(1936)
Young, high-tempered Scarlett O''Hara
marries Charles Hamilton. piqued that his
sister Melanie, and not
she, is to be the bride of her neighbor Ashley Wilkes. When Charles dies in the Civil War, and Atlanta is seized by the Northerners, Scarlett is poverty-striken. She is forced to struggle for her family, and also the aristocratic Ashley, who has not been trained to work with his hands, but determines to keep Tara, her father''s plantation. She does manual labor,
marries her
sister''s fiance Frank Kennedy for his money; and after his death in a duel to avenge her honor marries Rhett Butler, an unscrupulous profiteer. Because of her lasting love for Ashley, however, Rhett deserts Scarlett. She realizes at last, after the death of Melanie and indifference of Ashley, that Rhett, simiilar in spirit to her, was her real love.
This popular historical romance was the 1937 Pulitzer Prize winner.