Gone With The Wind: Margaret Mitchell

Spoiled, selfish, beautiful and seventeen - Scarlett O'Hara of Tara always got whatever she wanted. Except Ashley Wilkes. He is to marry his mousy little plain cousin Melanie. Scarlet almost can't bear it. She especially can't bear the teasing of Rhett Butler, who overhears her declaration of love for Ashley and Ashley's gentle but firm refusal. She hastily marries Melanie’s brother Charles and after she is widowed, Rhett courts Scarlett through the early days of the American Civil War. But Scarlett's world is turned upside down when the Northern Army reaches Atlanta, destroying everything in their path and she must flee with a frightened servant and Melanie, who has just given birth to Ashley's son - to return to a Tara almost destroyed by war, a broken father and the death of her mother. The few servants that are left and Scarlett's younger sisters look to her to care for, feed and protect them. Melanie, physically weakened by childbirth must be nursed. There’s nothing to eat – both armies have taken everything. Scarlett turns all her stubborn willfulness to survival, planting cotton and keeping the land. She battles on, doing whatever she must to survive. She will steal, she will kill to survive... Until Rhett Butler re-enters her life as dramatically as he left it. Margaret Mitchell always intended that the book's central character would be Melanie - but as she wrote, she found that 'the other woman was taking over'.