Margaret mitchell biography. Margaret Mitchell: biography and interesting facts Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

“No ma'am, I can't tell you if Miss Scarlett will get the captain back or not. No, ma'am, Miss Margaret doesn't know either. Yes, ma'am, I have heard a hundred times how she says that she has no idea what happened to Miss Scarlett when she went home to Tara ... ”- Housekeeper Margaret Mitchell says patiently into the phone for the hundredth time. The calls are not limited to: curious admirers besiege the threshold of the writer's house, fill her up with letters, and do not give a pass on the street. Mitchell writes in one of his letters: "I dream of living until the moment when they stop selling my book," and does not flirt.

Charming emancipation

Margaret (Peggy) Mitchell was born on November 8, 1900 in Atlanta, the son of a successful lawyer. In the childhood of her writing career, nothing foreshadowed: she didn’t like reading too much. “Mom paid me five cents for every Shakespeare play she read, a dime for Dickens's novels, and for Nietzsche, Kant and Darwin's books I got 15 cents ... But even when the tariff rose to 25 cents, I could not read either Tolstoy or Hardy nor Thackeray, "she later admits. However, already in adolescence, the girl began to write stories, and in 1922 she shocked her surroundings by getting a job as a reporter for the Atlanta Journal newspaper: this occupation at that time was considered purely male. The editor was rather reluctant to hire a pampered, as it seemed to him, girl, but it turned out that she was able to write on any topic from fashion to history and politics and to interview Rudolph Valentino and other celebrities.

Although Mitchell will resent all her life attempts to draw parallels between her and Scarlett O'Hara, one analogy is inevitable: in her ability to shock the public, Peggy, perhaps, could give her heroine a head start. In conservative Atlanta, to which the liberties of the "jazz era" have not yet sunk, she could perform an apache dance at a formal debutante ball, take pictures in men's clothes, and change fans so often that at some point she found herself engaged to five men at once. Beautiful, red-haired, she was, by her own definition, "one of those tough women with short hair and short skirts, about whom the priests say that by the age of 30 they will go either to the gallows or to hell."

Mitchell could perform the Apache dance at a formal debutante ball, take pictures in men's clothes, and changed fans so often that at some point she found herself engaged to five men at once.

By 1922, gossip columns reported that Peggy had received more marriage proposals than any other girl in Atlanta. Alas, she chose the wrong one. The husband, a charming bootlegger with defiant manners, was prone to drunkenness and aggression, and in addition got confused with the maids. So just ten months later, Mitchell filed for divorce - another unheard of scandal for the conservative Atlanta.

The second marriage, concluded three years later, turned out to be much stronger. With insurance agent John Marsh, who was best man at her last wedding, Margaret lived until the end of her life - perhaps because he was the complete opposite of her first spouse. By marrying him, Margaret radically changed her lifestyle: she quit her job, fell in love with seclusion and, as it seemed to the family with a sigh of relief, she finally began to lead the life of a normal American housewife.

"How are they going to sell anything?"

In fact, the next seven years - from 1926 to 1933 - were spent on the creation of the novel. And to constant self-criticism: what she wrote seemed to her to be pathetic amateur experiences, which it is embarrassing to show even to her husband (he, however, did not share her skepticism and supported her as best he could).

Margaret Mitchell (center). Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS / FOTOLINK / East News

The novel, already completed, lay in her desk for two years before she risked giving the manuscript to a Macmillan literary agent. I gave it - and immediately in a panic sent a telegram with a request to return it back; luckily the agent has already started reading. “I can't understand how they are going to sell at least something,” she wondered in a conversation with her husband when the publishing house offered her a contract. “Don't worry: you and I have so many relatives that we will sell at least 5,000 copies in Georgia alone,” he replied.

The title of the novel and the name of the main character appeared before the very publication. Scarlett's name was Pansy at the time of writing, and the novel was titled Tomorrow is a New Day. The publishers did not like the title, and the writer offered 24 options in return: "Gone with the Wind" went under No. 17, but with a note that Mitchell herself liked him the most.

The publishers did not like the title "Tomorrow will be a new day", and the writer offered 24 options instead: "Gone with the Wind" went under No. 17.

Another request from the publishers related to the ending of the novel: reviewers seriously persuaded Mitchell to change the final chapter so as not to upset sensitive readers with a sad denouement. But Margaret, who began writing the book from the end and built the whole storyline on this, did not give up: "I will change whatever you want, just not the end." And she turned out to be right: the open ending of the novel will be discussed for the next 80 years.

Copper pipes

The success of "Gone with the Wind" at home is not even comparable: in the first three weeks - 176 thousand copies sold, in the first year - 1.2 million copies, Pulitzer Prize, compliments from HG Wells, not to mention endless commercial offers.

But Mitchell's fallen success is more annoying than happy. She hates forced publicity, cannot stand speeches and autograph sessions, and most of all - crazy visitors who besiege the house from morning to evening. So when it comes to filming a film, she gives permission on the condition: “I don’t want to take on the work of a screenwriter, I don’t want to be a consultant on the set. I want the exact opposite: that no one under any pretext bothers me and my family. I don’t care about the selection of actors, shooting, promotion of the picture. Give me silence. Forget about me. "

Margaret Mitchell, 1937 Photo: AP Photo / East News

I don’t want to take on the work of a screenwriter, I don’t want to be a consultant on the set. I don't care about the selection of actors, shooting, promotion of the picture. Give me silence. Forget about me.

Nevertheless, rumors immediately appear in the newspapers that it is Mitchell who selects the entire cast, and young talents are added to the exalted admirers of the novel, demanding to arrange them in films. “You will laugh, but several ladies have already sent me pictures of their little daughters doing the splits elegantly. The ladies admit that they have never read Gone with the Wind, but they ask to use their daughters in the main role of the film version of the novel. People slip their butchers and cooks so that I can give them a ticket to Hollywood - to play Mammy and Uncle Peter. If I ever get some rest, I might laugh about it, but not now. ”

The offended public takes this reaction for posture and arrogance. Revenge for refusing to flaunt their life are fantastic rumors that spread at the speed of a virus. And if some of them turn out to be unremarkable delusions (she has a wooden leg, and she was writing a novel in bed in a plaster corset; she was saved from blindness by a surgeon who operated on the Siamese king), others deeply hurt the writer. They relate to the authorship of Gone With the Wind.

Probably, suspicion of plagiarism is the fate of all authors of one book. In the case of Mitchell, there are three main "versions": according to the first, she copied the novel from her grandmother's diary, the second attributes the authorship to her husband, and the third to the recent Nobel laureate Sinclair Lewis, whom Margaret allegedly paid to write the novel. Rumors that do not stand up to serious criticism will not stop even after the death of the writer (in August 1949 she will be hit by a drunk driver when she and her husband go to the cinema): the will, according to which almost all of her archives will be burned, will only provoke gossips.

Meanwhile, other, much more real facts from the biography of Mitchell remain without public attention. So, almost no one will know that during World War II, Margaret not only volunteered for the Red Cross and made large donations to the American army, but also personally wrote dozens of letters to the soldiers with words of support.

Scarlett's Amazing Adventures in Russia

Mitchell flatly refused to write a sequel to the book and forbade others to do it. However, after the death of the writer and her husband, there was no one to stop the greedy publishers, and the continuation of the authorship of Alexandra Ripley was published, where Scarlett suddenly finds herself in the center of the struggle for Irish independence.

Even more interesting is the life of Scarlett and her friends in the post-Soviet space. Soviet readers read "Gone with the Wind" rather late (the first edition came out only in 1986) and longed for new stories about their favorite heroes, and nothing was impossible for the era of "wild capitalism" that followed. Therefore, in the 90s, book shelves were flooded with an unthinkable number of sequels, prequels and other books "based on", which in Scarlett's homeland (as well as anywhere else, except the former USSR), no one heard of. The earliest chronologically spanned the life of the ancestors of Scarlett and Rhett to the fifth generation; in the latest heroes it was already well over a hundred, but they continued to sort things out just as dramatically.

The author of the great novel "Gone with the Wind" Margaret Mitchell lived not too long and very difficult life. The only literary work she created brought the writer world fame and wealth, but took away too much mental strength.

The film Gone With the Wind, based on the novel by American writer Margaret Mitchell, was released in 1939 - just three years after the book was published. The premiere was attended by Hollywood stars Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable, who played the main characters - Scarlett O "Hara and Rhett Butler. At a distance from the movie beauties stood a modest thin woman in a hat. The violent crowd hardly noticed her. But it was Margaret Mitchell herself - the author of a book that became a classic of American literature during her lifetime, and she basked in the glory of her work from 1936 to 1949 - until the very day of her death.

Sportswoman and flirt

Margaret Mitchell was almost the same age as the 20th century. She was born in the very Atlanta (Georgia), which became the scene of her immortal novel. The girl was born into a prosperous and wealthy family. Her father was a lawyer. The mother, although officially registered as a housewife, joined the movement of suffragettes - women who fought for their suffrage rights. In general, the green-eyed Scarlett O "Haru was largely written off by the author. Mitchell was half Irish and southern to the core. But one should not think that the writer was a kind of old maid in pince-nez and with a feather in her hand.

Gone With the Wind begins with the phrase, "Scarlett O Hara was not beautiful." But Margaret Mitchell was beautiful. Although, apparently, she did not consider herself particularly attractive, since she began an affair with such a phrase. But she was clearly being shy. Her dark hair, almond-shaped green eyes and slender figure attracted men like a magnet. But contemporaries remembered Margaret not as a windy beauty, but primarily as a wonderful storyteller and an amazing listener to other people's memories. Both of Mitchell's grandfathers participated in the North-South Civil War, and the future writer was ready to listen for hours to stories about their exploits at that time.

This is how one of her friends later recalled Mitchell: “It is difficult to describe Peggy (Margaret's childhood nickname. - Author's note) with a pen, to convey her cheerfulness, her interest in people and a thorough knowledge of their nature, the breadth of her interests and reading circle, her devotion to friends, as well as the liveliness and charm of her speech. Many southerners are natural storytellers, but Peggy told her stories in such a funny and skillful way that people in a crowded room could freeze and listen to her all evening. "

Margaret combined a passion for coquetry and sports entertainment, outstanding ability to study and an interest in knowledge, a thirst for independence and ... the desire to create a good, but quite patriarchal family. Mitchell was not a romantic. Contemporaries considered her practical and even stingy. About how methodically she - cent by cent - knocked out royalties from publishers, later there were legends ...

Even at school, the daughter of a lawyer wrote simple plays in a romantic style for the student theater ... After graduating from secondary education, Mitchell studied for a year at the prestigious Massachusetts College. There she was literally hypnotized by the ideas of the founder of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud. It is possible that the American would have become one of his students and followers, if not for the tragic event: in 1919, during a Spanish flu pandemic, her mother died. And shortly before that, Henry, Margaret's fiancé, had died in Europe.

Desperate Reporter

Mitchell returned to Atlanta to take control of the house. The girl was too young and energetic to sink into despondency. She did not bustle about looking for a new party for herself - here the suffragist "part" of her nature made itself felt. Instead, she chose her own business as a reporter for the Atlanta Journal. Margaret's light and sharp pen quickly made her one of the leading journalists of the publication. The patriarchal southern society found it difficult to "digest" a woman journalist. The editor of the publication at first directly told the ambitious girl: "How a lady from a good family can afford to write about the inhabitants of the city bottom and talk with different ragamuffins?" Mitchell was surprised by this question: she could never understand why women are worse than men. Perhaps that is why her heroine Scarlett was one of those people about whom they say in Russia in the words of the poet Nekrasov: "He will stop a galloping horse, and will enter a burning hut." The reports from the pen of the journalist came out clear, clear, leaving no questions for the reader ...

Residents of Atlanta recalled: her return to her hometown made a splash among the male population. According to rumors, the educated and elegant beauty received almost four dozen marriage proposals from the gentlemen! But, as often happens in such situations, the chosen one was far from the best. Miss Mitchell could not resist the charm of Berrien "Reda" Upshaw - a tall, gallant handsome man. The groom's witness at the wedding was a modest, educated young man, John Marsh.

Margaret saw family life as a series of entertainment: parties, receptions, horseback riding. Both spouses loved equestrian sports from childhood. The writer also endowed Scarlett with this trait ...

Red became the prototype of Rhett - their names are consonant. But, unfortunately, only in external manifestations. The husband turned out to be a man of a cruel, violent disposition. Just a little - he grabbed the pistol. The unhappy wife felt the weight of his fists on her. Margaret showed here too: she was not a bastard. Now there was a pistol in her purse too. The couple soon divorced. All the city gossips watched the humiliating divorce procedure with bated breath. But even through such a test, Mitchell went through with her head held high.
Margaret did not stay long with Mrs Upshaw. And then - and was not divorced for a year!

In 1925, she married the humble and devoted John Marsh. Finally, quiet happiness settled in her house!

Book for husband

The newly-minted Mrs. Marsh quit her job at the magazine. Why? Some say: due to an injury sustained when falling from a horse. Others say: Margaret decided to devote time to her family. In any case, she once said: “A married woman should be, first of all, a wife. I am Mrs. John R. Marsh. " Of course, Mrs. Marsh was grudging. She was not going to limit her life to the world of the kitchen. Margaret was clearly tired of reporting and decided to devote herself to literature.

She only introduced her husband to the first chapters of Gone with the Wind. It was he who, from the first days, became her best friend, critic and advisor. The novel was ready by the end of the 1920s, but Margaret was afraid to publish it. File folders were gathering dust in the closet of Marsha's new big house. Their housing became the center of the town's intellectual life - something like a literary salon. One of the editors of the Macmillan publishing house once looked into the light.

For a long time Margaret could not make up her mind. But she gave the manuscript to the editor. After reading, he immediately realized that he was holding the future bestseller in his hands. It took six months to finalize the novel. The final name of the heroine - Scarlett - was invented by the author right in the editorial office. The name Mitchell took from a poem by the poet Dawson.

The publisher was right: the book instantly became a bestseller. And the author in 1937 became a laureate of the prestigious Pulitzer Prize. To date, the total circulation of her book in the United States alone has reached almost thirty million copies.

But neither fame nor money brought happiness to the writer. The peace of the house, which she and her husband had so protected, was disrupted. Margaret herself tried to control cash receipts to her own budget. But financial affairs only brought fatigue. There was no more strength for creativity.

And then the faithful John fell ill. Mitchell has become a caring nurse. And it turned out to be difficult, because her health began to deteriorate rapidly. By the late 1940s, the couple's health began to improve. They even allowed themselves small "cultural" outings. But the returned happiness was short-lived. In August 1949, a car driven by a drunk driver hit Margaret, who was walking with her husband to the cinema. Five days later, the author of Gone With the Wind passed away.

Margaret Mitchell is a writer whose novel Gone With the Wind brought worldwide fame. The book was first published in 1936. It has been translated into various languages ​​and reprinted over 100 times. The work was often called “the book of the century”, as the novel surpassed other best-selling works in popularity even in 2014.

Childhood and youth

Margaret Mitchell was born on November 8, 1900 in Atlanta, Georgia, to a wealthy and prosperous family. She was Scorpio by her zodiac sign and Irish by nationality. Mitchell's paternal ancestors moved to the United States from Ireland, and maternal relatives moved to a new place of residence from France. Both those and others stood for the southerners during the Civil War of 1861-1865.

The girl had an older brother named Stephen (Stephen). My father worked as a lawyer and was involved in litigation related to real estate objects. Eugene Mitchell made the family an entrance into high society. He had an excellent education, was the chairman of the city's historical society and dreamed of becoming a writer in his youth. He raised his children in respect for their ancestors and the past, often talking about the events of the Civil War.

The mother's efforts cannot be underestimated either. Educated and purposeful, she was known as an extraordinary lady, ahead of the era. Maria Isabella was one of the founders of the campaign for women's suffrage and was a member of the Catholic Association. The woman instilled good taste in her daughter and instructed her on the right path. Margaret liked cinema, adventure novels, horseback riding and climbing trees. Although the girl behaved excellently in society and danced well.

Margaret Mitchell in her youth

During her school years, Mitchell wrote plays for the student theater club. Then, while a student at the Washington Seminary, she attended the Philharmonic in Atlanta. There she became the founder and director of a drama club. In addition to theatrical business, Margaret was interested in journalism. She was the editor of the school yearbook, Facts and Fantasy, and served as president of the Washington Literary Society.

At 18, Margaret Mitchell met Henry Clifford, a 22-year-old New Yorker. The acquaintance took place at a dance and gave hope for the development of relations, but Henry was forced to go to the front to participate in the battles of the First World War in France. Margaret attended Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. In this educational institution, she studied psychology and philosophy.

In 1918, Margaret learned about the death of the groom. Her sadness doubled when the news came that her mother had died from a flu epidemic. The girl returned to Atlanta to help her father, became the owner of the estate and plunged into its management. There is a story in Mitchell's biography. Margaret was a cocky, brave and intelligent woman. In 1922 she became a reporter for the Atlanta Journal, for which she wrote essays.

Books

Gone With the Wind is the novel that brought fame to Margaret Mitchell. In 1926, the writer broke her ankle and stopped working with the magazine for which she worked. She was inspired to write an independent work, although she wrote it in a non-linear way. As a southerner, Margaret created a novel about the events of the Civil War, evaluating them from her own, subjective point of view.

But Mitchell was attentive to historical facts and based her descriptions on a variety of sources. She even interviewed former combatants. Subsequently, the author said that the characters in the novel have no real prototypes. But, knowing the peculiarities of the views of suffragettes, understanding the mores and peculiarities of the Great Depression, the popularization of psychoanalysis, Mitchell gave the main character unusual qualities and characteristics. The symbol of America has become a woman of not the most kind morals.

Margaret went through each chapter carefully. According to legend, the first had 60 variations and drafts. An interesting fact: initially the author named the main character Pansy and just before giving the manuscript to the publisher, she changed her mind, changing the name to Scarlett.

The book was published by Macmillan in 1936. A year later, Margaret Mitchell won the Pulitzer Prize. From the first days, the sales statistics of the novel were off the charts. In the first 6 months the circulation was over 1 million. Today the book is sold at 250 thousand copies a year. The work has been translated into 27 languages ​​and has been reprinted more than 70 times in the USA alone.

The film rights were sold for $ 50 thousand, and this amount was a record. In 1939, a film by Victor Fleming based on the novel by Mitchell was released. He received 8 Oscar statuettes. He played the role, and Scarlett played.

The actress for the main role was searched for for 2 years and was approved only by the performer who reminded the director of the young Margaret. Scarlett's popularity increased after the premiere of the tape. Ladies' outfits in the style of the heroine appeared on store shelves.

Margaret Mitchell flatly refused to create a sequel to the novel. Moreover, she bequeathed to destroy some of her works after her death, so it is impossible to compile a complete bibliography of the writer today. If a continuation of Scarlett's story existed, the reader will not know about it. Other works under the name of the author were not published.

Personal life

Margaret Mitchell has been married twice. Her first husband was an illegal alcohol supplier, violent man Berrienne Kinnard Upshaw. The beatings and bullying of her husband made the girl understand that she had made the wrong choice.

In 1925, Mitchell divorced him and married John Marsh, an insurance agent. It is curious that the young people had known each other since 1921 and were planning an engagement. Their relatives already knew each other, and the wedding day was determined. But Margaret's rash act almost ruined her personal life.

The wedding of Margaret Mitchell and her first husband, Berrien Upshaw. Left - future husband John Marsh

John insisted that Margaret leave her job as a reporter, and the family settled on Peach Street. There, the former journalist began to write a book. The husband showed miracles of loyalty and patience. He forgot about his jealousy and completely shared the interests of his wife. Marsh persuaded Margaret to take up the pen not for the public, but for her own satisfaction, because after becoming a housewife, Mitchell often experienced depression due to the lack of an important occupation.

A simple reading of her inquiring mind was not enough. In 1926, Mitchell received a typewriter from her husband. John supported his wife in everything. Returning from work, he read the material written by her, helped to think through the plot twists and turns and collisions, made edits and looked for primary sources to describe the era.

The publication of the novel brought the author world fame, but the fame that fell on Mitchell became a heavy burden. She did not want increased attention and did not even go to the premiere of a movie based on her book. Margaret was invited to lecture at universities, photos of her appeared everywhere, and journalists pestered with requests for interviews.

John Marsh assumed responsibility during this period. The writer's husband maintained correspondence with publishers and controlled financial matters. He devoted himself to the self-realization of his wife. The wife appreciated the feat, so the novel "Gone with the Wind" was dedicated to the beloved man Margaret Mitchell.

Death

Margaret died on August 16, 1949. The cause of death was a traffic accident. She was hit by a car driven by a drunk driver. As a result of the accident, the writer never regained consciousness. The woman was buried in Atlanta, in the Oakland cemetery. Spouse Margaret Mitchell lived after her death for 3 years.

In memory of the writer, there are several quotes left, the film "Burning Passion: The Story of Margaret Mitchell", which describes a woman's biography, photos, interviews and an immortal novel.

In 1991, Alexandra Ripley published a book called "Scarlett", which became a kind of continuation of "Gone with the Wind." The presentation of the novel sparked a new wave of interest in the work of Margaret Mitchell.

Quotes

"I will not think about it today, I will think about it tomorrow."

"When a woman cannot cry, it's scary."

"The hardships either cut people or break them"

the world immediately surrounding a person, adjacent to him.

3. Pigareva T. I. Jorge Guillen. Poetics of space and time: dis. ... Cand. philol. sciences. M., 2002.S. 147.

4. Ortega y Gasset X. What is philosophy? URL: http://philosophy.ru/library/ortega/wph.html

5. Salinas P. Poesías completas. Edición a cargo de Solead Salinas de Marichal. Barcelona: Editorial Lumen, 2000. P. 121.

6. Ibid. P. 222.

7. Ibid. P. 217.

10. Ortega y Gasset X. Man and people. URL: http: // www.gumer.info/bogoslov_Buks/Philos/gas_chel/02.php

11. Ibid.

12. Salinas P. Op. cit. P. 65.

13. Ibid. P. 245.

14. Ibid. P. 707.

15. Salinas P. Cartas de viaje. ABC Literario, Madrid. 5 de enero, 1996. P. 19.

16. Salinas P. Poesías completas. P. 713.

17. Ibid. P. 863.

18. Ibid. P. 914.

UDC 821.111 (73)

I. B. Arkhangelskaya

ROMAN M. MITCHELL "GONE WITH THE WIND": CREATION HISTORY AND GENRE SPECIFICATIONS

Based on the analysis of the epistolary heritage of M. Mitchell and the works of American critics devoted to the writer's work, the article examines the history of the creation of the world-famous bestseller "Gone with the Wind" (1936), as well as presents a discussion around the problem of the genre and gives the author's assessment of the genre originality of the novel.

The creation of the worldwide known bestseller Gone with the Wind and the discussion concerning its genre are considered in the article. The analysis is based on studying of M. Mitchell "s epistolary heritage and the works of American critics.

Key words: M. Mitchell, Gone with the Wind, Literature of the American South.

Keywords: M. Mitchell, Gone with the Wind, Literature of the American South.

Despite the worldwide fame of the novel "Gone with the Wind", the work of its author Margaret Mitchell (1900-1949) has been studied fragmentarily in Russian literary criticism. The question of the genre of the novel remains open. Perhaps domestic critics do not consider it necessary to study in detail the work of mass culture.

© Arkhangelskaya I. B., 2012

tours, written in a simple language modeled on the "Victorian" novel.

Some aspects of the work of the American writer were considered in the works of S. N. Burin, L. N. Semenova. Her work has been studied in most detail in the works of E. A. Stetsenko, the dissertation of I.B. Linsky's "Keys to Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind".

Abroad, the main sources in the study of M. Mitchell's creative heritage are her epistolary heritage, as well as monographs by E. Edwards, E. Brown and D. Wiley, F. Farr, A. G. Jones, S. T. Raines.

The novel by M. Mitchell, as you know, was created during the period of the so-called. "Renaissance" literature of the American South. During this period, a poetry club was formed at Vanderbil University in Nashville, Tennessee. Members of this circle: K. Ransom (DC Ransom), D. Davidson (D. Davidson), A. Tate (A. Tate) and others, - published several literary magazines: "Fugitive" (Fugitive, 1922-1925) , "Savanny Review" (Sewanee Review, 1892-?) And others. 30-ies. XX century marked by the work of talented southerner writers: DK Ransom, A. Tate, S. Young, R. P. Warren and the future Nobel laureate W. Faulkner.

When Gone With the Wind was published in 1936, the novel by an unknown housewife from Atlanta M. Mitchell, it seemed that the theme of the civil war of 1861-1865. everything has been said in American literature. However, it was this novel that became the most popular "southern" version of the war of the North and South and took the leading position on the list of American literary bestsellers for many years.

The story of a beautiful southern woman who fights for personal happiness and well-being in the face of the collapse of the world that raised and educated her captured Americans who were going through an economic crisis and depression. In three weeks after the novel was published, 176 thousand copies were sold, six months later a million, and a year later 1 million 176 thousand. In 1937, M. Mitchell won the prestigious Pu-Litzer Prize in Literature for Gone with the Wind, beating W. Faulkner, whose novel Absalom! Absalom! " (Absalom! Absalom!) (1936) was also nominated for this award. In the same year, the famous American film producer David O. Selznick bought the rights to film Mitchell's novel from Macmillan Publishing House, and in 1939 in Atlanta the premiere of the film "Gone with the Wind" took place.

AumepamypoßedeHue

go further worldwide fame. Translated into many foreign languages, the novel financially turned out to be the "book of the century." And nowadays, he brings in large profits for the McMillan Publishing House.

In 1926, starting work on the novel, M. Mitchell did not expect to be successful. She expressed her doubts a few months before the release of Gone with the Wind in a letter to her friend Julia Harris, claiming that written during the heyday of the "jazz age", her novel is "Victorian type", which " does not contain obscenities, adultery, not a single degenerate "- is unlikely to be sold in large circulation. She also warned Harold Lathem, a Macmillan publisher, that her manuscript was unlikely to interest the general public, since it tells "about a woman who is in love with someone else's husband, but nothing happens between them." “Damn it’s only four times and only one dirty word”. However, this did not frighten the seasoned editor and literary agent, who felt that the novel was “doomed” to success.

Like all southerner writers, M. Mitchell was "sick" with a "southern" theme. Since childhood, she has heard stories about the civil war from relatives, neighbors, and acquaintances. The names of the Confederate generals have become sacred to her since childhood.

M. Mitchell was born on November S, 1900 in the home of her widowed grandmother Annie Fitzgerald Stephens. Her house is one of the few that survived the events of the night of November 15, 1S64, when the Unionist army of W. Sherman attacked the city, and then, destroying it in half, set fire to the rest. From her grandmother, Marga-ret learned about the siege of Atlanta, about her grandfather John Stephens, a brave Confederate officer. Probably, these stories later influenced the author of "Gone with the Wind", giving many scenes of the novel a special emotional pathos, a special "atmosphere of presence."

Margaret's father, successful lawyer Eugene Mitchell, her mother Mary Isabelle Stephens Mitchell and older brother Alexander Stephens Mitchell shared the view of most Southerners, believing that it was right, and the Yankees (northerners) were mostly vulgar and dishonest. Margaret was impressed by the annual commemoration of the Confederate war dead in April.

During his time at Atlanta Journal Magazine (1922-1925)

M. Mitchell wrote 139 essays, 45 notes, wrote the column "Elizabeth Bennett Tells", was one of the authors of the column "Advice to the Reader". She considered her best work during her reporting career to be a series of publications about Confederate generals and essays on prominent women in Georgia, which were written from eyewitness accounts based on materials from the Carnegie Library in Atlanta.

The unconventional approach to the image of the "southern lady" in the essays about four women in Georgia has caused protest from the readers of the magazine. Their publication has been suspended. The story of Nancy Hart, a woman who, during the Revolutionary War, alone captured a detachment of British marauders who made their way to her kitchen, aroused particular public attention. The story of the capture of the British, told in the essay, resembles the scene of the murder of a marauder soldier by the heroine of "Gone with the Wind" Scarlett O "Hara.

While working on historical essays for the magazine, Mitchell spent a lot of time in the library, studying periodicals of the 1860s, reports of military operations in Georgia, memoirs of the Confederates, diaries and letters of the South. Later, these materials formed the basis of "Gone with the Wind."

In 1926, having married John Marsh (John Marsh), M. Mitchell left the magazine. As she did the housework, she began sketching for her upcoming novel, writing the last chapter first and working her way up to the first. Work on the novel lasted ten years. In a letter to the writer S. Yang-gu, M. Mitchell admitted that she rewrote each chapter ten, two or eleven times, and then put it off for a month in order to look at what had been written with a fresh eye and once again correct what seemed unsuccessful. “I strove for maximum simplicity,” she wrote to S. Yang, “simplicity of expressing thoughts, simplicity of composition and style”.

Talking about the life of southerner women who remained in the rear during the civil war, M. Mitchell avoided battle scenes, did not analyze the course of hostilities between the South and the North. After reading J. Boyd's novel "Marching on" in 1927, she decided to stop writing. She admired the intellectual strength of D. Boyd, his knowledge of military strategy and tactics, and her own experiments in the literary field seemed to her untenable. However, on the advice of her husband, she soon continued to work on the novel, deciding that she had the right to write about what she understood and knew well - about the life of pre-war Georgia, about the history of Atlanta, about the fate of women in the South.

M. Mitchell was also deeply impressed by the poem by SV Benet, published in 1928, John Brown's Body. everything has already been said about the civil war and there is no point in addressing this topic again. Work on the manuscript was postponed for three months, but then resumed. When in 1934 another novel about the civil war was published in the South - Red Rose ( "So Red the Rose") S. Young, John Marsh did not allow his wife to read it, fearing that this would again make her doubt her own strengths, the correctness of the chosen topic.

In 1936 the novel was completed. The manuscript was already at Macmillan, but it did not have a title. M. Mitchell for a long time did not know what to choose from a variety of options - "The Novel of the Old South", the title proposed by the father of the writer Eugene Mitchell; "Tomorrow is Another Day" ("Tomorrow is another day") - this phrase was the final phrase in the novel; Tomorrow Morning; Tomorrow and Tomorrow; "Not in our Stars" and others. However, neither the author nor the publishers liked any of these titles. And finally, leafing through one of the collections of poetry, M. Mitchell found Horace's poems in a popular American arrangement by Ernest Dowson, one of whose phrases, it seemed to her, could best reflect the content of her book: "I have forgotten much, Cynara "s gone with the wind"

The phrase "gone with the wind" sounded great phonetically. It had assonance ("gone" - "wind") and alliteration in the first letters of the last words ("with" - "wind"). This phrase was well remembered not only for its sound, but also for its imagery. There was a breath of wind in him, the rustle of leaves sliding along the ground, and all these images created a feeling of aching longing for the past that was receding into oblivion, a feeling of bitter and inevitable loss that always accompanies the movement forward in life. Such a romantic title was quite consistent with the literature of the "southern tradition". Similar motives can be found in the titles of many other southern novels - for example, in "None Shall look Back" by K. Gordon, "Remember and Forget" by D. D. Adams, in "Separated by Mountains" by S. H. Davis, "The Scarlet Rose" by S. Young (the title of S. Young's novel is based on a line from the romance of the pre-war years).

The name chosen by M. Mitchell for his novel turned out to be so successful that it

later it became a stable phrase, often used by journalists and critics in different contexts.

Having signed a contract with the McMill-lane publishing house, M. Mitchell feared that the publication of the novel would bring only losses. However, her fears were in vain. For many years, "Gone with the Wind" firmly took a place in the list of bestsellers, and only many years later, M. Puzo's novel "The Godfather" managed to match it in popularity. M. Mitchell took her fame seriously. She responded to almost all the authors who complimented her in their articles about her novel. These letters, as if printed under a carbon copy, testify to the desire of the author of "Gone with the Wind" to create a certain "public image" for himself. In replies to the reviewers, along with words of gratitude for the attention to her novel, Mitchell communicated about herself what, as she thought, readers and critics should know about her family, about the history of the creation of the novel, about her literary tastes. These letters were published in 1976. From these few documents that have survived after the death of the writer, certain conclusions can be drawn about the writer’s penchant for mystification, her sense of humor, and her desire to remain mysterious and incomprehensible to those around her. However, no document can tell more about the author of Gone with the Wind than the novel itself.

The question of the genre of Gone with the Wind has been controversial among critics since its inception. American criticism of the 1930s considered "Gone with the Wind" as a historical novel, studying the author's historical concept, discussing the degree of reliability of the events described in it, and the opinions of the reviewers were as polar as the relationship between the "Confederates" and "Unionists" in 1861. If CB Bene, H. Brickell, E. Granberry, H. S. Commadger, M. Williams, D. D. Adams, S. Young praised Gone with the Wind as one of the best examples of realistic prose, faithfully and accurately reflecting the events of the Civil War of 1861 -1865 and the period of Reconstruction, then D. B. Bishop, M. Cowley, E. Scott considered M. Mitchell's novel a continuation of the plantation legend, distorting the history of the South.

"Southern" critics and writers, with the exception of S. Young, ignored the appearance of "Gone with the Wind". At the same time, in relation to each other, they were very attentive and responded to the appearance of the most insignificant works of their fellow writers.

It is worth remembering the attempts of the French critics J. Derrida and A. Ronella to deduce the laws of the genre. On the one hand, the researchers stated that genres should not be mixed, on the other

AumepamypoSederne

the parties admitted that there are no genres in their purest form. There is no genre purity even in Gone with the Wind. On the surface, it's a historical novel. By the nature of the conflict, which reflected the collision of the North and the South, tradition and anti-tradition, individual human destiny and the historical process, as well as by the role that historical time plays in it, we can conclude that we are dealing with a historical novel.

Mitchell did not feel confident in analyzing the strategy and tactics of military operations, so there are no battle scenes in the novel. The events are conveyed through the perception of the beautiful southerner Scarlett O ^ ara, who is fighting in the rear for survival, desperately trying to arrange her personal life, to restore the family estate. Historical Characters: Generals Robert E. Lee, William T. Sherman, Confederate President Jefferson Davis and Vice President Alexander Stephens - emerge from the characters' conversations and serve as a backdrop for ongoing events.

The fate of the heroine of the novel by Scarlett O ^ ara is closely connected with the history of the region. The serene life of the pre-war South coincides with the happy days of Scarlett's girlhood, and her unexpected and accidental marriage is as scary and ridiculous as the outbreak of war. The heroine's widowhood comes in the tragic days of the war, when many of the southerners lost loved ones, her struggle for survival in post-war Georgia can be an illustration of the events of the Reconstruction period. Historical time in "Gone with the Wind" then flows in parallel, then intersects, then merges with the biographical. The open finale makes you think not only about a specific female destiny, but also about the future of the entire American South.

In terms of the scale of the events covered in the novel, the length of the action and the number of characters, "Gone with the Wind" is close to the epic genre. Probably for this reason such frequent parallels arose with Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace. In some US editions of Gone With the Wind, the subtitle is "the epic novel of our time." Thus, the publishers, as it were, emphasize the monumentality and significance of the work.

According to the plot and type of the heroine, "Gone with the Wind" resembles an adventure novel. The central pair of the novel, Arlette O'ara and Rhett Buttler, do not correspond to the images of the "southern beauty" and "noble gentleman" characteristic of the literature of the American South. & ar-lett and Rhett might be the femme fatale and scoundrel adventurer archetypes.

American critic D. Cavety defined Mitchell's novel as a social melodrama. The novel shows how an entire civilization disappears, the traditions of the plantation South are gradually becoming a thing of the past, and they are being replaced by new orders of the young and unprincipled bourgeoisie. The dramatic story of love, victories and disappointments of an atypical "southern beauty" against the background of a change in the social system, habitual way of life and human values ​​has become a new word in the literature of the South.

In many ways, the novel can be attributed to socio-psychological prose (however, this is typical for all 20th century literature), it is typologically close to Balzac's "career novel", with the dominant motive in it being survival. This is probably the theme that made him so popular in the 1930s, a period of economic crisis and depression in America.

Some critics of the time felt that Gone With the Wind had a lot of "stereotypes" and "platitudes." However, a careful reading of the novel refutes this point of view. A feature of the poetics of the novel is the repetition of clichés familiar to the reader at different levels - the plot, the system of images, style, language, and their simultaneous parody, the denial of many familiar schemes, which is reflected in unexpected plot twists and interpretations of the heroes and their extraordinary characters. In this case, we are dealing with a process that MM Bakhtin called "reaccentuation".

The principle of contradictions, a kind of literary paradox underlying Mitchell's novel, includes a combination and opposition of well-known information, the code of "old known problems" and new "original solutions." The situations that the heroes of "Gone with the Wind" find themselves in have been played up in many literary texts, but in this case they are realized in a key unusual for a "southern" novel. EA Stetsenko rightly noted that "Gone with the Wind" goes beyond the "formulaic literature".

Perhaps genre hybridity, mixing of different traditions, the creation and destruction of habitual stereotypes, and distinguish "Gone with the Wind" from the many "southern" historical novels of the 30s.

M. Mitchell in his novel managed to answer many requests of his time: to create not only his own version of the history of the South, but also to write a women's novel, in the center of which is not the traditional “southern beauty”, but an active heroine, energetically building her life and career. Of course, we have before us a historical novel with elements of the adventurous, and social melodrama, and women's prose at the same time.

E. B. Borisova, L. V. Paloiko. The image of the main character of the novel by D. Du Maurier.

"Gone with the Wind" became the most famous controversy to "Uncle Tom's Cabin" (1852) by G. Bcher Stowe. For many readers, her novel was primarily a fictional history of the war between the North and the South. M. Mitchell actually created a novel no less innovative for its time than the novel by W. Faulkner “Absalom! Absalom! " Her work deserves close attention of Russian researchers.

Notes (edit)

1. Burin SN Time in the novel "Gone with the Wind" by Margaret Mitchell // American Yearbook for 1989 M .: Science. 1990.S. 97-121.

2. Semenova LN South in the literature of the USA // Literature of the USA / ed. L. G. Andreeva. M .: Publishing house of Moscow State University, 1973.S. 162-176; Semenova L. N. The problem of the "southern tradition" in American criticism of the 60s. XX century (Formation and development of the "southern tradition" in the novel of the United States of the XIX-XX centuries.): Dis. ... Cand. philol. sciences. M .: Moscow State University.

3. Stetsenko EA The problem of time in the "southern school" of the modern American novel: dis. ... Cand. philol. sciences. M .: IMLI, 1978; Stetsenko E. A. History in mass literature (M. Mitchell "Gone with the Wind") // Faces of Mass Literature of the USA. M., 1991.S. 206.

4. Arkhangelskaya IB Creativity of Margaret Mitchell and the "southern tradition" in the literature of the United States (30-ies. XX century): dis. ... Cand. philol. sciences. N. Novgorod, NGPI im. M. Gorky, 1993.

5. Galinskaya IL Keys to Margaret Mitchell's novel "Gone with the Wind". Moscow: INION RAN, 1996.

6. Margaret Mitchell "s" Gone with the Wind "Letters 1926-1949 / ed. By R. Harwell N. Y .; L .: Macmillan, 1976.

7. Edwards A. A Road to Tara. The Life of Margaret Mitchell. New Haven, N. Y .: Ticknor and Fields, 1983.

8. Brown E. F, Wiley J. Margaret Mitchell "s Gone With the Wind: A Bestseller" s Odyssey from Atlanta to Hollywood. Lanham, MD: Taylor Trade, 2011. ix.

9. Farr F. Margaret Mitchell of Atlanta - the Author of "Gone with the Wind" ". N. Y., 1974.

10. Jones A. G. Tomorrow is Another Day. The Woman Writer in the South. 1859-1936. Baton Rouge and London, 1982. P. 333-350;

11. Reins S. T. The Making of a Masterpiece. The True Story of Margaret Mitchell's Classic Novel Gone with the Wind. Beverly Hills: Global Book Publishers, 2009.

13. Edwards A. Op. cit. P. 9.

14. Biographical material, including the history of the creation of the novel, is taken from the sources, which in this list of references are presented under numbers from 8 to 13.

17. Brickell H. A Talk with Margaret Mitchell about Her Novel and the Reasons of its Popularity // New York Evening Post. 1936. Aug. 23. P. 13.

19. Commager H. S. The Civil War in Georgia Clay Hills // New York Herald Tribune. 1936. July 5. P. 11.

20. Williams M. Romance of Reality // Commonweal, 1936. No. XXIV. Aug. 28. P. 430.

22. Young S. A Life in the Arts. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1975. Vol. 2.P. 706707, 713-714.

23. Bishop J. B. War and Peace // 1936. LXXXVII. July 15, P. 301.

24. Cowley M. Gone with the Wind // New Republic. 1936. LXXXVIII. Sep. 16.P. 161.

25. Scott E. War between the States // Nation. 1936. CXLIII. July 4.P. 19.

26. Derrida J., Ronell A. The Law of Genre // Critical Inquiry. Vol. 7. No. 1. On Narrative (Autumn, 1980). P. 55-81. URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1343176.

27. See, for example: Mitchell M. Gone with the Wind. N. Y .: Avon Books, 1991.

28. Cawelty S. C. Adventure. Mystery and Romance. Formula Stories and Popular Culture. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1977. P. 35.

29. Bakhtin M. M. Questions of literature and aesthetics. M .: Art. lit., 1975. C. 231.

30. Stetsenko EA History in mass literature. ... P. 206.

E. B. Borisova, L. V. Paloiko

IMAGE OF THE MAIN HEROINE OF ROMAN D. DU MORIER "REBECCA" AS A SUBJECT OF LINGUOPOETICAL STUDY

The article discusses the problem of the philological analysis of the text, examines the modern approach to the linguo-poetic method, highlights its purpose, substantiates its advantages and outlines development prospects. The authors demonstrate the application of this method by analyzing the image of an artistic character, the main parameters of which are introduction, portrait, speech characteristics, actions and the author's attitude based on the novel by D. Du Maurier "Rebecca".

The article deals with the problem of philological analysis of literary texts. The authors focus on modern approach to the linguopoetic method of analysis, its main objective, advantages and perspectives. The paper demonstrates the way it works on the main structural and compositional elements of a literary image (introduction, visual rendering, speech portrayal, actions and the author "s attitude) of the main character in the novel" Rebecca "by D. Du Maurier ...

Key words: linguopoetics, linguopoetic function, literary image, key parameters of the image, author's intention.

Keywords: linguopoetics, linguopoetics function, literary image, the main elements of a literary image, author "s intention.

Philological research of fiction necessarily implies a connection between

© Borisova E.B., Paloiko L.V., 2012