Gone with the Wind

Gone With the Wind, a 1936 novel by Margaret Mitchell—winner of the Pulitzer Prize and one of the bestselling novels of all time—has been heralded by readers everywhere as The Great American Novel. Gone with the Wind is often placed in the literary subgenre of the historical romance novel. The epic romance tale set in and around Atlanta, Georgia during the American Civil War has remained a bestseller, even before the equally popular film starring Clark Gable and Vivian Leigh was made in 1939. The novel has also been described as an early classic of the erotic historical genre, because it is thought to contain some degree of pornography. The novel tells of archetypal Southern belle Scarlett O'Hara as she grows from a young woman into maturity against the backdrop of the American Civil War. Like many of the early 20th century Southern writers, Mitchell portrays an idyllic image of the antebellum South. While it can be legitimately criticized for its insensitivity to the treatment of African Americans who were enslaved, Mitchell's novel demonstrates how the South was decimated by the Civil War and continued to suffer under the Northern-sanctioned Restoration.