Gone with the Wind Part V

Rhett jeers at Ashley because he is jealous of Scarlett's affection for him. He points out to her that his family threw him out years ago because of his wild ways, and he managed to make his own way in the world and became a successful businessman and blockade runner. Scarlett gives Ashley a job, as manager of the sawmill and she continues to visit the business, driving herself alone. One day, she is attacked by some men who are living rough on a lonely part of the road. She manages to get away, but Frank feels obliged to defend his wife after she has almost been molested by black men, so he and some other men in the town set out to punish them. Scarlett does not know what is happening, because she rarely takes any interest in anything outside her own life, but the other women do. Rhett turns up and tells Melanie and Scarlett that the Yankee officers who are ruling the town are aware that Frank and his friends are making an attack on the men who tried to assault Scarlett and that they are very angry at the rebellious act.. He tells them that he found out because he is friendly with the Yanks and plays cards with them, and he advises that he must know where they have gone so that he can try and get them out before the soldiers find them. Melanie tells him, and Rhett manages to rescue most of the men, except for Frank, who was shot. He gets his prostitute mistress Belle Watling to swear that the men were in her whorehouse that night, and the Yanks find they have no case. They are maliciously amused to believe that a group of Southerners spend one night a week at the brothel. However, Scarlett finds, to her horror that she has been widowed again.

Gone with the Wind Part IV

Scarlett becomes pregnant and has a daughter, Ella by Frank. Rhett Butler was imprisoned after the war but is finally released. He has made a lot of money during the war, running the blockade to bring necessities into the South for the war effort. Scarlett has not forgiven him for deserting her on the road to Tara, to join the defeated Southern army. But she can't help liking him so she sees him occasionally and shows off the baby to him. Her son Wade Hampton is a nervous shy little boy and Scarlett finds him exasperating. Ashley comes home from the war and resumes living with Melanie and their son Beau, and Scarlett asks him to run a sawmill that she is thinking of buying. She realises that Ashley is not much good at being practical and he is not one of the Confederate veterans who has managed to start to make a new life for himself by setting up a business of his own.

Gone with the Wind Part III

Scarlett's war really begins when she goes home to Tara. Most of the slaves have run away, and her father is incapable of doing anything. Her sisters have been seriously ill and her beloved mother is dead. She has to take on responsibilty for the plantation, for her family and servants. She has always had a frivolous fun seeking life and now she is barely able to find enough to eat for her household. She is tired and weary and often harsh with her family and servants, but she accepts that she is the only one at Tara who can carry the burden of looking after them. When the war ends, many soldiers pass through Tara walking home, and one of them, a small farmer called Will Benteen, decides to stay... He has lost a leg but he's a hard worker and his own farm is gone and his slaves have left it. Scarlett next finds that the government is imposing heavy taxes on Tara and generally coming down hard on those who fought against the North. To get the money, she flirts with her sister SueEllen's admirer, a middle aged fusspot called Frank Kennedy. He has been hoping to marry SueEllen now the war is over, but Scarlett lies to him and tells him that her sister has accepted a new admirer.. She lures him to marry her and is able to save Tara. This means that she has to move back to Atlanta, and leaves Will to manage Tara. He proposes to Sue Ellen, who is furious at being jilted by Frank... and she accepts him. Scarlett realises that she is much better at business than her husband.. and urges him to make more money for them.

Gone with the Wind Part II

Scarlett's marriage only lasts a few nights, as Charles has to go to war. Scarlett becomes pregnant and has a son, Wade Hampton...and Charles dies leaving her a 16 year old widow. Melanie has married Ashley and is very fond of Scarlett believing that she is as grieved at Charles' death as she herself is. Scarlett and the baby go to Atlanta to stay with Melanie, and are trapped there by the war, which is soon beginning to go against the South. She meets Rhett Butler again and he asks her to dance at a fund raising party for the war. She is delighted as she hates being a widow in mourning. She lets him flirt with her, and she refuses to pay much attention to the war, or how badly its going. Melanie becomes pregnant and is due to give birth when Atlanta is burned. She has a son but is very ill and Scarlett manages to get Rhett to steal a horse and buggy to take them out of the city and back to her home of Tara. On the way Melanie is almost dying, but half way along, Rhett starts to feel guilty that he has not joined up and left others to do the fighting while he used the war to make money. He deserts Scarlett and goes off to join the army. Scarlett gets her maid and the 2 babies and Melanie to Tara, only to find that her mother has died of cholera and her father is helpless and demented.

Gone with the Wind

This was the only novel written by Southerner Margaret Mitchell - which was made into a film in 1939. It is racist and is unashamedly on the side of the Old South but it is a good read and was extremely popular when it came out. It is set in Georgia, beginning at the start of the Civil war. The heroine is Scarlett O'Hara, the daughter of an Irishman who came to America as a young man and won a plantation at cards. Gerald O' Hara managed to marry well, to Ellen Robillard, daughter of a French family, who had had an unhappy love affair and decided to marry him for security. They produced 3 daughters, Scarlett, Sue Ellen and Carreen, but their sons all died at birth. Scarlett is wilful and selfish and while she is sharp witted, she is not very intelligent. At the beginning of the war, she thinks of nothing but parties and admirers. However, while she has many suitors, Scarlett is in love with her neighbour, the gentle poetical Ashley Wilkes. One of her beaux tells her that Melanie Hamilton, Ashleys' cousin is getting engaged to him at the next day's afternoon barbeque. Scarlett can't believe that he could marry a dull quiet girl like Melanie, and she resolves to tell him that she loves him and wants to marry him. At the barbeque, she flirts with shy awkward Charles Hamilton Melanie's brother, and then corners Ashley in the house and tells him of her feelings. He is very upset, as he does care for her but he is aware of how very different they are and how they could not be a happy couple. He goes away leaving her to cool down, but she finds that her love scene has been witnessed by a guest, Rhett Butler who comes from a wealthy family who have disowned him because he is a lady's man. Rhett is amused by Scarlett's furious reaction to Ashley's desertion. Then she accepts a proposal from Charles Hamilton, to show Ashley that she does not care about his leaving her.

Winifred Peck novelist

Winifred Peck was born in 1882 to a clerical family. There was a Bishop in the family and they were well educated. She was also well educated, and went to a good girls' school which was unusual at the time. She then went on to Oxford, although women there could study for degrees they were not allowed to actually have a degree until the early 1920s. She made the best of her opportunities, and her first book was a historical biography of Louis IX of France. Some years later she started to write novels. She wrote some detective stories and was very popular. She married a civil servant, James Peck, who had a job in food control during the war. One of her novels published in 1940 was called Bewildering Cares, set in the early months of the war. It is in diary form, about a clergyman's wife in a provincial town, and her struggles to do her duty as "Mrs Vicar". Her son is in the army, and her husband is something of a scholar, so he sometimes finds it hard to understand and mix with ordinary working people. It is a bit limited as a novel because it is set before the Blitz which involved everyone in the war, and united the British people.. It has no plot as such. The heroine keeps busy, manages with only one servant and visits the poor and tries to soothe over quarrels among the church ladies. The parish has a crisis when the curate Mr Strang preaches a sermon on pacificism, which does not go down well but finally, they all make peace. The novel ends with Dick, her son, coming home on leave, prior to being sent abroad, and telling his mother that he is getting married.

Circle of Friends Part VIII

Eve is very upset by her own outburst of rage, and Benny wonders what is happening with Jack and Nan. The wedding plans seem to be off the table.. and she and Eve guess that Nan lost the baby. A little time passes and Eve and Benny begin to make plans for their next year at college. Mrs Hogan is happier and does not cling to Benny so much, now.. and its agreed that she and Eve can share a flat in Dublin for the next year. Jack visits Nan and she tells him that there's no need for them to get married now.. and that she has decided to drop out of college. She was never interested in it, and she is going to England to take a course in dress design which she would enjoy more. Jack is relieved, but feels a bit guilty. They say goodbye and Nan makes her plans to go to London. He has kept up his studies, and will go back to college in the autumn. Benny has a new admirer, a boy called Bill but she does not want to get involved with anyone. She realises that Jack is too handsome and charming and too fond of women to be an easy partner and that if she got together with him, she would always be on guard against his finding another woman. So she decides to keep her relationship with him as just a friendly one. THe gang have a picnic, and Jack turns up, rather late and a little uncertain of his welcome. Benny speaks kindly to him but it is clear that their love is over and Benny believes she will be happier.