Vom Wind verweht

Gone With the Wind is a classic of American literature, an adventurous love story, but above all, it is the great epic of the American Civil War, a counterpart to War and Peace, which Andreas Nohl and Liat Himmelheber have translated completely into German for the first time. Everyone knows the tragic love story of Scarlett O'Hara and Rhett Butler, often only from the film featuring Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable. The film is considered one of the most successful in cinematic history, but the book, published in 1936, was also an immediate bestseller and was translated into German as early as 1937: no story has shaped our image of the Southern states, the American Civil War, and the Reconstruction era as much as Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind. This new translation, the first since 1937 – and the first unabridged translation in German – follows the straightforward, journalistic style of Margaret Mitchell, allowing us to read almost a different novel. Of course, it is still the grand epic of the American Civil War, the tragic love story, and the tale of a young woman taking control of her life. However, the new translation by Andreas Nohl and Liat Himmelheber avoids the romanticizing style, the racist stereotypes, and the somewhat kitschy tone of the 1937 translation, presenting a novel that is more modern and ambivalent than the idealized image we previously had. This new translation not only offers a much greater reading pleasure, but it also finally gives us the opportunity to read Gone With the Wind properly: as the epic American novel that describes the conflicts and fractures that continue to shape the USA today.