美国南北战争前夕,南方农场塔拉种植园的千金斯嘉丽在得知自己一直爱慕的另一个农场主的儿子阿什利将要娶妻,于是勇敢向他示爱,遭到拒绝,为了报复,她嫁给了自己不爱的男人——阿什利妻子梅兰妮的弟弟查尔斯。? 战争期间,斯嘉丽成为寡妇,生下幼子,在经历亚特兰大的城破被焚之日后,她带着刚生产完毕、身体虚弱的梅兰妮回到了塔拉,本以为是回到温馨的家,不想面前景象一派残破——母亲去世,父亲深受打击失智,两个妹妹也在死亡的边缘徘徊,棉花被毁——她挑起生活的重担,不再是当初的千金小姐。战争结束后,她为了种植园不落入他人之手,四处觅钱,甚至不惜抢了自己妹妹的未婚夫。同时,她为了撑死亚特兰大的小家,更为了塔拉的大家,她不得不在怀孕期间仍撑着办理锯木厂,却遭受他人口实。而在第二任丈夫被枪杀之后,她又再
Not so long ago, writes Jeremy Paxman, the English were "polite, unexcitable, reserved, and had hot-water bottles instead of a sex-life". Today the end of empire has killed off the Bulldog Breed - "fearless and philistine, safe in taxis and invaluable in shipwrecks" - and transformed the great public schools. Princess Diana was mourned with the effusive emotionalism of an Italian saint. Leader-writers in "The Times" even praise the sexual skills of English lovers ...So what are the defining features of "Englishness"? How can a country of football hooligans have such an astonishingly low murder rate? Does the nation's sense of itself extend to millions of black, Asian and other immigrant Britons? Is it grounded in arrogant, nostalgic fantasy or can it form the basis for building a realistic future within Europe? To answer these crucial questions, Paxman looks for clues in the English language, literature, luke-warm religion and "curiously passionless devotion" to cricket. He explores attitudes to Catholics, t