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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780312262518
ISBN: 0312262515
Label: St. Martin's Press
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Press
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 512
Publication Date: November 06, 2007
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Release Date: November 06, 2007
Sales Rank: 19599
Studio: St. Martin's Press
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
Fully authorized by the Margaret Mitchell estate, Rhett Butler’s People is the astonishing and long-awaited novel that parallels the Great American Novel, Gone With The Wind. Twelve years in the making, the publication of Rhett Butler’s People marks a major and historic cultural event.
Through the storytelling mastery of award-winning writer Donald McCaig, the life and times of the dashing Rhett Butler unfolds. Through Rhett’s eyes we meet the people who shaped his larger than life personality as it sprang from Margaret Mitchell’s unforgettable pages: Langston Butler, Rhett’s unyielding father; Rosemary his steadfast sister; Tunis Bonneau, Rhett’s best friend and a onetime slave; Belle Watling, the woman for whom Rhett cared long before he met Scarlett O’Hara at Twelve Oaks Plantation, on the fateful eve of the Civil War.
Of course there is Scarlett. Katie Scarlett O’Hara, the headstrong, passionate woman whose life is inextricably entwined with Rhett’s: more like him than she cares to admit; more in love with him than she’ll ever know…
Brought to vivid and authentic life by the hand of a master, Rhett Butler’s People fulfills the dreams of those whose imaginations have been indelibly marked by Gone With The Wind.
Amazon.com Review:
Margaret Mitchell's story of Scarlett O'Hara's and Rhett Butler's beguiling, twisted love for each other, set against the gruesome background of a nation torn apart by war, is by all accounts epic--so much so that it feels untouchable. Yet McCaig's take on what many would consider a sacred cow of 20th-century American literature is a worthy suitor for Mitchell's many ardent fans, for reasons that may not be altogether obvious. It would be easy to look at Gone With the Wind and Rhett Butler’s People side by side and catalog what is accurate and what isn't and tally up the score. In doing so, however, the fan is apt to miss out on the best part of this whole book: Rhett Butler himself. McCaig's Rhett is thoroughly modern, both a product of his Charleston plantation and an emphatic rejection of it. He is filled with romance and ingenuity, grit and wit, and a toughness matched only by a sense of humility that evokes so gracefully the hardship and heartbreak of a society falling apart. It's not hard to love Rhett in his weakness for Scarlett's love, but it is entirely amazing to love him as he rescues Belle Watling, mentors her bright young son Tazewell, adores his sister Rosemary, dotes on dear Bonnie Blue, and defends his best friend Tunis Bonneau to the very end.
To pluck a character from a beloved book and recalibrate the story's point-of-view isn't an easy thing to do. Ultimately, the new must ring true with the old, and this is where Rhett Butler’s People succeeds beyond measure. In the spirit of Mitchell's masterpiece, McCaig never questions that love--of family, lover, land, or country--is the tie that binds these characters to life, for better or worse. --Anne Bartholomew
Customer Reviews Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Insulting and Disgraceful
Everyone involved in this book should be ashamed, as it is so obviously intended solely to make money off of GWTW fans. I fail to understand why the Mitchell estate selected this writer, who did not even bother to do a close reading of the original.And where was the editor?! There are so many errors in timing and details, I can't believe they weren't corrected. Everything from the color of Ashley's eyes (grey, not brown!) to the timing of when Scarlett sold him the mills, to major plot points being ... Read More
Rating: - a great disappointment
When you attempt to write a sequel or companion to a beloved book, the odds are against you right from the beginning. Not only do you have to prove that you can write as well as the beloved author (and this is where Ripley's Scarlett flopped), but you have to have something to say, something to add to a masterpiece. It can't be just your own desires to play with the characters. I know that there's a huge temptation to feed starving readers a happy ending for two of the world's most famous lovers left ... Read More
Rating: - Epic Disappointment
I am a huge fan of the original work.I have no problem at all with others trying to write sequels, parodies, etc...That said...
This new book is in no way worthy to be called a prequel, sequel, or associated in any way to the original.Scarlett as a character is completely unrecognizable, Rhett is no longer Rhett, but a clinical mess on the border of manic depressive, and so many other characters that we already know and love are so different, and frankly, unlikable.Scenes were changed so ... Read More
Rating: - A piecemeal and loose-jointed prequel
I confess to having never read Gone With the Wind.However, deciding to enjoy the full sweep of the story, or so I thought, I began with McCaig's version, the authorized prequel.It seemed to make sense.
Unfortunately, and I dislike writing this, I was underwhelmed by the loose and limp story this prequel offers.Simply put, I never cared about the characters and the outcomes of their choices, a rather deadly response for a reader.Nonetheless, I forced myself to finish the book, and breathed ... Read More
Rating: - BEYOND Disappointing
Any attempt to carry on Mitchell's legacy will of course fall short, but this book completely underwhelms fans of the classic novel.
McCaig DOES try, with depiction of Rhett's family, particularly his beloved sister, Rosemary, but as a whole the book fails.His writing style needs polish (excessive passive voice, the cardinal writer's crime of "telling" the reader rather than putting them inside the characters, for example) and at times his attempts to meld his story with the timeline of Mitchell's ... Read More
Rhett Butler's People |
