怎能體現出斯佳麗的桀驁不遜。沒有阿希禮的懦弱，怎能體現出瑞德的風範呢？
斯佳麗的奶媽.瑪格麗特
溫暖，可靠，安全。象母親一樣時刻保護她的孩子斯佳麗。
理智，聰明，現實而且冷靜，帶一些黑人的狡猾。她懂斯斯佳麗，支持她，愛她，雖然沒有多說什麽，但是她一直是斯佳麗的靠山，堅強有力。
忠誠，固執，可愛。對自己的寶貝，那是不顧一切的去保護；雖然衹是一個傢奴，但她有自己所要維護的處事原則。
黑人奶媽的形象刻畫的非常成功。 由此扮演黑媽的演員哈蒂·麥剋丹尼爾(Hattie McDaniel）戰勝了奧麗維亞(玫蘭妮)獲得了第十二屆奧斯卡最佳女配角奬，據說是歷史上第一個獲得奧斯卡奬的黑人。哈蒂將其特有的幽默感註入奶媽瑪格麗特一形象中，臺詞念得完美無缺，與斯佳麗的扮演者費雯麗配合默契，猶如緑葉扶紅花，結果兩人雙雙獲奬。由於奶媽一角的成功，哈蒂後來幾乎壟斷了銀幕上所有的黑人保姆角色，在許多影片裏可以看到她那肥胖、溫順、饒舌的形象。
《飄》-幕後花絮
時代背景：美國內戰；
地點：美國南方；
戲劇高潮：火燒亞特蘭大。
在如此壯麗的時代畫捲上演繹出一個極不尋常的愛情故事，開創了以真實而遼闊的歷史背景加虛構人物故事的愛情史詩片先河(該傳統發展出《日瓦戈醫生》和《泰坦尼剋號》等佳作)。這部早期的彩色片保持了瑪格麗特·米切爾原著的韻味和深度，既有色彩渾厚的大場面(如女主角跨過遍地傷員的鏡頭)，又有對人物命運的細緻刻畫(請註意黑人女僕的性格)。無論你認為素材像莎翁名劇還是像庸俗肥皂劇，影片取得驚人的藝術和商業成就。英文片名《飄》(即《隨風而去》)出自美國詩人歐內斯特·道森的一句詩。女主角的經典壓軸臺詞“明天是新的一天”乃原作出版前的暫定名。本片榮獲奧斯卡最佳影片、最佳導演、最佳女主角、最佳女配角等七項大奬。1994年的續集《郝斯佳》(Scarlett)是一部長達360分鐘的電視劇，豪華製作，服裝布景等下了血本。故事講郝斯佳跟白瑞德離婚後依然藕斷絲連，她甚至回到愛爾蘭，被控謀殺等等。影片根據雷普利小說改編。
影片拍攝耗資390萬美元，在當時僅屈居於《賓虛》和《地獄天使》之後。在小說出版的一個月後，製片人大衛·塞爾茲尼剋就用5萬美元買下了小說的電影拍攝權，對於新人的處女作來講，這個價碼在當時可謂是天文數字。在1942年塞爾茲尼剋的製片公司解散時，他又嚮小說作者瑪格麗特·米歇爾支付了5萬美元的分紅。瑪格麗特筆下艾什利和梅蘭尼的人物原型都是她的表兄妹，多剋和馬蒂相愛，但他們是虔誠的天主教徒，有血緣關係的親屬是嚴禁結婚的。後來，多剋離開了馬蒂，到西部成了不法之徒，而馬蒂則作了修女。
片中失火的場景是最先拍攝的，包括1933年《金剛》中使用的布景均被付之一炬，這段膠片長113分鐘，共耗資25000美元，當時的火情十分猛烈，以至不知情的公衆以為米高梅都化為灰燼了，報警電話響作一團。
在拍攝斯嘉麗從火中逃生的畫面時，劇組需要一匹瘦骨嶙峋的老馬，幾經尋找，終於物色到一匹，然而當幾周後馬被帶到片場，原先清晰可見的肋骨痕跡因為增重已經蕩然無存，由於時間緊迫，化妝師衹好在馬的肋骨部位畫出陰影。
《飄》-經典臺詞
美國電影學院每年都會為一些特別的電影項目評出前100名。05年取得經典臺詞榜第一的電影《亂世佳人》是剋拉剋·蓋博在1939年出演的的一句臺詞。那是白瑞德對郝思嘉說的一句話：“坦白說，親愛的，我一點也不在乎。”“蓋博的這句臺詞被人們在不同的場合引用，”鮑博說。“無論男女，當他們陷入一種並沒有完全投入的戀愛關係時，想要控製局面，就會用到這句話。”
《飄》-所獲奬項
本片在第十二屆奧斯卡金像奬（1939）中榮獲八項大奬：
最佳女主角奬（Best Actress）.........................費·雯麗（Vivien Leigh）
最佳女配角奬（Best Supporting Actress）......哈蒂·麥剋丹尼爾（Hattie McDaniel）
最佳影片奬（Best Picture）...........................《亂世佳人》（Gone With the Wind）
最佳導演奬（Best Director）..........................維剋多·弗萊明（Victor Fleming）
最佳編劇奬（Best Screenplay）....................悉尼·霍華德 （Sidney Howard）
最佳藝術指導（Best Art Direction）...............Lyle R. Wheeler
最佳攝影奬（Best Cinematography）............Ernest Haller & Ray Rennahan
最佳剪輯奬（Best Film Editing）....................Hal C. Kern & James E. Newcom
《飄》-點評
有人說這部電影最經典的場面是Scarlett O’Hara在戰爭後回到被毀的傢園，在園中手握紅土發誓，無論去偷去搶都不會讓傢人挨餓那段，因為那時她的眼神和表情真的特別震撼人。這樣說我也不反對，因為這實在是一部太經典的片子，經典的場面太多，各人有各人的偏愛。我倒是情願選擇這個：以後，明天就是新的一天了。什麽是愛？什麽是恨？愛和恨可以象兩條永不相交的平行綫，愛和恨也可能衹需要一縷陽光就可以消融。珍惜擁有的人是幸福的，因為我們總是並不確切知道我們需要的到底是什麽。太多的人衹有在失去的時候，纔知道去珍惜。
泰戈爾有一句詩我特別喜歡：如果錯過太陽時你流淚了，那麽你也將錯過星星了。歷盡滄桑，你要學會忽略過去。因為——tomorrow is another day。
《飄》-《飄》獲選英國史上最受歡迎電影
根據英國電影學院近日進行的一項評選，由老牌影星剋拉剋·蓋博和費文麗主演的描寫美國內戰的影片《飄》榮獲英國歷史上最受歡迎影片奬。根據電影票的銷售數量統計，自從1940年在英國上映以來，已有3500萬觀衆觀看了《飄》。《音樂之聲》名列第2，自從1938年上映以來，有3000萬人觀看。名列第3和第4的分別是《白雪公主和七個小矮人》(2800萬人)和《星球大戰》(2070萬人)。這次入選最受歡迎的十部電影排行榜的電影三分之一來自英國，其中名列第5的是《枯木逢春》。這次評選活動的主辦方表示：“這是英國歷史上第一次評選最受觀衆喜愛的影片。”位列6到10名的影片分別是《黃金時代》、《森林王子》、《泰坦尼剋》、《地獄聖女》以及《七宗罪》。
Title
The title is taken 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". The novel's protagonist, Scarlett O'Hara, also uses the title phrase in a line in the book: when her home area is overtaken by the Yankees, she wonders to herself if her home, a plantation called Tara, is still standing, or if it was "also gone with the wind which had swept through Georgia". More generally, the title has been interpreted as referring to the entire way of life of the antebellum South as having "Gone with the Wind". The prologue of the movie refers to the old way of life in the South as "gone with the wind…."
The title for the novel was a problem for Mitchell. She initially titled the book "Pansy", the original name for the character of Scarlett O'Hara. Although never seriously considered, the title "Pansy" was dropped once MacMillan persuaded Mitchell to rename the main character. Other proposed titles included "Tote the Weary Load" and "Tomorrow is Another Day", the latter taken from the last line in the book; however, the publisher noted that there were several books close to the same title at the time, so Mitchell was asked to find another title, and "Gone with the Wind" was chosen.
Plot
This section's plot summary may be too long or overly detailed. Please help improve it by removing unnecessary details and making it more concise. (April 2009)
Overview
Scarlett O'Hara is the daughter of an Irish immigrant who has risen from humble origins to become materially and socially successful in the deep south of 1861. He owns a plantation named Tara in Georgia. Scarlett is infatuated with Ashley Wilkes, who, although attracted to her, marries his cousin, Melanie Hamilton. Wilkes is genuinely ambiguous about his feelings toward Scarlett. He knows his feelings run deep, and are both emotional and sexual in nature; but he never resolves whether to act upon his feelings, or to renounce them and definitively reject Scarlett’s flirtations, in favor of his wife and his social position. And though he never sins in the flesh, the novel clearly implies that he does so in his heart, leading Scarlett along; limited only by his weakness in making a decision as to what ultimately, he should do.
At the party announcing Ashley's engagement to Melanie, Scarlett meets Rhett Butler, who has a reputation as a rogue. As the Civil War begins, Scarlett accepts a proposal of marriage from Melanie's brother, Charles Hamilton, who soon dies of disease in training. Scarlett's main concern regarding his death is that she must wear black and cannot attend parties. After the war, Scarlett inherits Tara and manages to keep the place going. When Scarlett cannot get money from Rhett to pay the taxes on Tara, she marries her sister's fiancé, Frank Kennedy, takes control of his business, and increases its profitability with business practices that make many Atlantans resent her. Frank is killed when he and other Ku Klux Klan members raid a shanty town where Scarlet was assaulted while driving alone. Remorseful after Frank's death, Scarlett marries Rhett, who is aware of her passion for Ashley but hopes that one day she will come to love him instead. Scarlett eventually comes to realize that she does love Rhett, but only once the couple has been through so much that Rhett has fallen out of love with her.
Part one
Scarlett O'Hara is the belle of the County. Her flirtatiousness and charm won the hearts of many men in Clayton County, Georgia. At sixteen years old, however, she begins the trials that will completely overtake her life for the next twelve years. She does this by having an impromptu marriage with the bashful Charles Hamilton to save face and make her real love—Ashley Wilkes—jealous. However, soon after their wedding, Charles and all the other men in Georgia who are able to bear arms, go to war against the Yankees at the start of the Civil War. After six weeks of being in camp, Charles dies of measles. With Charles's death, Scarlett's main concern is that, in order to conform to society, she must dress in black mourning clothes and attend no parties.
Parts two and three
Scarlett moves to Atlanta to stay with her sister-in-law and Ashley’s wife, Melanie Wilkes and Melanie's Aunt Pittypat. Melanie grows to love Scarlett like a sister; however, Scarlett is very self-centered and resents Melanie. Scarlett meets Rhett Butler again while in Atlanta; he is attentive to her and she uses him (and his money) when it is convenient. Rhett has a bad reputation and is "not received" in polite society. Ashley is able to come home for Christmas from the war and stay with the ladies. At the end of his stay, Scarlett promises him that she will keep Melanie safe. With the help of Rhett and her personal slave, Prissy, Scarlett delivers Melanie's child Beau in the middle of a battle and leads Melanie, the baby and Prissy to safety back at Tara. The Civil War is ending and the northern army is marching through Georgia laying waste to the country. Upon her arrival, Scarlett hears the news of the death of her beloved mother, Ellen, of typhoid. Scarlett stays at Tara Plantation and tries to keep it solvent and care for its inhabitants.
Part four
Scarlett hears that Tara is about to be charged an enormous amount of tax by the new corrupt local government which she cannot pay. She decides to go to Atlanta and charm Rhett into paying the bill. After offering herself to Rhett as his mistress and being refused, however, Scarlett marries Frank Kennedy, who has enough money to pay the tax on Tara. Frank is the fiancé of Scarlett's sister Suellen so she deceives him into thinking that Suellen is engaged to someone else in Clayton County.
With money borrowed from and then repaid to Rhett, Scarlett buys two timber mills and proceeds to make them very profitable. Her actions are considered very inappropriate for a woman by Atlanta society. As she travels home from it one night, she is attacked. Frank, Ashley, and many other men in the newly formed Ku Klux Klan avenge her attack. In the fight, Frank is killed.
A few months later Scarlett marries Rhett, who has become very rich by dubious means during the War.
Part five
Scarlett and Rhett start to enjoy their new life together. They have a child named Eugenia Victoria "Bonnie Blue" Butler, who becomes Rhett’s pride and joy. They live happily until Scarlett’s old infatuation with Ashley takes over. When Bonnie is killed in a riding accident Scarlett in the first flush of grief tells Rhett that she blames him. Rhett is heartbroken over the death of his beloved daughter. He drinks heavily and finally decides, after the death of Melanie Wilkes, to leave Scarlett forever. However, Scarlett realizes that she loves Rhett and never truly loved Ashley, but merely an idea of him. She confesses this to Rhett, but he is adamant. The book ends on an ambiguous note, as she decided to return to the familiarity of her beloved Tara, where she will find a way to win Rhett back: "Tomorrow is another day!".
Characters
Butler family
* Rhett Butler – Scarlett's love interest and third husband, often publicly shunned for scandalous behavior, sometimes accepted for his charm. He is financially a very shrewd man and initially appears to love Scarlett dearly.
* Eugenia Victoria "Bonnie Blue" Butler – Scarlett and Rhett's pretty, beloved daughter.
Wilkes family
* Ashley Wilkes – The gallant Ashley married his unglamourous cousin, Melanie, because she represented all that he loved and wanted in life, that is, the quiet and happy life of a Southern gentleman of the "Twelve Oaks" plantation. Ashley Wilkes marries Melanie Hamilton as an arranged marriage between the Wilkes-Hamilton families; in which the marriage of cousins (which Ashley and Melanie are) is the practice; when necessary to preserve the blood line and social position of the family. As such, Wilkes is not, in the strictest sense, brought to marriage by love, money, or sexual infatuation; but by a sense of duty to preserve the socio-economic status quo of a world which he personally enjoys and agrees with; and believes this marriage will support and sustain.
Wilkes becomes a soldier for the Confederate cause though he personally would have freed the slaves his father owned had the war not erupted, or at least that is what he claimed. Although many of his friends and relations were killed in the Civil War, Ashley survived to see its brutal aftermath. He remains the object of Scarlett's daydream of infatuated devotion, even throughout her three marriages. She is simply obsessed with unobtainable Ashley. Believing that she was in love with him, Scarlett imagined Ashley to be the "perfect man", leaving her unable to love another.
* Melanie Hamilton Wilkes – Ashley's wife and cousin, her character is that of the genuinely humble, serene and gracious Southern woman. As the story unfolds, Melanie becomes progressively physically weaker, first by childbirth, then the effects of war, and ultimately illness. She had her own unique inner spirit of perseverance, as did Scarlett. Melanie loved Ashley, Beau, and Scarlett unwaveringly, and dutifully supported the Confederate cause, revealing the naivete of her character.
* Beau Wilkes – Melanie's and Ashley's lovable son.
* India Wilkes – Ashley's sister. Almost engaged to Stuart Tarleton, she bitterly hates Scarlett for stealing his attention before he is killed at Gettysburg. Lives with Aunt Pittypat after Melanie kicks her out for accusing Scarlett and Ashley of infidelity.
* Honey Wilkes – another sister of India and Ashley. Originally hoped to marry Charles Hamilton until Scarlett marries him; following the war, she marries a man from Mississippi, and moves to his home state with him.
* John Wilkes – Owner of Twelve Oaks Plantation and patriarch of the Wilkes family. Killed during the Civil War.
O'Hara family
* Scarlett O'Hara – The wilful protagonist of the novel, whose travails the novel follows throughout war and reconstruction. She marries Charles Hamilton, Frank Kennedy and Rhett Butler, all the time wishing she was married to Ashley Wilkes instead. She has three children, one from each husband: Wade Hampton Hamilton (son to Charles Hamilton), Ella Lorena Kennedy (daughter to Frank Kennedy) and Eugenia Victoria "Bonnie Blue" Butler (deceased daughter to Rhett Butler).
* Gerald O'Hara – Scarlett's impetuous Irish father.
* Suellen O'Hara – Scarlett's selfish sister.
* Carreen O'Hara – Scarlett's timid, religious sister who, in the end of the story, joins a convent.
* Ellen O'Hara – Scarlett's gracious mother, of French ancestry.
Other characters
* Mammy – Scarlett's nurse from birth; a slave. Cited by Rhett as "the real head of the household." She has a no-nonsense attitude and is outspoken and opinionated. She chastises Scarlett often. She is extremely loyal to the O'Haras, especially Scarlett, whom she cares for like a daughter.
* Prissy – A young slave girl who features in Scarlett's life. She is portrayed as flighty and silly.
* Pork – The O'Hara family's butler, favored by Gerald.
* Dilcey – Pork's wife, a strong, outspoken slave woman of mixed Indian and Black decent, Prissy's mother.
* Charles Hamilton – Melanie's brother, Scarlett's first husband, shy and loving.
* Frank Kennedy – Suellen's former beau, Scarlett's second husband, an older man who only wants peace and quiet. He originally asks for Suellen's hand in marriage, but Scarlett steals him to save Tara. He is portrayed as a pushover who will do anything to appease Scarlett.
* Belle Watling – a brothel madam and prostitute; Rhett is her friend. She is portrayed as a kind-hearted country woman and a loyal confederate. At one point she states she has nursing experience.
* Archie – an ex-convict and former Confederate soldier who is taken in by Melanie. Has a strong disliking for all women, especially Scarlett. The only woman he respects is Melanie.
* Jonas Wilkerson – former overseer of Tara, father of Emmie Slattery's illegitimate baby. After being dismissed because of the aforementioned he eventually becomes employed by the Freedmen's Bureau, where he abuses his position to get back at the O'Haras and becomes rich.
* Emmie Slattery – later wife of Jonas Wilkerson, whom Scarlett blames for her mother's death.
* Will Benteen – Confederate soldier who seeks refuge at Tara and stays on to help with the plantation, in love with Carreen but marries Suellen to stay on Tara, and repair her reputation. He is portrayed as very perceptive and lost half of his leg in the war.
* Aunt Pittypat Hamilton – Charles and Melanie's vaporish aunt who lives in Atlanta.
* Uncle Peter – Aunt Pittypat's houseman and driver, he is extremely loyal to Pittypat.
Setting
* Tara Plantation – The O'Hara home and plantation
* Twelve Oaks – The Wilkes' plantation.
* Peachtree Street – location of Aunt Pittypat's home in Atlanta
The novel opens in April 1861 and ends in the early autumn of 1873.
Politics
The book includes a vivid description of the fall of Atlanta in 1864 and the devastation of war (some of that aspect was missing from the 1939 film). The novel showed considerable historical research. According to her biography, Mitchell herself was ten years old before she learned that the South had lost the war. Mitchell's sweeping narrative of war and loss helped the book win the Pulitzer Prize on May 3, 1937.
An episode in the book dealt with the early Ku Klux Klan. In the immediate aftermath of the War, Scarlett is assaulted by poor Southerners living in shanties, whereupon her former black slave Big Sam saves her life. In response, Scarlett's male friends attempt to make a retaliatory nighttime raid on the encampment. Northern soldiers try to stop the attacks, and Rhett helps Ashley, who is shot, to get help through his prostitute friend Belle. Scarlett's husband Frank is killed. This raid is presented sympathetically as being necessary and justified, while the law-enforcement officers trying to catch the perpetrators are depicted as oppressive Northern occupiers.
Although the Klan is not mentioned in that scene (though Rhett tells Archie to burn the "robes"), the book notes that Scarlett finds the Klan abominable. She believed the men should all just stay at home (she wanted both to be petted for her ordeal and to give the hated Yankees no more reason to tighten martial law, which is bad for her businesses). Rhett is also mentioned to be no great lover of the Klan. At one point, he said that if it were necessary, he would join in an effort to join "society". The novel never explicitly states whether this drastic step was necessary in his view. The local chapter later breaks up under the pressure from Rhett and Ashley.
Scarlett expresses views that were common of the era. Some examples:
* "How stupid negroes were! They never thought of anything unless they were told." — Scarlett thinks to herself, after returning to Tara after the fall of Atlanta.
* "How dared they laugh, the black apes!...She'd like to have them all whipped until the blood ran down...What devils the Yankees were to set them free!" — Scarlett again thinking to herself, seeing free blacks after the war.
* However, she is kind to Pork, her father's trusted manservant. He tells Scarlett that if she were as nice to white people as she is to black, a lot more people would like her.
* She almost loses her temper when the Yankee women say they would never have a black nurse in their house and talk about Uncle Peter, Aunt Pittypat's beloved and loyal servant, as if he were a mule. Scarlett informs them that Uncle Peter is a member of the family, which bewilders the Yankee women and leads them to misinterpret the situation.
* It was mentioned that only one slave was ever whipped at Tara, and that was a stablehand who didn't brush Gerald's horse. The only time Scarlett hit a slave was when Prissy was hysterical.
* Scarlett at one point criticized Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin, saying no one treated their slaves that badly.
Inspirations
As several elements of Gone with the Wind have parallels with Margaret Mitchell's own life, her experiences may have provided some inspiration for the story in context. Mitchell's understanding of life and hardship during the American Civil War, for example, came from elderly relatives and neighbors passing war stories to her generation.
While Margaret Mitchell used to say that her Gone with the Wind characters were not based on real people, modern researchers have found similarities to some of the people in Mitchell's own life as well as to individuals she knew or she heard of. Mitchell's maternal grandmother, Annie Fitzgerald Stephens, was born in 1845; she was the daughter of an Irish immigrant, who owned a large plantation on Tara Road in Clayton County, south of Atlanta, and who married an American woman named Ellen, and had several children, all daughters.
Many researchers believe that the physical brutality and low regard for women exhibited by Rhett Butler was based on Mitchell's first husband, Red Upshaw. She divorced him after she learned he was a bootlegger amid rumors of abuse and infidelity. Some believe he was patterned on the life of George Trenholm.
After a stay at the plantation called The Woodlands, and later Barnsley Gardens, Mitchell may have gotten the inspiration for the dashing scoundrel from Sir Godfrey Barnsley of Adairsville, Georgia.
Belle Watling was based on Lexington, Kentucky, madam Belle Brezing.
Martha Bulloch Roosevelt, the mother of US president Theodore Roosevelt may have been an inspiration for Scarlett O'Hara. Roosevelt biographer David McCullough discovered that Mitchell, as a reporter for The Atlanta Journal, conducted an interview with one of Martha's closest friends and bridesmaid, Evelyn King Baker, then 87. In that interview, she described Martha's physical appearance, beauty, grace, and intelligence in detail. The similarities between Martha and the Scarlett character are striking.
Reception
The sales of Margaret Mitchell's novel in the summer of 1936, at the virtually unprecedented price of three dollars, reached about one million by the end of December. Favorable critics found in the novel and its success an implicit rejection of what one reviewer dismissed as "all the thousands of technical tricks our novelists have been playing with for the past twenty years," while from the ramparts of the critical establishment almost universally male reviewers lamented the book's literary mediocrity and labeled it mere "entertainment." [citation needed]
Symbolism
Over the past years, the novel Gone with the Wind has also been analyzed for its symbolism and treatment of archetypes. For example, Scarlett has been characterized as a heroic figure struggling and attempting to twist life to suit her own personal wishes in society. The land is considered a source of strength, as in the plantation Tara, whose name is almost certainly drawn from the Hill of Tara in Ireland, a mysterious and poorly-understood archeological site that has traditionally been connected to the temporal and/or spiritual authority of the ancient Irish kings. It also represents the permanence of the land in a rapid changing world. Scarlett’s beautiful, perky hats take part of the symbolism as well. They show her feminine side and how she wants nothing more than to be the most attractive woman and the center of attention.
Sequels
Although Mitchell refused to write a sequel to Gone With The Wind, Mitchell's estate authorised Alexandra Ripley to write the novel Scarlett in 1991.
Author Pat Conroy was approached to write a follow-up, but the project was ultimately abandoned.
In 2000, the copyright holders attempted to suppress publication of Alice Randall’s The Wind Done Gone, a book that retold the story from the point of view of the slaves. A federal appeals court denied the plaintiffs an injunction against publication in Suntrust v. Houghton Mifflin (2001), on the basis that the book was parody protected by the First Amendment. The parties subsequently settled out of court to allow the book to be published. After its release, the book became a New York Times bestseller.
In 2002, the copyright holders blocked distribution of an unauthorised sequel published in the U.S, The Winds of Tara by Katherine Pinotti, alleging copyright infringement. The story follows Scarlett as she returns to Tara where a family issue threatens Tara and the family's reputation. In it Scarlett shows just how far she will go to protect her family and her home. The book was immediately removed from bookstores by publisher Xlibris. The book sold in excess of 2,000 copies within 2 weeks before being removed. More recently, in 2008, Australian publisher Fontaine Press re-published "The Winds of Tara" exclusively for their domestic market, avoiding U.S. copyright restrictions.
A second sequel was released in November 2007. The story covers the same time period as Gone with the Wind and is told from Rhett Butler’s perspective – although it begins years before and ends after. Written by Donald McCaig, this novel is titled Rhett Butler's People (2007).
Adaptations
Gone With The Wind has been adapted several times for stage and screen, most famously in the 1939 film starring Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh.
On stage it has been adapted as a musical Scarlett (premiering in 1972). The musical opened in the West End followed by a pre-Broadway tryout in 1973 (with Lesley Ann Warren as Scarlett). The book was again adapted as a musical called Gone With The Wind which premiered at the New London Theatre in 2008 in a production directed by Trevor Nunn.
The Japanese Takarazuka Revue has also adapted the novel into a musical with the same name. The first performance was in 1977, performed by the Moon Troupe. It has been performed several times since by the group, the most recent being in 2004 (performed by the Cosmos Troupe).
There has also been a French musical Autant en Emporte le Vent, based on the book.
Awards
The novel won the 1937 Pulitzer Prize and was adapted into an Academy Award-winning 1939 film of the same name. The book was also adapted during the 1970s into a stage musical Scarlett; there is also a 2008 new musical stage adaptation in London's West End titled Gone With The Wind. It is the only novel by Mitchell published during her lifetime. It took her seven years to write the book and a further eight months to check the thousands of historical and social references. The novel is one of the most popular books of all time, selling more than 30 million copies. Over the years, the novel has also been analyzed for its symbolism and treatment of archetypes.
Time magazine included the novel in its TIME 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005.