/Kathleen Winsorshelf | Forever Amber

Set in the 16th century England under the reign of the Merry Monarch, Charles II himself, Forever Amber is an enjoyable glimpse into a life of debauchery. The book - all 900 or so pages of it - was written by Kathleen Winsor back in 1944, when it was banned in Boston for starting scandals. It could be said to be the grandmother of historical romance, though it does take a less idealistic view of it than the its modern grandchildren.

The novel tells the story of Amber St. Clare, illegitimate daughter of two nobles stuck in a small village. This fact, however, she never finds out, saving the novel of a very big cliche. Though it couldn’t be considered too much of a cliche in the first place, because Winsor captures the mood of the period in all of her character, and makes certain to shower her title one with all the flaws one such as Amber would no doubt have. After all, if all the boys adored you, and all the girls hated you for it, what else would you do but run away madly in love with the first cavalier in town?

The next 600 pages go on to outline Amber’s triumphs and disappointments and all the adventures and scrapes she gets herself into and out of. Beautiful and ambitious, and even though thoroughly in love with the aforementioned Bruce Carlton, she is determined to raise her status by whatever means necessary. And she does, in a variety of ways. With the exception of her first mistake, she is able to marry it, steal it, act it, and be mistress to the king for it. Yet as many sins as Amber holds and commits, she’s a better person than her one true love, off and married [for money] in America when the story’s only half through.

Amber is a novel that I would recommend, though probably not read again for a long time. 900 pages was a bit much to plow through, even if I did select it for a school reading assignment. The first 700 went pretty fast, but once I put it down, I found the last couple of hundred molasses to work through. Kudos to the author for realistic characters. I can speak for the situations - I’m not that adept in Restoration England. It can’t be far off though. What I can say is I loved the ending. It wasn’t satisfying, per se, but as good as ending could be.