I listened to the audiobook, but I took page numbers are from this Archive edition. Part I of my review is here.
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| The copy I borrowed from the library. It was too big to be comfortable to hold, but I loved the audiobook, so I'm happy that's the direction I went in. |
Lines of note:
“Oh, Pa,” cried Scarlett impatiently, “if I married him, I'd change all that!”
“Oh, you would, would you now?” said Gerald testily, shooting a sharp look at her. “Then it's little enough you arc knowing of any man living, let alone Ashley. No wife has ever changed a husband one whit, and don’t you be forgetting that..." (page 35)
Gerald might be the best character in the whole book. It's too bad he owned slaves or I would suggest he was actually a good man.
The library was in semidarkness, for the blinds had been drawn against the sun. The dim room with towering walls completely filled with dark books depressed her. It was not the place which she would have chosen for a tryst such as she hoped this one would be. Large numbers of books always depressed her, as did people who liked to read large numbers of books. (page 113-114)
This is why I'm not friends with Scarlett. Books shouldn't depress you! They should give you life. Scarlett's lack of intellectual curiosity is one of the most interesting aspects of her personality. She's not even embarrassed about it.
“I have always thought,” he said reflectively, “that the system of mourning, of immuring women in crepe for the rest of their lives and forbidding them normal enjoyment is just as barbarous as the Hindu suttee.”
“Settee?”
He laughed and she blushed for her ignorance. She hated people who used words unknown to her.
“In India, when a man dies he is burned, instead of buried, and his wife always climbs on the funeral pyre and is burned with him.”
“How dreadful! Why do they do it? Don’t the police do anything about it?"
“Of course not. A wife who didn’t burn herself would be a social outcast. All the worthy Hindu matrons would talk about her for not behaving as a well-bred lady should — precisely as those worthy matrons in the corner would talk about you, should you appear tonight in a red dress and lead a reel. Personally, I think suttee much more merciful than our charming Southern custom of burying widows alive!”
“How dare you say I’m buried alive!”
“How closely women clutch the very chains that bind them! You think the Hindu custom barbarous — but would you have had the courage to appear here tonight if the Confederacy hadn’t needed you?” (page 182-183)
Even though Scarlett knows she's ignorant, she doesn't actually do anything to rectify it. She just blames the other person. Crazy!
“Money can't buy everything.”
"Someone must have told you that. You'd never think of such a platitude all by yourself. What can’t it buy?”
"Oh, well, I don’t know — not happiness or love, anyway.”
"Generally it can. And when it can’t, it can buy some of the most remarkable substitutes.” (page 193)
It certainly can buy you a level of comfort, that can't be denied.
It was not often that she was alone like this and she did not like it. When she was alone she had to think and, these days, thoughts were not so pleasant. Like everyone else, she had fallen into the habit of thinking of the past, the dead. (page 335)
I sort of feel for Scarlett here. I also do not like to be left alone with my thoughts.
"I’d back you against the Yankees any day.”
“I’m not sure that that’s a compliment,” she said uncertainly.
“It isn’t,” he answered. “When will you stop looking for compliments in men’s lightest utterances?” (page 336)
I snorted laughing at this line. Captain Butler is a rascal.
Was Tara still standing? Or was Tara also gone with the wind which had swept through Georgia? (page 397) - A sighting of the book title in the text!!!
It was beyond her comprehension that anyone could love Suellen. Her sister seemed to her a monster of selfishness, of complaints and of what she could only described as pure cussedness. (page 485)
I felt this line in my soul.
“Girls have to marry someone.”
“Indeed, they do not,” said Pitty, ruffling. "I never had to.” (page 561)
Ah, this was such an awkward scene. Pitty has to rely on the kindness of her family to survive in the world as an older person who never married. Scarlett and Melanie know this, but are too kind to say it to her.
It had begun to dawn on him that this same sweet pretty little head was a “good head for figures.” In fact, a much better one than his own and the knowledge was disquieting. He was thunderstruck to discover that she could swiftly add a long column of figures in her head when he needed a pencil and paper for more than three figures. And fractions presented no difficulties to her at all. He felt there was something unbecoming about a woman understanding fractions and business matters and he believed that, should a woman be so unfortunate as to have such unladylike comprehension, she should pretend not to. Now he disliked talking business with her as much as he had enjoyed it before they were married. Then he had thought it all beyond her mental grasp and it had been pleasant to explain things to her. Now he saw that she understood entirely too well and he felt the usual masculine indignation at the duplicity of women. Added to it was the usual masculine disillusionment in discovering that a woman has a brain. (page 616)
Ah, well. It's 2025. Girls and women sometimes still have to hide their smarts, don't they?
“There’s more ways of killing a cat than choking him to death with butter,” giggled Melanie when the whiskered old man had thumped down the stairs. (page 917)
What is this idiom? Why are cats involved?
"...I’m sorry because you are such a fool you don’t know there can’t ever be happiness except when like mates like..." (page 939)
Big discussion in our house around this one. Should like mate like or do opposites attract? Or maybe it's both? Maybe we are most attracted to those who we shouldn't be with?
Pitty, who desired nothing except to live comfortably amid the love of her relatives, would have been very pleased, in this matter, to run with the hares and hunt with the hounds. But neither the hares nor the hounds would permit this. (page 953)
More idioms I've never heard!
He drew a short breath and said lightly but softly: "my dear, I don’t give a damn." (page 1035)
Famous line from the film!!!
Things I looked up:
Battle of the Boyne (page 42) - took place in 1690 between the forces of the deposed King James II, and those of King William III who, with his wife Queen Mary II (his cousin and James's daughter), had acceded to the Crowns of England and Scotland in 1689. The battle was fought across the River Boyne close to the town of Drogheda in the Kingdom of Ireland, modern-day Republic of Ireland, and resulted in a victory for William. This turned the tide in James's failed attempt to regain the British crown and ultimately aided in ensuring the continued Protestant ascendancy in Ireland.
St. Simons Island (page 45) - an island off the Georgia coast known for its salt marshes and sandy stretches
Zouave (Chapter 9) - a class of light infantry regiments of the French Army serving between 1830 and 1962 and linked to French North Africa. The zouaves were among the most decorated units of the French Army. With the outbreak of the Civil War, many zouave units were raised on both sides. Louisiana, with its French culture and traditions raised the majority of Zouave units for the Confederacy. Zouave units, North and South, served with distinction at Antietam and throughout the Civil War.
passementerie (page 232) - the art of making elaborate trimmings or edgings (in French, passements) of applied braid, gold or silver cord, embroidery, colored silk, or beads for clothing or furnishings
tumbrils (page 242) - an open cart that tilted backward to empty out its load, in particular one used to convey condemned prisoners to the guillotine during the French Revolution
Florida water (page 244) - an American version of an Eau de Cologne. Like European eau de colognes it is a citric scent, but shifts the emphasis towards sweet orange (rather than the bergamote orange, lemon and neroli of 4711) and adds spicy notes like clove. The name refers to the fabled Fountain of Youth, which is said to be located in Florida, as well as the "floral" nature of the scent.
Jeb Stuart (page 267) - a Confederate army general and cavalry officer during the American Civil War
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| Portrait by George S. Cook, 1863 - The point in the book was his beard. |
Nathan Bedford Forrest (page 267) - a 19th-century American slave trader active in the lower Mississippi River valley, a Confederate States Army general during the American Civil War, and the first Grand Wizard of the Reconstruction-era Ku Klux Klan, serving from 1867 to 1869
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| Another beard reference |
A pagan hearing the lapping of the waters around Charon’s boat could not have felt more desolate. (page 276) - Ha ha. I heard this as Karen's boat and could not figure out what was happening. Obviously Charon was the ferryman of the underworld. It all made sense when I saw it written out.
For even as Andersonville was a name that stank in the North, so was Rock Island one to bring terror to the heart of any Southerner who had relatives imprisoned there.(page 285-286) - I cannot tell if this is Mitchell's pro-South bias. It seems like the consensus is that there was overcrowding at the prison, but that Mitchell's claims were overblown about conditions and deaths.
“Mr. Lincoln, the merciful and just, who cries large tears over Mrs. Bixby’s five boys, hasn’t any tears to shed about the thousands of Yankees dying at Andersonville,” said Rhett, his mouth twisting. “He doesn’t care if they all die. The order is out. No exchanges. (page 286)
The Bixby letter is a brief, consoling message sent by President Abraham Lincoln in November 1864 to Lydia Parker Bixby, a widow living in Boston, Massachusetts, who was thought to have lost five sons in the Union Army during the American Civil War. Along with the Gettysburg Address and his second inaugural address, the letter has been praised as one of Lincoln's finest written works and is often reproduced in memorials, media, and print.
Lucullan banquet (page 294) - adj., (especially of food) extremely luxurious
Thermopylae (page 296) - The Battle of Thermopylae was fought over three days in 480 BC between the Achaemenid Persian Empire under Xerxes I and an alliance of Greek city-states led by Sparta under Leonidas I. The Persian victory at Thermopylae allowed for Xerxes' passage into southern Greece, which expanded the Persian empire even further. Today the Battle of Thermopylae is celebrated as an example of heroic persistence against seemingly impossible odds
vermifuge (page 430) - a medicine used to destroy parasitic worms
Gorterdammerung (page 527) - a collapse (as of a society or regime) marked by catastrophic violence and disorder
Hat mentions:
waving their hats (page 10-11)
wide Panama hat (page 25, 261, 336, 378, 960)
“You keep yo’ shawl on yo’ shoulders w’en you is in de sun, an’ doan you go takin’ off yo’ hat w’en you is wahm,” she commanded...(page 78)
hat in hand (page 81, 381, 919, 931)
took off his hat with a sweep (page 84)
Today, dressed in dull black silk over unfashionably narrow hoops, she still looked as though in her habit, for the dress was as severely tailored as her riding costume and the small black hat with its long black plume perched over one warm, twinkling, brown eye was a replica of the battered old hat she used for hunting. (page 85)
They were a pretty, buxom quartette, so crammed into the carriage that their hoops and flounces overlapped and their parasols nudged and bumped together above their wide leghorn sun hats, crowned with roses and dangling with black velvet chin ribbons. All shades of red hair were represented beneath these hats, Hetty’s plain red hair, Camilla’s strawberry blonde, Randa’s coppery auburn and small Betsy’s carrot top.
"And looks a lot like Hetty, too,” said Camilla, and then disappeared shrieking amid a welter of skirts and pantalets and bobbing hats, as Hetty, who did have a long face, began pinching her. (page 88)
“That’s a fine woman,” said Gerald, putting on his hat and taking his place beside his own carriage. (page 91)
yellow hat with long cherry streamers (page 102)
"...But you, my dear Miss O’Hara, are a girl of rare spirit, very admirable spirit, and I take off my hat to you." (page 120)
The Munroe boys tore past waving their hats, and the Fontaines and Calverts went down the road yelling. (page 127)
His hat was gone...(page 205)
He walked out into the dim hall and picked up the hat he had dropped on the doorsill. (page 205)
his hat in his hand (page 231, 317)
Just at this moment, nothing mattered to her except that she looked utterly charming in the first pretty hat she had put on her head in two years. What she couldn’t do with this hat! (page 243)
In a moment the hat was back in its box. (page 243)
“And turn it into a fright like your other hats? No.” (page 243)
raised his hat (page 257)
laying down his hat and bag (page 262)
But she wanted to give him something more personal, something a wife could give a husband, a shirt, a pair of gauntlets, a hat. Oh, yes, a hat by all means... But the only hats obtainable in Atlanta were crudely made wool hats, and they were tackier than the monkey-hat forage caps. (page 269)
When she thought of hats, she thought of Rhett Butler. He had so many hats, wide Panamas for summer, tall beavers for formal occasions, hunting hats, slouch hats of tan and black arid blue. (page 269)
She paused and thought it might be difficult to get the hat without some explanation. She simply could not tell Rhett she wanted it for Ashley. He would raise his brows in that nasty way he always had when she even mentioned Ashley’s name and, like as not, would refuse to give her the hat. (page 269)
wide felt hat (page 276)
dropped the hat (page 276)
retrieve his hat (page 277)
...his hat bravely pinned up on one side. (page 314)
He picked up his hat ...(page 342, 971)
tattered gray hat (page 359)
He gathered the reins again and put on his hat. (page 359)
The shadow seemed to take off a hat and a quiet voice came from the darkness. (page 371)
he removed his hat (page 378)
They were all ragged, so ragged that between officers and men there were no distinguishing insignia except here and there a torn hat brim pinned up with a wreathed “C.S.A.” (page 385)
Why hadn’t she brought her sun hat? (page 396)
without a hat (page 397, 997)
He should come home on a prancing horse, dressed in fine clothes and shining boots, a plume in his hat. (page 502)
And what a cunning hat! Bonnets must be out of style, for this hat was only an absurd flat red velvet affair, perched on the top of the woman’s head like a stiffened pancake. The ribbons did not tie under the chin as bonnet ribbons tied but in the back under the massive bunch of curls which fell from the rear of the hat... (page 537)
pancake hat (page 544, 661)
fine fur hat (page 556)
tall hat (page 621)
"...My horse is nearly dead — all the way up here at a dead run — and like a fool I went out of the house today a bat out of hell without a coat or hat or a cent of money..." (page 645)
battered straw hat (page 691)
beatin’ the horse with his hat (page 702)
Feet were stilled, hats were removed, hands folded and skirts rustled into quietness as Ashley stepped forward with Carreen’s worn Book of Devotions in his hand. (page 708)
...Mrs. Tarleton went toward the kitchen, throwing her hat carelessly on the sideboard and running her hands through her damp red hair. (page 714)
tipping their hats (page 756)
He rose suddenly and picked up his hat. (page 775)
"...Don’t tell anyone where you are going and if you’ve got a hat, bring it along to hide your face.”
“Ah ain’ got no hat.”
“Well, here’s a quarter. You buy a hat from one of those shanty darkies and meet me here.” (page 783)
carelessly dragging off his hat (page 783)
“You are a rare scoundrel!” she cried furiously to Johnnie as he stood at the wheel, his hat pushed back from his lowering brow. (page 785)
black slouch hat (page 796)
He neither took off his hat nor spoke to the others in the room. (page 796)
He recognized her instantly and, taking off his hat, bowed, somewhat embarrassed. (page 799)
The eyes of the captain flickered quickly about the room, resting for an instant on each face, passing quickly from their faces to the table and the hat rack as though looking for signs of male occupancy. (page 799)
gloves and hat (page 839)
(If only Rhett had not been so silly and burned the false curls she bought to augment her knot of Indian-straight hair that peeked from the rear of these little hats!) (page 851)
...a high silk coachman’s hat with a brush, upon it. (page 851)
enormous leghorn hat (page 921)
swept off his hat (page 959)
brim of his hat (page 972)
"...For Heaven’s sake, Rhett, take those feathers out of your hat. You look a fool and you’ll be likely to wear them downtown without remembering to take them out.”
“No,” said Bonnie, picking up her father’s hat, defensively. (page 974)
tipping his hat (page 986)
black hat with a red plume in it (page 989)
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What do you think? Should like mate like or opposites attract?
