Customer Reviews

Forever Amber

5 star:		(148)
4 star:		(28)
3 star:		(15)
2 star:		(13)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

A friend of mine recommended "Forever Amber" to me. I can honestly say that otherwise, I would not have read it. Thank God she did tell me about how amazing it was...this is NOT a story to be missed! I could not believe that this was written back in 1944...it felt so fresh and not at all old fashioned.
I thought that the authors writing style was brilliant. The book is mainly about the life of a girl called Amber St. Clare. The thing about Amber is that she is not easy to like..in fact..I was appalled by her often, but at the same time I found myself admiring her determination, rooting for her, and pitying her as well. The book goes on for 972 pages and at the end of it all I actually wanted MORE. The descriptions were so vivid that I felt like I could see, smell, TASTE London as it was in the 1660s. I am so happy to have experienced this tale. I plan to look for more of Kathleen Winsors work and I wholeheartedly recommend this book to any lover of Historical Fiction.

If you are a reader who loves to be transported inside a novel to one of the most interesting eras in British History; if you love reading books whose words literally cause you to feel, taste and smell as you read; If you love Adventure, Drama, Color, and relationships, Forever Amber is the book for you.

I first read this book when I was 17, over 32 years ago, having received the book from my mom who read it when she was in her early 20's. Since then I have read it again and again every year, sometimes reading it twice within a year, especially during periods when I needed to go into another place and time away from my real life.

I neither condone, agree nor disagree with all that is written by Ms. Winsor in this book. It is what it is, a spider web of interesting places, facts, people, cultures and society during the reign of King Charles II. I am a reader that wants to be entertained; wants to be enveloped inside a story or novel, and I believe any potential readers will experience this by reading it.

Forever Amber was the catalyst to my developing interest in England, in all things British. I love reading about England and have studied it extensively since first reading the book in high school.

I traveled to England in 1997 to fulfill a lifelong dream of visiting the places written about in the book. I wanted to see the green countrysides and English village towns, the tower of London, Whitehall palace, the beautiful flowers, the architecture, paintings, Royals, food, and people, so vividly described to me in her book. I am and will probably always be (ask anyone who knows me) a lover of all things British, an Anglophile and serious Royal researcher and London enthusiast because of Forever Amber.

The novel is not trashy, it is not preachy, nor is it like any of the modern day historical romance books you may have read. It is simply an interesting story, well embroidered, well structured, about a young woman's journey, trials, tribulations, love, death and triumphs in life during 1600's Restoration England.

You will at times find yourself loving Amber and her life, then find yourself despising her for her unchanging, immoral, self serving and ignorant characteristics. Either way the book is worth its weight in gold. ***** FIVE STARS

Amber St. Clare is my all-time favorite romance character--even moreso than Scarlett O'Hara. Sure, Amber's unscrupulous at times, but she's not afraid to go after what she wants. She is definitely not a wimp, unlike so many modern-day romance heroines. Never, EVER did Amber really cave to a man's will. She might do it for a while, but only for as long as it suited her (or to ultimately gain the upper hand).

The historical detail in this book is astounding. No history book has ever made the period so gloriously alive, warts and all. Few books provide a better understanding of the Restoration, of the way its people thought, lived, dressed, ate--everything.

One other thing that I liked about the book was the sexuality without the gory details. I read this book nearly 20 years ago, and I can STILL remember the veiled reference to a night Amber spent with the Duke of Buckingham. No details were provided, just that even Amber was disgusted with what happened (which means it must have been really perverted). It was left to the imagination what really happened, which is much more effective than spelling it all out. I can't say that I remember ANY sex scene from a modern romance novel, not even the one I finished this morning. After a while, they're all pretty much the same--and they're boring.

For those who clamor for a sequel, one was written, but I can't remember the name of it (I found it in a South Dakota library about 15 years ago). Amber followed Bruce to America, and I believe she finally got him. The main problem with the book, as with Winsor's other subsequent efforts, was that it just didn't live up to Forever Amber. There is something about this book that is simply magical.

I first read Forever Amber about 10 years ago and was flabergasted at the historical detail entailed in the story. Generally books that contain this much history can tend to be a tough read, sometimes boring. Not the case with Forever Amber. The characters are rich and true to the period, the background setting is exciting and realistic. The main character Amber St. Clare is certainly exciting, maddening, funny, and outragious. She is a survivor that you can not help but admire despite her flaws.I have just finished reading this book once again, which, for me is very unusual. I am an avid read of historical books but there are not many that I make a point of keeping on my bookshelve. This one is there to stay in my collection!

I would appreciate some HELP in finding out if Kathleen Winsor did write a sequel to Forever Amber, and if she did what is the name of this book? Possible sources for tracking books out of print, etc.? Any information would be helpful. Thank-you.

I first read the book when I was 18. Naively, I thought ALL books called "romance" would be of this quality, but of course, I was disappointed! Since then, I have read the book once during each subsequent five years of my life, most recently re-reading it at age 47. Ms. Winsor's recreation of Restoration London is accurate and her writing style much like that of Margaret Mitchell. It's an absorbing book, but not simplistic, not "light." It's an excellent introduction to the Restoration period. Forever Amber started my interest in this period of time and, many history books later, I can say that Winsor's depiction is accurate and complete. I understand Ms. Winsor filled about 40 notebooks with research notes before she wrote the book. Amber does it all! And while she's unscrupulous, she's young, and so real, I think every woman can see herself, only in part (I hope), in Amber's psychology. The most poignant part of the story, for me, was when Amber marries Lord Radclyffe and never realizes that Radclyffe was once engaged to Amber's own mother 20 years earlier, and Radclyffe never realizes that he has married the daughter of the woman of his dreams, whom he lost during the civil wars. When Amber tries on an old wedding dress, that was made for her mother and it fits her almost like it was made for her, I almost cried because she never knows. Amber also never realizes she is really of the nobility and one, just one, of the reasons Bruce Carlton doesn't marry her is because he believes Amber's parents to be farmers, when actually, they were of a higher station than Carlton himself. The irony was subtle but almost painful to me when I realized these things --(after the second reading!). I found the scene when Buckingham pays Amber 200 pound to have sex with him, and Amber is disgusted (although we never know why) to be one of the most creepily memorable "kinky sex" scenes I've ever read; much more effective than if the perversions had been spelled out. One reviewer says there was a sequel to Forever Amber. I would love to know the title! Although, I can't believe there could be a satisfactory sequel to this story. ... it's too sad to say how, just couldn't be any better. Just like when Scarlett loses Rhett. There can't be another ending, (despite "Scarlett"), but I'd love to know if Winsor had more in mind for Amber. I recommend, buy a copy of Forever Amber and enjoy! This is NOT a romance novel!

I initially read Forever Amber at the age of 15 after borrowing the book from a friend. Years later I was able to get hold of a publication for myself and since then the book has become torn, tattered and discoloured at the many times I have read it. I am very much interested in the English Restoration period which has Amber's story interwoven into this period of time. I become so involved in Amber's love for Bruce and her determination and need to better her station in life, even at the risk of losing her own soul, that I actually feel I am transported back into that period of time. On a visit to London, I made sure I paid a visit to all the historical places mentioned in the book, which made the story come to life. Forever Amber takes pride of place in my bookshelf. I have never lent it out for fear of losing it forever. I simply love it and wish there was a sequel made.

I cannot say how much I loved this book. This is THE original work of true historical fiction and it also has the distinction of being banned and referd to as "Forever Under" in the United States for many years because of its sexual content. Not that that makes sense, because there is no descriptive sex in this book. There is, however, a lot of non descriptive sex and people "sliding into bed" and "slipping off their dress." So if you're a prude, have no fear. There is no real raunchy sex here.

This is a novel about the restoration period in England, right after King Charles II is invited back into the country. Amber is a small village girl (really she's the daughter of two nobles who were unmarried and so the girl ran away because her lover was for the parliament and her father was for the king-but she died giving birth) who has never left her little town. All the town girls hate her because all the boys love her, and so when the handsome cavalier Bruce wanders through, it takes no time for her to decide to head to London with him.

But Bruce can't stick around and so Amber spends the next few years scheming for money, either by marrying into it, stealing it, acting for it, or sleeping with the king for it. Bruce shows up occasionally and while he and Amber have children he makes it clear his life is in the American colonies and he can never marry her. What's a love struck hard as nails courtesan to do?

This book is amazing. Every scene is so descriptive you'll think you're in London during the plague, or the great fire (incidentally the Lord Mayor of London who refuses to fight the fire because he said "a woman could piss it out" is my ancestor) or strolling across the endless green field in summer. The description is amazing because the author had never been to England when she wrote it. The dialog is perfect and every character is a real person with huge faults. And like real people, some of them never change. Some reviewers on this site seem to hate Bruce, and I would say that that's a little judgemental, considering that he never promises Amber anything.

*********SPOILER-DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVN"T READ THE BOOK******

I do think Bruce was a terrible person at one point in this book-something to do with getting Amber and her 16 year old unmarried step-daughter pregnant at the same time. I mean god, thats just insulting. So what if Amber was married-it was cruel and terrible of him to do that. He knew Amber really loved him, so so what if the girl had a crush on him? He didn't have to sleep with her!

Anyway, this is one of my favorite books of all time. I read it every year, and every year I bemoan the fact that there was never a sequel to it. I suppose someday someone will write one, just like "Gone with the wind" and it's very inferior sequel by another author "Scarlet." Who knows, maybe I'll write the "Amber in America" sequel myself. I know I everyone who reads "Forever Amber" has some ideas on how that book would go...

I feel this book has been wildly insulted by another reviewer who suggested going to Nora Loft for less "Bodic ripper" type historical fiction. Please. The reviewer clearly does not know their historical fiction. Ignore the sceptics who didn't like, no didn't love this book. It is amazing-I would place a bet that anyone reading it would love it-if they had a brain and some good sence.

If you have not read this or if you were thinking about reading this book, i cannot stress enough...how important it is in timeless literature! This book is a long one, HOWEVER! do-not be discouraged by the sheer volume...for when you reach that last page you will wish they hadn't cut so much out when Winsor put it in print in 1944. I know that most book stores label it as 'romance', but honestly its not about love its about a woman growning and surviving in medieval London, where women were property. Its special to me because I have a first edition that my grandmother read a few years after it was released, and she in turn gave it to my mother to read when she came of age, and now it is mine and I will pass it to my daughter. If you are interested in history ,people's lives in medieval times through fire and plague,or politics and court fashion and liveilyhood, READ THIS!!! This is one of the ''10 best books ever written" in my list!(and i own over 5,000 books classic and banned) For years to come I know this story, Amber's story, will stay with me and remind me to think back...What Would Amber Do? Oddly enough while talking to my grandmother last week,(i finished the book in 6 days),she said what my mother told me:"this book stayed with me still and i havent read it in 50 years... it will always stay with you." Below I pasted a portion of Kathleen's Obit.

"Kathleen Winsor"

Author of the bestselling Forever Amber, has died Wednesday June 4, 2003 aged 83. Her 1944 novel, which was made into a high-profile film directed by Otto Preminger, was a thousand-page fictional romp through Restoration fashion, politics, bedrooms and public disasters, among them the plague and the Great Fire of London. It was a love letter to a London she had read about in Defoe and Pepys, but had never seen.

Forever Amber was published in New York by Macmillan, the firm that had sold 4m copies of Margaret Mitchell's Gone With The Wind in 1936. Alert to the possibilities of Winsor's manuscript, which ran to 2,500 pages, their editors set about carving something commercially viable from the sprawling story.

In a pre-emptive move to scare Hollywood away from such a sexy novel, the book was denounced by the powerful Hays Office, which offered guidance on morals to the studio bosses. Combing the text, the Massachusetts attorney-general found 70 references to sexual intercourse, 39 illegitimate pregnancies, seven abortions, 10 scenes in which women undressed in front of men who were not their husbands, and nearly 50 "miscellaneous objectionable passages" - and announced that the book would be banned (an action overturned on appeal). Other states joined in the condemnation, and the critics, joyless and hostile, were led by Orville Prescott, who denounced the novel as "a crude and superficial glorification of a courtesan".

Winsor denied that her book was particularly daring, and said that she had no interest in "anatomical scenes". "I wrote only two sexy passages," she remarked, "and my publishers took both of them out. They put in ellipses instead. In those days, you could solve everything with an ellipse..."

Of course, the bans were coded messages to the American reading public, which concluded that the book sounded like fun. It was, and 100,000 copies were snapped up in the first week. Altogether, Forever Amber sold more than 3mil. copies and was translated into 16 languages. It was the bestselling US novel in the 1940s. Books about the war, such as John Hersey's A Bell For Adano and Ernie Pyle's Brave Men, did not stand a chance against its narrative verve, colour and refreshing absence of earnestness.

Preminger's film adaptation, given a moral ending on the insistence of Darryl F Zanuck, was thin stuff, however. Linda Darnell was brought in to replace the British actor Peggy Cummins when it was found that she did not do blowzy with sufficient conviction. The screenplay was written by Philip Dunne and Ring Lardner Jr, who was later blacklisted and sent to prison as one of the Hollywood 10.

Born in a small town in Minnesota, Winsor was raised in Berkeley, California, where she attended university. At the age of 17, she married a campus football star, Robert Herwig. It was his senior honours thesis on Charles II that attracted her to the Restoration period, and she later claimed to have read 356 books on the subject.

For an unknown and unpublished young author, she was as determined and well organised as any of her fictional heroines. She began Forever Amber in February 1940, at the age of 20, and the novel went through five drafts over the next four years. Her manuscripts, held at the University of Texas, include each one carefully dated, as well as abundant notes on her reading, on fashion, and an outsized map of Restoration London.

A friend of mine, a self proclaimed non-reader,introduced me to Forever Amber and I am so glad because I LOVE this book! I have read it several times and always notice something I missed the last time I read it.

Amber is a character that you love to hate. She is a phenomenal character that is driven and will do anything and everything she can to get what she wants. We watch Amber grow from a young, farm girl to a "mature", determined woman who uses her beauty to manipulate her way through life.

As much as you may find her behavior to be deplorable at times, you can not help but to root for her. The book ends suddenly and each time I read it I am sad it is over. Forever Amber is a fantastic story and opened a whole new genre up for me.

Forever Amber takes place in the 1660s, immediately follwing Charles II's ("the Merry Monarch") return of the Stuarts to the English throne. The book features Amber St. Claire, a young woman who starts out as a sixteen-year-old country girl, naieve to the workings of the world. She immediately meets Bruce Carlton, a dashing young Cavalier, with whom she has a passionate love affair in choppy intervals throughout the book. They have two children together, but Bruce won't marry her for the reason he tells his friend Lord Almsbury: that Amber just isn't the kind of woman one marries.

Upon following Bruce to London, he goes to Virginia, leaving her to fend for herself. What follows is a series of affairs and four marriages, with Bruce coming back from America now and then. Amber's marriages are imprudent: her first husband is a gambler, her second is an old dotard, her third locks her up in the house for days and won't let her out; and the last is a fop who allows himself to be cuckolded. Amber starts out in jail for debt, then becomes a thief, then moves on to the theatre, entertaining the college-age fops who attend. Her ambitions only rise from there as she sleeps with some of the most influential men in England.

Eventually Amber follows her ambitions using her two strengths: her personality and beauty, ending up as the mistress to King Charles himself. The last quarter of the book involves itself in the court scandals of the time, not the least of which were sexual. Winsor is a little prudish and shies away from the sex that occurs in the book, but she places most of her focus on the clothes the people in London wore in the 1660s. The detaisl are lavish and gorgeous, and made me wish I'd lived in that time period.

Amber is NOT supposed to be a likeable character. She is probably has the most character flaws of anyone who appears in this book. Her desperate love for Bruce is the cornerstone of the story, and Amber seems almost too desperate. Even though she insists that next time she will act aloof and sitant, she throws herself at him like a puppydog. When she finds out that Bruce has a wife, whom he met in America, Amber becomes hysterical with rage. Eventually she and Lady Carlton will become acquainted at court--and the outcome is not good.

Once King Charles finished with one of his mistresses, her never gave up on her. That is, he never turned her out of Whitehall Palace. Amber quickly becomes one of those mistresses, liked by absolutely no one at court. However, she continues to hang on. The plan that Buckingham devises to get rid of her for once and all is clever and leaves the reader hanging on the edge of thier seat in the final pages of the novel. It was a beautifully written book that I will probably re-read over and over again. It gave a great insight into the lives people led at Charles's court, one that was decadent and sinful in comparison to the Puritans who had preceded him. A must for those who love this period in history or historical fiction in general. I also recommend: the works of Anya Seton, especially Katherine and Green Darkness; Slammerkin; and The Crimson Petal and the White.