Hi everybody, welcome back to Fiddle Dee Dee.
Today we're going to be talking about one of
the authorized sequels, Rhett Butler's People.
And the reason we're going to be talking about
this is that I just finished it. I tried to read
it a really, really long time ago, like years
ago, and I did read... most of it, I guess, but
I didn't really know anything that happened in
the middle. I just read kind of the beginning
and the end. So this time around, I actually
read the book and I have some thoughts about
it. So before I get into this, I'm just going
to say this is probably going to be my most subjective
episode, as far as I know, because I didn't like
this book and I'm going to complain about it
quite a bit. No offense to anybody who liked
it but spoiler alert I was not a fan. So what
I'm going to do is I'm first going to go through
the entire plot and then I am going to talk about
all of the problems I had with it. So, a little
background first, actually. In case you don't
know, this book was written by an author named
Donald McCaig, and he was actually the publisher's
third choice to write the sequel. Basically,
the sequel Scarlet by Alexandra Ripley came out,
and it was really unpopular. It was critically
panned. So they wanted to expunge that from their
record. So they tried to find someone else to
write a different sequel. And they went through
a couple different authors, including Pat Conroy,
who wrote the preface to the most recent edition
of the book. Both of those fell through, so they
had one last chance before contractually the
Margaret Mitchell estate was allowed to shop
the book to other publishers. So they found Donald
McCaig, and they settled this idea of writing
the book from Rhett's point of view, which was
actually what Pat Conroy initially was going
to do. So they found Donald McKay because he
had written previous books about Southern life
during the Civil War and had done well with those.
But the problem with this guy is that when they
found him, he had never read Gone with the Wind.
He didn't even really know that much about it.
So he had to go and read the whole thing to prepare.
And then he ended up. writing the book based
on an outline that his wife created. So his wife
did a ton of research to write this book, but
Donald McKaig just kind of went off of her outline.
And you're going to kind of see this throughout
the plot of this book because there are so many
plot holes and so many inaccuracies, things that
are just totally wrong. And the characters don't
even really feel like themselves. Another thing
I wanted to say was that this book was marketed
as being Gone with the Wind from Rhett's point
of view. I would say it is still marketed that
way. That's still the way that people talk about
it. But I would like to say that that is really
not what the book is at all. The reason being,
it has 500 pages, right? And also 60 chapters.
So it's pretty long. It has almost the same amount
of chapters as Gone with the Wind, but page length,
it's only half the size. But out of those 60
chapters, and I kept track, only 17 of them are
actually from Rhett's point of view. The rest
of the chapters are told from the point of view
of mostly Rosemary Butler, Rhett's sister, sometimes
Melanie. Sometimes Ashley. At one point, Bonnie.
Sometimes it's Belle. Sometimes it's OCs. And
quite a bit of the time, actually, it's Scarlet.
I don't know why we go back to Scarlet's point
of view so much, but we do. So that is kind of
what to expect if you want to read this book
and you don't want any spoilers. You just kind
of want to know what you're getting into. Just
know that this book is not really... Gone with
the Wind from Rhett's point of view. If you think
that's what it's going to be, you're going to
be disappointed, I think. I don't really know.
This book got middling reviews. It did a lot
better review -wise than Scarlet did by Alexander
Ripley. And then on Goodreads, it has a higher
average rating than Scarlet. But personally,
I am not convinced that this one is better than
that book. I'll probably do a different episode
on Ripley's Scarlet one day. But anyway, on to
Rhett Butler's people, the plot. And I don't
know how long this is going to be. I might have
to abridge it a little bit because I'm going
to try to go through every single chapter and
there are 60 chapters. Okay, so chapter one.
is from Rhett's point of view. It talks about
how he was just expelled from West Point. He's
going to fight a duel with Shad Watling, who
is his father's plantation's overseer's son.
So the overseer of the Butler Plantation, which
is called Bruton or Broughton Plantation, something
like that, is named Isaiah Watling, which is
an important name. His son is Shad Watling. And
Rhett is going to fight a duel with him because
he compromised Belle or something like that.
So right away, this is already contradicting
Gone with the Wind. Because in Gone with the
Wind, Rhett fought a duel with a lady's brother.
But there's no way it was Belle. I mean, Belle
was like a fancy lady who lived in Atlanta. formerly
been of like this great family that would have
been brought up at some point but she's or not
like a great family but like not a prostitute
so already we are um combining these two characters
the girl who Rhett was riding with in a buggy
and then it crashed and then he was late getting
her home and then Belle Watling whom Rhett actually
took as basically his mistress and was sleeping
with and such. Completely changes the story,
completely changes the way Rhett explains it
in the book, and doesn't really make a lot of
sense when you think about it. But anyway, the
chapter goes on. We see This flashback to Rhett's
childhood, he was physically disciplined a lot
by his father. At one point he ran away and there
was like a hurricane and somebody saved him.
And then he was punished because he had to work
like a field hand on the rice plantation. But
we never see Rhett at West Point. We don't see
him get expelled. We're only told that he was
expelled. So that's another thing to keep in
mind. We are often told that things happen, but
we don't really see them. Okay, I'm already able
to tell this is going to be way too long because
I wrote like two sentences for chapter one, but
moving on. All right, chapter two through chapter
eight are all from Rosemary Butler's point of
view. So we move away from Rhett right after
this first chapter. Rosemary talks about her
thoughts on Rhett. We learn that Rhett fought
the duel with Shad Watling and he killed him.
But of course we don't see that happen, we just
hear about it. Scarlet is mentioned for the first
time in Chapter 2 by her aunt Eulalie, and they
comment about how her name is really weird for
some reason, which I think they also did in Scarlet
by Ripley, so that's kind of weird. And then
we see Rhett being disowned by his father because
of the duel. Chapter three. Rosemary writes letters
and talks to random people. Chapter four, Rhett
is not around. He's off in Nicaragua, and he
sends a bunch of letters to Rosemary, and she
never receives them. Now, do we actually see
Rhett's point of view on his travels? No. Even
though he is very widely traveled, we don't actually
see any of that. We just hear about it in his
letters to Rosemary. And chapter five is his
letters to Rosemary. He's been hanging out with
Belle in New Orleans, too. Chapter six, we find
out Langston Butler, who's the father, has been
burning Rhett's letters. There's this scene with
a slave sale. And then we move into this territory
of Rosemary's love life, which ends up being
a huge plot line throughout the rest of the book.
So this guy named Andrew Ravenel, I think is
how you say that, kisses her during the slave
sale. which is a little controversial. Rhett's
not in this chapter. And then in chapter seven,
Rosemary... marries this guy named John Haynes
and Andrew Ravenel marries somebody else. So
we get some love drama with her. I don't know
why this was necessary, but it's going to become
really important. So chapter eight, Rosemary
regrets marrying John Haynes. She's still in
love with Andrew and they dance together at a
ball. And then Rhett shows up at the end of the
ball and also dances with Rosemary because he's
just there. Okay, Chapter 9. So Chapter 9 through
11, we are back to Rhett's point of view. So
Chapter 9 is all about the barbecue. Rhett goes
to the barbecue with Frank Kennedy, and we do
see his point of view when he sees Scarlet for
the first time. But when we get to the library
scene, it's very much abridged, and we don't
get a lot of description on how that is. So for
the scenes that we actually do see taken straight
from Gone with the Wind, They are always like
this in this book. They are always a lot shorter.
We don't see a lot of Rhett's actual thoughts
on what happens. We just kind of get this brief
summary. And I get that typing out somebody else's
writing almost word for word can be tedious and
maybe it's unnecessary. But we also don't really
see how Rhett feels for the most part. And that's
what's the most disappointing thing about this
book. But that's going to be a common theme.
Then chapter 10, it's a year later. This chapter
is really weird. Rhett goes to Charleston, but
then we go into Scarlett's point of view. So
the beginning of the chapter was from Rhett's
point of view, but then as soon as Scarlett shows
up, we're in her point of view. And she meets
Rhett in Charleston when she's visiting her aunt,
like when she was visiting him with, no, visiting
with Wade. in Charleston before she ever went
to Atlanta. This is the first time she sees him
again after the library scene rather than at
the bazaar and then the bazaar is never mentioned
and it doesn't happen as far as I could tell
so we don't see Rhett's point of view on that
which was a very strange choice. Chapter 11,
Rhett is hanging out with Rosemary. There's a
brief flashback to when Rhett came home to Charleston
for the first time. And Rhett confesses to Rosemary
that he is in love with Scarlet. So we don't
get to see any of Rhett's interactions with Scarlet
in Atlanta that led to him falling in love with
her. We just don't see any of that entire time
period, basically. Chapter 12. is from Tazewell
Watling's point of view. Tazewell is Rhett's
son. Not Rhett's son. Belle's son. Sorry. who
is mentioned in Gone with the Wind that Belle
has a son. And there's an implication he's Rhett's
son, so sorry I said that. But he's often called
the bastard son, and there's some insight into
his early life. And then we also get some of
Belle's point of view in her house and stuff.
But we don't get Rhett's point of view on Tazewell
or Rhett's point of view on Belle at any point.
Chapter 13. We're on to Melanie's point of view.
She talks about her childhood, her marriage,
and Scarlett's arrival in Atlanta. There's one
point she's talking to Rhett and she's like,
you're a scoundrel, Rhett Butler. Even though
Melanie never believed that about him. She always
thought people were too hard on him. and then
she thinks about how Rhett and Scarlett fight
all the time or bicker when they're around each
other and she says that Rhett would mock Scarlett's
coldness and leave angrily even though Rhett
never really showed his anger in any way until
his marriage to Scarlett and Rhett was really
the one who was more bland and cold at the beginning
and Scarlett was the hothead but moving on um
oh and even though we get Rhett's point of Melanie's
point of view in this chapter. We don't get Rhett's
point of view on Melanie. Chapter 14. It's now
Rosemary's point of view again. She's having
kind of this emotional affair with Andrew Ravenel.
And she's had a child named Meg. Chapter 15.
Melanie's point of view again. She overhears
this conversation in which she finds out that
Scarlett never loved Charles. There's this point
where... Scarlett loses Charles' sword and she's
like looking for it and Rhett is helping her
and Melanie's just listening to them and Scarlett's
all, yeah, I didn't really care about him. And
Melanie breaks down in tears. So, yeah. And then
Corrine is mentioned and her name is misspelled.
I just wanted to point that out. Chapter 16,
Rosemary's point of view again. There's a bunch
of stuff about the Civil War that I didn't care
about. And then her daughter Meg dies because
of the war. Chapter 17, back to Rhett's point
of view. We actually see him do some blockading,
which is good. He goes and talks to Rosemary,
of course. He does that in every single one of
his chapters. And then there's this really infuriating
scene. He goes to Aunt Pitty's house to give
Scarlet the yellow silk scarf that he gives her
in the book, and she ends up changing it into
a sash for Ashley. It's very briefly mentioned
in the book. But he shows up dirty or something
like that, and Scarlet's all like, oh, Rhett,
you look disgusting. And he's like, oh, yeah,
I smell bad, and my fingernails are dirty. Even
though Rhett in the book is mentioned to be really
meticulous about... bathing and they mention
that in the jail scene he's like infuriated he
can't bathe but whatever and then he gives scarlet
the silk scarf and she's all like whatever thank
you i guess even though We're at the point where
luxuries are really hard to get, and Scarlet
is known for loving presents, but it's just meant
to show how Scarlet doesn't appreciate him and
his gifts and stuff, even though none of this
happened like this, but whatever. Chapter 18,
we get Andrew Ravenel's point of view for the
first time, and it's just a bunch of stuff about
the Civil War. Chapter 19. Ashley's point of
view. So it's kind of about the Christmas furlough
when he comes home and he mentions that Scarlett
confessed her love to him, but it never mentions
that they kissed, which also happened here. And
then he has a conversation with Rhett and Rhett
notices that the scarf has been converted into
a sash for Ashley. We don't see Rhett's point
of view. You just kind of gather that that is
what he notices. So we don't get Rhett's point
of view on Ashley, really, either. Chapter 20
is Rosemary's point of view. More stuff about
the Civil War and more of her relationship drama.
I'm not even going to go into it. Chapter 21
is Rhett's point of view on the whole flight
from Atlanta. And it's a lot like the library
scene at the barbecue. It's abridged. We see
them kiss, but we don't see Scarlett slapping
him. It just ends before that point. And I'd
like to point out that you never see Rhett asking
Scarlett to be his mistress either. So that has
been skipped in favor of Rosemary Butler and
her relationship drama. On to the next chapter,
it is Rosemary's point of view. Lots more Civil
War stuff. And her husband, John Haynes, dies.
Chapter 23 is Rhett's point of view. for a little
bit. It talks about the Civil War. Tazewell Watling
shows up. He's a soldier now. And then, of course,
as soon as he shows up, it switches to his point
of view. So we don't see Rhett's point of view
on him, of course. So then part one ends. There
are three parts to this book. So now we're on
to part two. And I don't really know what differentiates
these three parts, but whatever. So actually,
I guess I do, because I think the civil work
kind of ended at the end of part one. So chapter
24, we have Scarlet's point of view on what happens
at Terra, as if we didn't get a huge chunk of
that in Gone with the Wind, as if almost the
entirety of part three wasn't about that. We
had to do a summary of... her point of view of
her hardships at Terra. But also there's this
weird part where Andrew Ravenel shows up at Terra
and he tells Scarlet that Rhett died, which I
don't know what the point of that was, but Scarlet
thinks to herself that she's heartbroken, but
then she tries to deny it to herself that she
really is. So I don't know. Chapter 25, Rhett
goes home to see his family for the first time
since he was disowned, and Rhett tells Rosemary
that he and Scarlett are finished for some reason,
even though that wasn't really what he was thinking
at this point. And then we find out that a black
man named Tunis is in jail. I don't know if I'm
saying that right. It's T -U -N -I -S, so I'm
just calling him Tunis. So chapter 26. We learn
that Tunis is a slave or was a slave and that
this young white woman accused him of attacking
her. Chapter 27 is from Rhett's point of view.
He goes out to save Tunis. I forget why he cares
about him, but he does. And on his way to save
him, he meets Archie. So Archie is a character
who only appeared in the book. He's this ex -convict
who really hates black people. He doesn't like
women either. And he went to jail because he
murdered his wife, actually, because his wife
cheated on him with his brother. And Archie's
really just in the book to... kind of be a plot
device for a couple things but he is a little
bit of an interesting character but in this book
he becomes a very big character and they give
him the last name flit f -l -y -t -t -e i don't
know if i'm saying that right either And almost
every time he shows up, they refer to him as
Archie Flit. Even though in the book, it was
kind of a point that Archie didn't want anybody
to know his last name or where he came from.
But somehow we know now. So Rhett meets Archie
and then he finds the white woman who accused
Tunis. And she's a prostitute named Lisa. And
she refuses to change her story for whatever
reason. She's like this really down on her luck
prostitute and Rhett knows her, I guess. But
she just wants to get Tunis in trouble for some
reason. So Tunis then talks to Rhett in jail
and Tunis is like, I know all these other black
men who were tortured before the mobs hanged
them. So can you just kill me first before the
mob does it so I don't get tortured? And Rhett
agrees. And then chapter 28 is just Rhett getting
sent to jail. Chapter 29 is Rhett talking to
people in jail. So let's go back for a second.
This is supposed to be the part in the book where
Rhett is in jail because he killed a black man.
And later on, after he gets out of jail, he does
admit that he did it. And in the book, he says
that he did it because the man was uppity to
a white woman. So that shows Rhett's cruelty
in the book. It shows that he can be racist and
that he doesn't really care about taking other
people's lives for really silly reasons. So this
obviously turns that on its head and it spins
it so that Rhett is now more of a good guy and
he's doing a good deed. And I'm not really sure
why Donald McCaig chose to go that route. I think
maybe he thought it would be harder to root for
a main character who is racist now that, you
know, times have changed a lot since 1930s, since
Gone with the Wind was first published. So maybe
he wanted Rhett to be more sympathetic. He didn't
think he could get away with it. But it is kind
of... character assassination when you think
about it because Rhett isn't really supposed
to be that good of a person. And now he's just
really like everybody else. So that's a little
bit odd. But I will say this is actually one
of the better chapters in the book because it
takes something that was in Gone with the Wind
and it actually makes it so... the book is explaining
what happened from Rhett's point of view, which
is what you would expect the book more to be.
All I know is I thought it was one of the better
chapters. But anyway, chapter 30 is the jail
scene. And like the barbecue and like the one
other scene, the flight from Atlanta, it's very
much abridged. Oh, and Scarlett's name is misspelled
at one point. I just wanted to point that out.
Chapter 31, Away from Rattigan. We had a long
stretch with him, but he's gone. There's a major
time skip. Scarlett has now had Ella. And we're
in Belle's point of view. Belle goes to visit
Melanie. And then she goes to church. And there's
all of this underlying subtext about how... Bella's
convinced that now that Scarlett is married to
Frank and probably will be for the rest of her
life, that Rhett is now going to marry her. And
I didn't quite follow why she thinks this, but
oh well. So yeah, we don't see anything involving
Frank's and Scarlett's marriage before Ella was
born. I'm not even going to say we don't see
it from Rhett's point of view. We don't really
see it from anybody's point of view. It's just
skipped over. for some reason wasn't considered
important chapter 32 rhett's father dies and
he goes home for like three pages and rosemary
now has a son and his name is lewis valentine
and i guess he's named after the grandfather
who was the pirate that rhett supposedly takes
after but every time they say this kid's name
they are not going to call him lewis they're
going to call him lewis valentine so Get used
to that if you're going to read this book. Okay,
chapter 33. We're on to Belle's point of view.
We see the clan raid where Frank dies. Well,
we don't see it. We just see that it happens.
We do see a little bit of the trial where Belle
testifies in favor of the men who are in trouble.
Even so, I feel like we saw more of this trial
in the book, even though in the book we didn't
see it directly. I mean, in Gone with the Wind,
the book. And then Rhett goes to propose to Scarlet,
although we do not see the proposal. We just
hear that he's going to go do that, but we don't
actually see it from his point of view. Chapter
34, we're still in Belle's point of view. Rhett
has written her a long letter about how he went
to go visit Tazewell, known as Taz. And Taz was
apparently convinced Rhett was going to marry
Belle, which Rhett is like, ha ha, oh my gosh,
Belle, isn't that so silly? And then Rhett reveals
in the letter that he got engaged to Scarlet.
So that's all Belle's point of view. Chapter
35, I hated. It's Rhett and Scarlett get married.
There's this really stupid scene where Mrs. Merriweather
is like sarcastically admiring her ring, even
though Mrs. Merriweather is this really blunt
and forthright character and she wouldn't have
done that, even sarcastically. At Scarlett and
Rhett's wedding, Rosemary and Melanie meet and
then they become friends instantly and start
writing letters to each other throughout pretty
much the rest of the book. And then, this is
a pretty long chapter, we see the New Orleans
honeymoon. From Scarlett's point of view, we
already saw Scarlett's point of view on the honeymoon
in Gone with the Wind. We got a whole long chapter
on all of her thoughts on the honeymoon. But
now we've gotten it again in Rhett Butler's People,
but completely rewritten. It's like most of it
is just her talking about... their marital relations
and how enjoyable it is, which doesn't track
with the characters. And we don't see Rhett's
point of view on the honeymoon at all. So this
one was pretty frustrating. And it was a relief
in Chapter 36 to go back to Tazewell Watling.
So he has become this successful person in New
Orleans, and he spends the butler's honeymoon
spying on them, like a creep for some reason.
Chapter 37, there's a massive time skip and Bonnie
is alive and she is almost two years old. And
then we see Scarlet kick Rhett out of her bedroom,
which is weird because Rhett was kicked out of
Scarlet's bedroom. As soon as Scarlet was able
to go out again after giving birth. So Bonnie
should not be almost two years old if this is
when this is happening. And we don't see Rhett's
point of view on Bonnie being born either or
Scarlet's pregnancy or anything like that. Okay,
chapter 38 is from Rosemary's point of view again.
Somehow I missed this, but she's married to Andrew
Ravenel now. And Melanie writes Rosemary this
really long letter about how she knows that...
Ashley's always loved Scarlet and then Rhett
makes Scarlet sell or trick Scarlet into selling
the sawmills to Ashley even though that's not
supposed to happen until much later and I thought
initially he was just skipping so much of the
book and I was like wait a second but actually
this event is just happening much earlier for
no reason at all then Rhett comes home or goes
what does he do hold on Oh yeah, he does go home
for Christmas. And I think there's something
where Rosemary breaks up with Andrew because
he's in the clan. I think that's what's happening
with her. I tried not to pay much attention to
her. Chapter 39 is both Scarlet and Rhett's point
of view. And it's just a bunch of random moments
in their failing marriage with them fighting
and stuff. Chapter 40, Rosemary's point of view.
Andrew gets arrested, and then Mrs. Butler dies.
She's supposed to be alive when Bonnie dies.
At the end of Gone with the Wind, she comes to
the funeral, but this chapter just decides to
kill her off for some reason. Chapter 41. is
Andrew's point of view because we care so much
about him he gets out of jail but Rosemary doesn't
let him come home and then a bunch of random
skip skippable stuff happens and then Andrew
shoots himself sadly I guess um chapter 42 Belle's
point of view her father Isaiah Watling shows
up and he slaps Belle across the face and then
he gives her some package Chapter 43, Melanie's
point of view. So she's preparing for Ashley's
birthday party and she's writing a letter to
Rosemary as she does this. And she tells Rosemary
how much she wants to have relations with her
husband, but she doubts whether he really loves
her, but she's just yearning for him. Because
I'm sure Melanie, you know, would totally put
that into a letter. And she also talks a lot
about Scarlet and Rhett, so she's gossiping about
Rhett to his sister. Again, very proper. About
how they fight all the time, the only thing that
unites them anymore is Bonnie, which really wasn't
even true in Gone with the Wind, because Bonnie
was a child they both loved dearly, but was also
kind of a wedge between them who caused conflict.
So that's not even really true. Chapter 44. is
a brief page about Scarlett and Ashley being
caught in the mills from Scarlett's point of
view. So we don't get to see Archie tell Rhett,
which I was actually kind of looking forward
to, and it would have made sense to include it
because Archie's a character in this. Chapter
45 is from Rhett's point of view. We see the
staircase scene, but it's abridged, and we see
Rhett wake up in the morning, and he thinks to
himself that... He is just like his father. So
I don't know. I thought that line was actually
somewhat interesting. But who knows? Chapter
46 is Bonnie's point of view. And Bonnie apparently
witnessed her father carrying Scarlet up the
stairs because that's what happens in books like
these. Everybody has to know about everything.
There can't be any secrets, any ignorance to
anything. There was this brief line about Big
Sam working at the Atlanta house, which bugged
me because he never worked there. He was always
at Tara. Or he was living in the shantytown,
but he was never at Scarlett's Atlanta house.
Then Rhett takes Bonnie away to go travel and
he introduces her to Belle. And Bonnie sits on
Belle's lap. And I just found this very weird.
I know Rhett likes and admires Belle, but just
before he went on this trip, he threatened to
break Scarlett's neck because she insinuated
that he would take Bonnie to Belle's house. So
wouldn't that still have been fresh in his mind?
Wouldn't he not have wanted Bonnie to be around
Belle with that accusation she just flung at
him? Why would he risk Bonnie's reputation when
they could potentially be seen together when
he was so obsessed with Bonnie's reputation?
And about the reputation thing, the only time
that that was ever mentioned in Rhett Butler's
People was Melanie writing a letter to Rosemary.
She talks about how Bonnie has made Rhett respectable.
There's nothing on Rhett's point of view about
becoming respectable for the sake of Bonnie.
So that wasn't in here either. Anyway. Still
chapter 46, they're traveling, and when they
meet somebody, I forget who, Bonnie mentions
she already has her pony, which is also wrong.
It's more similar to the movie than the book.
Chapter 47, Belle and Rhett go visit Tazewell,
and there's a plot. twist. We find out that Tazewell's
father was not Rhett. It was Andrew Ravenel,
Rosemary's husband. I don't know why this was
a plot point, but I was kind of like, oh, okay,
this is where we're going with this. So all of
that teasing, all of that intrigue about Rhett
having a bastard son, it ultimately wasn't true.
um so yeah chapter 48 there is a time skip of
a year and a month um melanie writes to rosemary
about how she's pregnant and about how bonnie
just died and melanie talks about she feels like
she's going to die soon okay lots of problems
here first of all The miscarriage. One of the
most traumatizing and plot -changing scenes in
Gone with the Wind. It was forgotten. It did
not happen. Scarlett does not get pregnant and
have a miscarriage in Rhett Butler's People.
So not only do we not see it from his point of
view, it just didn't happen. We also do not see
his point of view at all on Bonnie's death. I
don't know why Donald McKaig didn't feel like
writing that. It was literally one of the biggest
moments for Rhett in the entire book, especially
if you wanted to know anything about his psychology.
I mean, he's having a mental break at this point,
but we only hear about this in a letter that
Melanie is writing to Rosemary, which again is
pretty inappropriate for her to write to Rhett's
sister. That is the route that he chose to go,
just to throw it all into a letter. He clearly
didn't want to write about Rhett or anything
that he was feeling during his most emotionally
turbulent times. So that's a big shame. Chapter
49 is two pages from Rhett's point of view. Melanie
dies. Rhett says he doesn't give a damn. And
then chapter 50 is Rosemary's point of view.
She goes to visit Rhett, who is for some reason
at Twelve Oaks, and Rhett is hanging out at Melanie's
grave, thinking about, you know, his failed marriage
and everything. Then Scarlett and the kids show
up for the funeral. So I don't know why Melanie
is being buried at Twelve Oaks instead of in
Atlanta, where she was born and raised, but that's
what's happening here. Okay, I'm actually making
pretty good time because we are now at part three.
And throughout the entire rest of the book, the
last ten chapters, we are not going to get Rhett's
point of view ever again. But this is kind of
the point of the book where things get really,
really funny. So please stick with me. It's infuriating,
but I actually laughed a lot. Chapter 51 is from
Will Benton's point of view. Scarlett has sold
her Atlanta house and moved everybody to Tara.
And when I say everybody, I mean Rosemary Butler
has also moved in. She is also living at Tara.
Ashley has sold the sawmills and he moves back
to Twelve Oaks. And to my understanding, they
shouldn't have Twelve Oaks anymore. It was burned.
And the property was lost to taxes, I believe.
So I don't even know how that's possible. But
then the books turns into like this mystery.
So they have this prowler going around. Somebody
cuts down all of the hams in the meat house and
gets them all dirty. Then chapter 52, Tara is
like going broke and somebody shoots some of
their horses. Um, briefly in Scarlet's point
of view, Ashley tries to propose to her, but
Scarlet catches wind of that and she's like,
no, no, no, no, no. And then Ashley takes the
hint and leaves. So that happened. Um, then we
get Rosemary's point of view. Her and Bo go to
visit Ashley at 12 Oaks, um, and take care of
him because Bo is living with Scarlet at Tara.
Then back to Scarlet's point of view, Uncle Henry
comes to Tara and he tells her, that someone
set fire to her Atlanta house. So I was a little
confused on this point because I thought she
sold the house, but maybe she just left it. But
basically all of her stuff was burned is the
way the book presents it. And she is getting
no insurance from any of it because the insurance
company went bankrupt. So yeah, Scarlett's poor
again. and she doesn't really do anything about
it. She's just kind of in the fields at Terra
again, rowing, hoeing the cotton, picking cotton
or whatever she's doing. It's very weird. Oh,
and there's a lot of stuff about Ella having
seizures because she has epilepsy now, and that's
just in there. I don't really know why. And then
we find out that Isaiah Watling is the Prowler.
Who has been bothering them? Chapter 53 is half
a page, not even half of a page, of Scarlet sending
Rhett a telegram to come home. Chapter 54 is
Tazewell's point of view. He takes care of Rhett,
who is really frail and pathetic now. He's apparently
a shell of his former self. He's just been traveling
the world and disintegrating. And at one point...
um Taz loses track of him and he places an ad
in the newspaper for a mentally disturbed man
and he's checking all of the asylums and places
like that to look for him um so that is what
Rhett has been reduced to now since leaving Scarlet
he has just become completely pathetic and totally
lost himself and is just traveling and not caring
about anything. And it was honestly quite disgusting
to read about. I was not happy with what Donald
McCaig decided to do with Rhett after breaking
up with Scarlet. So chapter 55. Belle shows up
at Tara, and at first Scarlet doesn't want to
talk to her, but Belle's like, no, no, no, give
me a minute of your time. And she warns Scarlet
that her father, Isaiah, is out for revenge,
and he has teamed up with Archie and cousin Josie
to try to bother Scarlet until she asks Rhett
to come home, because they want Rhett to come
home. So they can get revenge on him. So she
says, Scarlet, under no circumstances contact
Rhett. But it's too late. Of course, Scarlet
already has. So chapter 56 is really long and
really, really ridiculous. Scarlet and Rosemary
are freaking out because they don't want Rhett
to come home and get in trouble. But as they
find out, his ship has already sailed back to
America. So he's coming. Then there is this long
scene where Scarlett and Rosemary go to an auction
and they just start calling out Archie and the
Watlings for their crimes in front of everyone.
Just completely take over this auction and everybody
else is watching and cheering and they're like,
give them hell, Scarlett, yeah. So then Ashley
and Will show up and Scarlett says, and I quote,
go away. Please, we are managing. We are taking
care of this. Which was ridiculous. And then
Ashley doesn't listen to her. And he starts whipping
Archie's face with his riding whip. And then
Archie stomps on Ashley's foot with his peg leg,
which makes Ashley trip. A horse steps on Ashley's
ankle and shatters it. And then Archie and Ashley
are just having this cat fight on the ground,
rolling around fighting. Um, so Will decides
he's going to shoot at Archie, which frightens
Scarlet Horse, Scarlet's horse. Um, and then
it runs into a fence and crashes into the fence.
Um, and Will does kill Archie by shooting him.
So Josie, who I'm not really sure who that was,
but they just kind of showed up, um, at this
point in the book. And I was like, okay, Josie
shoots Will and then Will dies. which was very
annoying to me. Will didn't need to die. What
was the point of that other than the drama? So
yeah, very chaotic chapter. Chapter 57 is from
Scarlett's point of view. Ashley is very sick,
not only from his ankle, but he has a fever and
stuff. They have a funeral for Will, and they
go to the police about the Watlings, but the
police won't do anything. The Watlings have fled.
and they think maybe they've seen the last of
them. And then Rhett finally gets to Tara with
Tazewell, and he seems happy to see Scarlet.
Okay, we have three chapters left in this wretched
thing. Chapter 58, also from Scarlet's point
of view. Her and Rhett are pretty much getting
along. Rhett goes to visit Atlanta for some reason.
It doesn't really say why. He takes Wade with
him. And Rosemary goes and cares for Ashley at
Twelve Oaks because Ashley is living really pathetically.
He's, like, not shaving and not doing his laundry
and stuff like that. So Rosemary's now his caregiver.
Rhett decides he's going to teach all of the
children how to ride ponies. And by all of the
children, I mean Wade, Ella, Louis Valentine,
and Bo. And I think there was another kid. Oh,
no, there were two more kids, Sue Ellen's kids.
There are six kids, and Rhett's teaching them
all how to ride ponies, and Scarlett's kind of
like, what is going on? And Rhett's like, remember
how much Bonnie loved her pony? She would have
wanted us to remember that. So, yeah, he's apparently
not traumatized at all by what happened. We wouldn't
know, though, because we didn't get his point
of view on that. But things get a little better
at Terra. Rhett's able to pay off all the debts.
All of their field hands that they lost come
back because there's this whole thing about how
they all left. And then they believe that the
Watlings have left for good. So they want to
celebrate. And Rhett's like, I want to throw
a barbecue. So they throw a 4th of July barbecue.
And everyone keeps pointing out that it's a really
weird date to throw a barbecue because it's around
the Battle of Gettysburg. But nobody really cares
that much. Belle is invited to the barbecue and
no one questions it. She's just kind of an accepted
member of their crew at this point. And there's
even one point Scarlett kisses Belle on the cheek
when she leaves. I mean, she's totally cool with
her now. Rhett and Scarlett have basically reconciled
without really saying the words. And Rosemary
and Ashley are also an item now. They're dating
each other, it seems. So it seems like a happy
ending. But then wait, chapter 59, Tara burns
to the ground. Scarlet tries to save Tara. She
tries to put out the fire, but Rhett pulls her
back and he's like, by God, I won't lose you,
not ever again. And it turns out Isaiah Watling
set fire to Tara in the middle of the night.
And so yeah, Tara's just gone and Scarlet is
kind of mad. She's like, oh, we should have at
least tried, but. Yeah, she doesn't stress about
it that much. So then Isaiah Watling actually
shows up, thank God, and he tries to shoot Rhett,
but just before he does, Belle's like, no! And
she jumps in front of Rhett, and then Isaiah
Watling, her father, shoots her, and she dies.
Chapter 60 is the last chapter. It's Belle's
funeral, and it's stated that it is nine years
after the war, in case anyone cares. During Belle's
funeral, Rhett and Ashley hold hands during the
burial part. I don't know, I just thought that
was a funny detail. And then Rhett and Scarlett
go to stay at Aunt Pitty's house for, I guess,
the rest of their days, and they officially reconcile.
Scarlett's really not as upset about Tara burning
down as she might be. She kind of thinks to herself,
oh, maybe we can rebuild it or maybe we'll build
another house here. I don't really know. And
then it ends with, you know, Scarlett and Rhett
being happy together and officially making up.
And then it says, which wasn't nearly the end.
Yay, happy ending. They got back together. Okay,
so this book, in my opinion, is a complete train
wreck. It's not as advertised whatsoever. It
continued off of Gone with the Wind, Margaret
Mitchell's story, but without following the Scarlet
sequel. So it's basically completely diverged
from canon. It forgot several key events in the
novel and even in the movie. um and it has several
plot holes several inconsistencies misspellings
of people's names that bothered me and it wasn't
well written either it had this very sterile
unemotional writing nondescript nothing really
that much about Rhett's emotions everything was
more so implied but it didn't go in depth with
um how he feels. So to contrast this with another
book, forgive me for this if you haven't read
it, but Midnight Sun by Stephanie Meyer is Twilight
from Edward Cullen's point of view. So if you've
ever read that, basically what happens in that
is she rewrote Twilight, but we get Edward's
thoughts on every single sentence that is written
or uttered. So this book is like the complete
opposite of that. We don't really get Rhett's
thoughts on most things. Most of the book is
just spent on Donald McCake fleshing out Rosemary
Butler and Belle Watling and their families.
And then we also get Scarlett's point of view
a lot, but rewritten. And I didn't really see
the point of that at all. I don't get why he
didn't feel the need to write from Rhett's point
of view. It seemed like all he wanted to do was
write about the Civil War at certain points,
which maybe makes sense for him. But he didn't
seem like he did the job that was asked of him
whatsoever. And I find it kind of odd that this
book seems to have fooled some people. Now, if
you go on Goodreads, the reviews are pretty bad
for the most part, but I see... people in a lot
of different circles recommend this book and
say that it's good. And I don't really understand
where they're coming from because having just
gone through all 60 chapters, I really couldn't
find any redeeming qualities. Even the chapters
that were somewhat interesting, like the ones
I just talked about in part three, the more action
-packed chapters. don't really seem like the
characters from Gone with the Wind at all. It's
just this random series of events made up for
drama. There are no themes. There are no messages.
If there are any, they're just these loose, cheap
imitations of stuff Margaret Mitchell wrote.
So it's really just a shame. Rhett's point of
view is very interesting because he's supposed
to be very enigmatic, very mysterious. And for
some reason, Donald McCaig just wanted to keep
him that way. He didn't really want to expand
on him anymore. He didn't want to give us access
to his innermost thoughts, maybe because he just
didn't actually care about him. Even when he
does write about his emotions, he's more of an
everyman. He isn't interesting at all. I really,
really, really didn't like this book. I think
it is actually one of the worst books I've ever
read, especially if you are reading it as a companion
to Gone with the Wind. I think that if you read
this book on its own, say you'd never read Gone
with the Wind and never seen the movie, I think
you might be kind of confused, but I think mostly
you would just be... bored because like I said
the writing is very nondescript and unemotional
and you can't get yourself to care about the
characters whatsoever you don't really get why
Rhett falls in love with Scarlet because it isn't
really described you don't really get why Scarlet
cares about Rhett either because Rhett's just
this average guy and Really, the whole writing
about the Civil War stuff isn't that interesting
to me either. I don't know if it would be for
someone who was interested in the Civil War.
But overall, I just find this book so, for the
most part, boring. And when it's not boring,
it's infuriating. So I really don't understand
how anybody could like it. I think that in some
places, maybe the writing is a little better
than... Scarlet by Alexandra Ripley. I always
have to specify that I'm talking about that book
because she named it Scarlet, which is so annoying.
But even then, the writing isn't exactly good.
So I don't really know what people see in this,
I guess, is my final thesis on this. I find it
absolutely just a ridiculous book, completely
different from canon. forget several key events,
and it really is not Rhett's point of view on
anything. If we do get his point of view, it's
usually very short, very abridged, and doesn't
really tell us all that much. So if you were
thinking of reading this book, I do not recommend
doing it. There's really no point at all. You'll
probably just make yourself angry. I would really
only recommend it if you want to laugh, because
the end... The last third of it was actually
pretty funny at certain points. So yeah, I guess
I'll just end this here. I don't have much more
to say. This book really had no redeeming qualities
that I can think of. And I have seen some people
say they prefer it to Scarlet. So if you think
that, just let me know. But I will see you guys
next time. And I hope you somewhat enjoyed this,
even if you disagree with me. Bye!