This book is amazing. I was a bit put off at the beginning because lets face it, Scarlett is an annoying, spoilt brat. Also, the prose is quite purple at the beginning, lavishing praise on the Georgian countryside to the point where it got irritating. However, it redeemed itself as soon as the realities of fighting took over, and Scarlett started misbehaving! I doubt that a book like this could ever have been written in the time it was set, the content would have been far too shocking, but having read things like Uncle Tom's cabin it was nice to get some perspective from the other side, albeit removed from the action by 70-odd years. Even though Scarlett annoyed me with her pining for Mr wet-blanket Ashley Hamilton, it was always interesting to see what she would do next! I found the Southern attitude to slavery quite an interesting one, and found it quite surprising that people who were in the KKK quite willingly shared their homes with former slaves. I think Margaret Mitchell was quite brave to tackle all the issues she did, even though I did get the feeling she was whitewashing most of them to "save face" for the South. It may very well be true that "house slaves" had a very good life and were accepted as part of the family, but I can't believe that the field hands were never whipped to make them more productive. I'm glad I read Uncle Tom first, because it was quite blatant anti-slavery propaganda, and this is quite blatantly pro-slavery. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle. As for Rhett? Every girl should have a Rhett Butler :)