Scarlett's Women: Gone With the Wind and Its Female Fans

by Helen Taylor

Overview

One of the most successful books ever published and the basis of one of the most popular and highly praised Hollywood films, Gone with the Wind has entered world culture in a way that few other stories have. The book was published in June 1936; the film premiered on December 15, 1939. The book has sold 25 million copies, has been translated into twenty-seven languages, and won the 1936 Pulitzer Prize. The film received eight Oscars and has been called the greatest movie ever made. Everyone has heard of GWTW. Most of us have seen the movie or read the novel. In this entertaining and informative book, Helen Taylor is the first to seek reasons for the film/novel's success among viewers/readers. The author asked GWTW fans to relate their experiences with the works, to explain their fascination with the story, to describe the impact GWTW has had on their lives. The results are astonishing and illuminating. In the United States and England, where the author conducted her research, women have to a remarkable degree claimed the story Margaret Mitchell wrote as their own. They name their children Rhett and Scarlett. They see in the lives of the men and women of GWTW their own lives, their own restlessness, their own aspirations for something better than marriage and motherhood. Helen Taylor not only explains the enduring appeal of the work, but also identifies different kinds of response at particular historical moments (especially World War II) and through the past five decades by women of different classes, races, and generations. The author also looks at the contemporary implications of the work's political conservatism, racism, and—paradoxically—feminism. The result is a book that is sophisticated, accessible, and revealing. Scarlett's Women is a book for eery fan, and for all students of film and popular culture.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780813514963
Publisher:	Rutgers University Press
Publication date:	09/01/1989
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

HELEN TAYLOR has written extensively on women's writing and popular culture. An active participant in the Daphne du Maurier Festival, Fowey, and on the Board of Bath Festivals Trust, she is Professor of English at the University of Exeter. 

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
1. The Phenomenal Gone With the Wind
2. Scarlett's Women: Gone With the Wind in Living Memory
3. The Woman Who Started it All: 'Margaret Mitchell of Atlanta'
4. Scarlett Woman: The Undisputed Heroine
5. The King and the Wimp: The Gone With the Wind Men
6. Tomorrow is Another Day: Gone With the Wind's Ambiguous Ending
7. The Mammy of Them All: Gone With the Wind and Race
8. Looking Back and Forward: Gone With the Wind, History and Heritage
Afterword
Appendix
Notes
Bibliography
Index