Gone With the Wind is beyond question the best known novel of the 20th century—read by untold millions and translated into 26 foreign languages. It won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1937, then went on to become one of the most spectacular motion pictures of all time, with Vivian Leigh and Clark Gable immortalizing the roles of Scarlett O'Hara and Rhett Butler.

Beautiful, spoiled, scheming Scarlett, daughter of a wealthy Georgia plantation owner. arrives at woman- hood just as the Civil War sweeps away the only life she knows. After surviving the fiery destruction of Atlanta, she returns to the family plantation and struggles desperately to save her home from both the Union Army and carpet- baggers.

Loved by many men. Scarlett sets her heart on taking her first love. Ashley Wilkes, from his gentle wife—yet she is irresistibly drawn to Rhett Butler, a handsome blockade runner now wresting a fortune from the ruins of war. Her feeling for Rhett is a strange mixture of hatred and strong physical attraction—sharpened by her unwilling recognition that they are very much alike.

Gone With the Wind is rich in authentic color and excitement. filled with memorable men and women. When it was first published, J. Donald Adams of The New York Times called it: "A superb piece of storytelling which nobody can afford to neglect." The judgment remains sound today, as Gone With the Wind continues to be hailed as a classic of American fiction.
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