Gone With the Wind (text only) by M. Mitchell

📚 Why We Recommend It



This is not a comfort read; it’s an epic of survival and reinvention. Set during the Civil War and Reconstruction and told from a Confederate vantage point, you watch Scarlett O’Hara scrape, scheme, and endure.
First published in 1936, it won the 1937 Pulitzer and the 1936 National Book Award; its staying power shows in 30M+ copies and translations into 40+ languages.
Read with context: its romanticized Old South and racist stereotypes have been widely criticized—engage critically to understand both its impact and its blind spots.
Bonus trivia: the title comes from Ernest Dowson’s poem “Non sum qualis eram bonae sub regno Cynarae,” hinting at the novel’s undertow of loss.