This magnificent classic portrays as never before or since the soul of a people mortally divided, living through the events of a cataclysmic era, the American Civil War. But although the war and its aftermath provide the sombre and epic backdrop, the story concerns the lives and loves of many unforgettable characters who are so real we feel we know them - Melanie, Ashley, Mammy, and above all, Scarlett and Rhett, whose tempestuous love affair is the greatest and most poignant in all fiction. With then we live through all the turbulence and splendour of an era that has captured the hearts of readers for over half a century.