An era, a lifetime. Review on Scarlett - Alexandra Ripley

It?s dark, well past midnight. I?m climbing downstairs, bare-footed. Looking for my bedtime companion, the book that I?m reading. Hmm?where did I leave it last ? There it is. Scarlett, the story of the beautiful heroine of Margaret Mitchell?s?Gone with the wind?.

The last well-known book told the story of her life ? her love, her hate, her gaiety, her passion for life. Scarlett, the eternal child-woman. She with her unending courage and her unbending strength ? has life really bettered her? I do not like to see someone with Scarlett?s guts down and out. She is a fighter, a survivor ? it seems rather mean for her to be beaten. She has nobility in her.

And, The love between Scarlett and Rhett is a strong, wild, untamed thing. It can not die such an unnatural death. There has to be a happily ever after (yes, I?m a closet romantic). So, the unfinished story has been told by Alexandra Ripley.

In this book, life comes full circle for Scarlett. She has lost her youngest child, Bonnie. She has lost Rhett ? and then Melanie- Tara and Mammy. But her spirit is unbreakable. She rises above her child-like infatuation with Ashley and matures into a woman with passion and understanding. She is different now. No less manipulative but even more scheming and diabolical. Does she get what she wants? Undoubtedly! ? and this time it is Rhett Butler.

In Charleston, for the first time, she comes up with the mother he so adores. Eleanor Butler is so like Ellen, her own mother that Scarlett learns to genuinely love her ? a first. She also comes to know other members of the Butler family ? Rhett?s unhappy brother Ross, his helpless wife Margaret and his sister, gauche Rosemary. All these and Charleston?s fine society form but a backdrop to her magnificent obsession with Rhett.

As she follows, finds and loses him in settings ranging from his ruined ancestral home, streets of Yankee occupied Charleston and magnificent ballrooms, you come to understand her fears, her obsessions and her unique sense of morals. Will she find her real love this time? Not if Rhett can help it. He is determined to avoid her, hate her till a sailing accident lands them in each other?s arms. But nothing has changed for him, he leaves Charleston the very next day.

From Charleston, the story moves to the Savannah, where Scarlett finds the overbearing grandfather her mother had fled from and the warm Irish family her father had descended from. She agrees to visit Ireland with her cousin Colum, a priest. Here she learns of her rich heritage and the sad plight of the irish under British rule. When Scarlett realizes that she is pregnant, she is overjoyed ? for her it means having Rhett back, whom she has come to love. In the meantime, Rhett has managed to divorce her and marry another woman.

Will Scarlett?s heart break under this blow ? ? No, she can no longer go back to her home but she buys the land of her ancestors and transforms a deserted lands and fields into a booming farm town. With sheer grit and determination, she becomes the O?Hara of Ballyhara. Scarlett?s fourth child, Cat enters her life and for the first time she feels the love a mother has for her child.

Proud as Scarlett is, she refuses to tell Rhett about his baby. She brings her up alone as a self-proclaimed widow. When the time comes, she sets out to conquer London?s high society with all her usual spirit and obstinacy.

This time though, she is no longer a coquettish child, but a mature attractive woman, her own person. She takes the world by storm yet misses Rhett in her heart. Here, we are also introduced to the joy of Scarlett?s heart, feisty, dark-skinned Cat O?Hara with the green eyes. The superstitious Irish villagers worship Scarlett but whisper behind her back about Cat whom they consider a changeling and sorceress. Amidst the rising unrest and a severe drought, suspicion for three-year old Cat grows. As does resentment for her mother, who is consorting with the hated English.

This is compounded by Scarlett?s decision to marry the hated and evil count Luke Fenton. All the preparations for the marriage are finalized in the midst of rising violence against the British landlords. The day the announcement of the wedding appears in the newspaper is the day that Scarlett chooses to go the races in Dublin. She meets up with Rhett again and is told that he is now widowed.

She rushes back to meet him at Ballyhara only to find her folks rising up in arms and crying for the blood of Scarlett and her daughter. Rhett appears in time to save her and his daughter. They escape the violent mob and finally profess their love for each other. Reading Scarlett was an involving, enriching experience as you watch her transformation from a superficial belle to a woman of beauty and substance.

What is yet finer is the society?s treatment of her ? the battle she fights with herself and other people?s judgements to retain her own unique personality. The changing backdrops of Atlanta?s nouveau rich, Charleston?s ancient civilization, Irish peasantry and England?s royalty form a rich background for this book, a true masterpiece. Recommended reading, re-reading, owning and valuing it.