Scarlett: The Sequel to Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind - Alexandra Ripley

Written by Alexandra Ripley
Read by Linda Stephens
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 64 Kbps
Unabridged

Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
Release date: April 19, 2018
Duration: 36:47:47

The timeless tale continues… The most popular and beloved American historical novel ever written, Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With the Wind is unparalleled in its portrayal of men and women at once larger than life but as real as ourselves. Now bestselling writer Alexandra Ripley brings us back to Tara and reintroduces us to the characters we remember so well: Rhett, Ashley, Mammy, Suellen, Aunt Pittypat, and, of course, Scarlett.

As the classic story, first told over half a century ago, moves forward, the greatest love affair in all fiction is reignited; amidst heartbreak and joy, the endless, consuming passion between Scarlett O’Hara and Rhett Butler reaches its startling culmination.

I had trouble finding a review that summerized the plot. The book is broken into 4 parts: Atlanta, Charleston, Savanna, Ireland.

Reader’s summary…”The story begins with Melanie’s funeral where SCARLETT makes a spectacle of herself comforting Ashley…..”the cause of her life’s destruction”…..that exacerbates her isolation and ostracism from Atlanta society.

So…..a downhearted SCARLETT returns to her beloved Tara for comfort, but all is not well there either with an aged Mammy and Suellen as hateful as ever.

With constant thoughts of how to win back her only true love, the story takes us to a still occupied Charleston where Rhett makes a lucrative offer to be rid of her forever, but a frightening experience gives her hope once again.

With a visit to Savannah, SCARLETT spends time with her Robillard and O’Hara relatives that lead her on quite an adventure across the ocean to a beautifully atmospheric Ireland. With fairies and Irish superstitions from days of old, shocking news of a Fenian Brotherhood, and the horror of All Hallows Eve, a self-absorbed, (and still gorgeous) but ambitious SCARLETT struggles to find a new life with dreams of what could have been with Rhett at her side.”

Another reader… “Although nowhere near the same standard as ‘Gone With the Wind’, ‘Scarlett’ wasn’t as terrible as I initially expected it to be. Ripley does well in imitating the written style of Mitchell’s original novel, but fails to achieve the same epic status, perhaps due to the lacking historical narrative in the story, which GWTW had in it’s Civil War setting. She did try to incorporate the political struggle in Ireland in the late 1800s into the story, but too little and too late. This novel is no more than a well-written romance novel.”

Most opinions were, don’t waste your time.