Rene Hasekamp
I read books (and place a review here afterwards) in the following categories Mystery/Detective, British literature (mostly older books, from Gutenberg.org), Adventure, some Dutch lieterature and more.
My top favorite writers are John Galsworthy, Wilkie Collins, Charles Dickens, but among my five-star reviews you will also find (debuts of) contemporary writers. A recent example is Gillian Flynn. I mostly read ebooks.
Currently reading
Fantastic book!
This is really a great Saga and it is not "dated" at all, although it was written in 1936. Most of you will have seen the movie. A great movie, no doubt, but to know everything about Scarlett O'Hara you need to read this fantastically written book. It won the Pulitzer Prize, by the way.
We follow Scarlett O'Hara from when she is 16, up to the time when she is 28. And around her story we get a very good impression of what the American Civil War, it's upcoming and it's aftermath meant for the Americans who lived in those years.
The story of Scarlett is written very detailed and we get to know her thoughts in detaill, as well as the thoughts of some people around her. It is not believable that anybody who reads this book is going to like Scarlett. She is portrayed as a spoiled, selfish and - in my opinion - stupid girl/young woman. She destroys everything and everybody around her if that serves het purpose. Apparently she is only interested in money and something else, which I will not mention, to keep this review free from spoilers.
In some passages she seems to become more sensible, but soon this appears only temporary, and she follows the path again that she thinks serves her purposes best.
Only two people in the book understand her and try to bring her to a better and more sensible way of life, but she seems to hate both of them. Her real feelings towards some characters are not discovered by her until the last few chapters, by the way.
Is there no criticism at all? As far as I am concerned not really. I believe that at some points the continuity is not completely correct, but who cares in such a masterpiece as this is.
An interesting detail about the writing of this book is that Margaret Mitchell wrote the final chapter first, and wrote the rest of the book, that shows why everything ends as it does, afterwards.
Anyway, I can recommend this book very strongly. It should be read by all book lovers. You won't forget it easily and you will be sorry when you have finished it.
But please do not read the existing sequels. Margaret Mitchell did not start at the end for nothing. This books shows how the story ends and that is it. Margaret Mitchell explicitly refused to write a sequel.
An e-book is available through Gutenberg Australia.