Scarlett O’Hara is a spoiled Southern Belle who is secretly in love with Ashley Wilkes, her neighbour. When she learns about his impending engagement to his cousin Melanie Hamilton, she is dismayed to say the least. She confesses her love to Ashley, but he tells her that he only sees her as a friend and he will marry Melanie. The conversation between Scarlett and Ashley was overheard by Rhett Butler.
Out of spite, Scarlett accepts Melanie’s brother Charles’ proposal. They marry and he goes to war, and after two months he dies of the measles. Scarlett is now a young, pregnant widow and she mourns the loss of her youth – not her husband because she barely knew him. She gives birth to a boy, who she names Wade Hampton Hamilton.
Scarlett’s mother suggests that she should move in with her sister in law Melanie (Ashley has gone to war as well) in Atlanta. Here she starts doing hospital work and joins a Confederate sewing circle. And she runs into Rhett Butler again and starts spending a lot of time with him. At Christmas, Ashley comes home to spend time with his wife. Scarlett is still convinced that he loves her, and only married Melanie out of duty. And when Melanie turns out to be pregnant afterwards, Scarlett is heart-broken.
Scarlett asks for Rhett’s help as she wants to return to her father’s plantation Tara with Melanie and their children Wade and Beau. There are no slaves left on the plantation, so Scarlett starts working the fields herself. She begs for Rhett’s help, and tries to seduce him into marrying her, but he knows she’s after his money. So Scarlett marries Frank Kennedy, her sister’s fiance (she tells him that her sister Suellen is no longer interested in him) and convinces him to pay the taxes for the plantation. With Frank, Scarlett has a daughter: Ella Lorena Kennedy. One evening, Scarlett is accosted by two men but she manages to escape. Frank is livid and he goes out to avenge his wife… and he gets shot and dies.
At Frank’s funeral, Rhett asks Scarlett to marry him and she says no. But after a year, they do tie the knot. Rhett and Scarlett have a daughter Eugenie Victoria, nicknamed Bonnie Blue because of her blue eyes. Rhett dotes on his daughter, and Scarlett still thinks that Ashley is in love with her – and she obsesses over it. Rhett and Scarlett fight like cats and dogs most of the time. And then Bonnie dies of a broken neck after she falls of her Shetland pony.
Rhett starts drinking more regularly after Bonnie’s death. Melanie dies during her second pregnancy. While she comforts Ashley, Scarlett realises she stopped loving him a long time ago and wonders whether she ever did love him. However, it looks like it might be too late for Rhett and Scarlett – he says he did once love her, but the years of neglect and hurt have killed any feelings he had for her. Scarlett is intent on winning him back though.
I suffered through this book – I really did not enjoy it much. Scarlett is not a likeable character and neither is Rhett. They really deserved each other.
Read for The 52 Book Club Reading Challenge 2025
Prompt 26: More Than a Million Copies Sold
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
