Gone with the Wind

Gone with the Wind is a title which has been used for classic novels both by humans and the Race.

The human version was authored by Margaret Mitchell in 1936. It tells the story of Scarlett O'Hara, the daughter of a planter in the American South whose family loses its plantation and much else in the American Civil War. Scarlett struggles to survive the depravations of the postwar Reconstruction period, with the help of Rhett Butler, a former blockade runner who loves Scarlett. Though Scarlett eventually takes Rhett as her third husband, she loves only Ashley Wilkes, the husband of Melanie Hamilton, who considers Scarlett a very dear friend. All the characters suffer personal tragedies over the course of the novel, but most persevere in their own ways. The book ends with Melanie's death and Scarlett finally realizing that she loves Rhett--only to learn that Rhett has recently stopped loving her after quietly suffering through many years of devastating rejections.

Though the original ending is poignantly sad, novelist Alexandra Ripley wrote a sequel called Scarlett in which Rhett rediscovers his love for Scarlett and the two are finally happily married.

The Race's novel, a classic of its people's literature, was written millennia ago. It tells the story of friends who part over time, which in the Race's culture is considered equally poignant to the human version's love story. Atvar was required to read the book during his early education and found it stuffy and dull. Sam Yeager read it when he visited Home aboard the Admiral Peary, and the two spent an afternoon discussing both species' novels.