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| Pic courtesy flipkart Published by Pan books |
Which self-respecting bibliophile hasn't heard of Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind? The famed love story of Scarlett O'Hara and Rhett Butler. Even the making of its movie version is the stuff of legends.
For those who don't, a quick re-cap : Placed during the period of the American civil war, it is a saga of the end of a way of life that was the southern states of the US, and a beginning of a more modern era after the abolition of slavery. It is also the love story of beautiful, bewitching but hard-headed Scarlett, who has a spine of steel and a very strong survivor's instinct, who constantly rebels against the patriarchial restrictions of a society that seems unfair to her as a woman, and the dashing, notorious Rhett Butler, who has a soft heart, a sense of fairness re the slaves not understood by the others, who is 'not received' by genteel folk, but, accepted by them as one of them when he proves himself an exemplary father. Who fights for hard-headed Scarlett's love, which comes to him too late.
The characters of Ashley Wilkes, who Scarlett loves from afar, and his wife Melanie, whose brother Charles Scarlett marries out of picque, and who stands staunchly behind Scarlett inspite of everything, are paler, simpler people, and their story is the perfect foil for the more vibrant tale of the main characters.
The book is complete in itself, ending on the famous line- "I'll think about it tomorrow. Tomorrow is another day!" One does wonder, though, what happens to them.
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| Pic courtesy flipkart Published by Grand Central publishing |
SCARLETT by Alexandra Ripley.
A few years back, a sequel was published, and I, of course gobbled it up. Scarlett was written by Alexandra Ripley, and it satisfied all those who were disenchanted by the abandoning of Scarlett by Rhett, now that she had realised that she loved him. In this book, Scarlett single-mindedly sets out to woo Rhett back, and we are amazed by her sheer grit and determination. Inspite of the unsavoury methods she often adopts, one cannot but be impressed by her mental strength. Something that even Rhett falls short of at times.
It was a fast read, though Ripley could not really match up to Margaret Mitchell in my mind. It was somehow more decadent, painting Scarlett quite scarlet in her attempts, making the book very garish, not quite able to capture the grace of the original. It becomes quite over-dramatic and cheesy at times. I may be biased, though, having read the original in my teens, a more impressionable age, and when one does not look at things too critically.
Another way of looking at it would be to cheer her in single-mindedly setting out to achieve what she wanted. After all, she was jeered at and ostracised from genteel society for the very characteristics that Rhett was praised for. So typical! As we shall see in our third book, written with Rhett as our protagonist, he keeps thinking to himself-"How like me she is!"
Does she get back her man? Find out.
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| Pic courtesy flipkart Published by Pan books |
RHETT BUTLER'S PEOPLE by Donald McCaig
Right on the cover is specified : "The authorised novel based on Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind."
Scarlett by Alexandra Ripley was disowned by the Margaret Mitchell foundation, which called it 'an embarrassment.' Rhett Butler's People totally disregards the story as it plays out in that book, and tells its own story. Equally well-researched and well written.
It follows the same tenets of romance and genteel behaviour as the original it is based on, and covers a much longer period - from Rhett's childhood, through his youth to where he meets, woos and weds Scarlett, to further- and we have a happy ending here, though a filmy one, with revenge taking villians, shooting, and deaths of supposedly superflous characters.
Characters of a lesser importance in the original are fleshed out, making them more interesting, and we hear their stories too- Rhett's parents, his sister Rosemary, Belle Watling, her family, and her role in Rhett's life, the friendship between Rosemary and Melanie Wilkes, (we learn a lot from the exchange of letters between them) and Rhett's affection for his childhood friend, the free-born black Tunis, who he shoots to death when he is taken into custody, to save him from the worse fate of being tortured and burnt at the stake on a false complaint by a thwarted white woman.
The one thing that strikes us is the more detailed accounts of the Civil War, well researched, since our protagonist is on the battlefront for some time at least. Surely a more testosterone laden version of 'Gone with the Wind.'
Between them the three books give an interesting 'What if?' perspective of the story, as the two later books go on totally different lines. One thing shines out, though. For all her faults, Scarlett O'Hara Hamilton Kennedy Butler is today's woman, one who knows her mind, and passionately loves those that she does- be it her mother, Mammy, Rhett, Melanie, or Tara, her home, and is willing to go to great lengths for them.
Will be entering this for the 2011 global reading challenge under North America and for the Reading the world challenge 2011 at Papertigers for me under The US of A, fiction.
Crossposted at Bookreviews.
