Product Description

A book to read and reread, this reissue brings back to print an unforgettable romance and a timeless masterpiece. Abandoned pregnant and penniless on the teeming streets of London, sixteen-year-old Amber St. Clare uses her wits, beauty and courage to climb to the highest position a woman could achieve in Restoration England - that of favourite mistress of the Merry Monarch himself, Charles II. From whores and highwaymen to courtiers and noblemen, from the Great Plague and the Fire of London to the intimate passions of ordinary - and extraordinary - men and women, Amber experiences it all. But throughout her trials and escapades, she remains, in her heart, true to the one man she really loves, the one man she can never have ...

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #19871 in Books
• Published on: 2002-07-25
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 992 pages

Woman and Home include it in their Best Summer Reads
The original bodice-ripper is back in print... Wonderful

New Woman...
..have chosen it as one of their Bloody Good Reads for the summer

Los Angeles Times May 31, 2003
"A prototype for the modern blockbuster."

Customer Reviews

Beautiful and reckless
Ruthless Amber is the ultimate heroine we all sometimes wish we could be. Beautiful, sexy and bold, she is nonetheless naïve and desperate. Winsor has peppered this novel with intricate historical detail; a backdrop vividly brought to life by the page-turning plot. Of particular note are the events described during the Black Death and the Great Fire of London. Amber is fascinating but exasperating; time and again she makes dreadful mistakes and scorns real love for her illusion of Lord Carlton. When I first read this book I couldn't put it down - and I was so disappointed to find that a sequel was never published. However, a knowledgeable bookseller put me onto another historical fiction - the 'Angelique' series by Sergeanne Golon. This spans some thirteen books, but as it is out of print, takes some perseverance to obtain. Angelique, like Amber, becomes mistress to the king - this time King Louis XIV of France. These books have a greater scope of character development and depth, and are perfect for those seeking something in the same vein as 'Forever Amber'. However, 'Amber' is still one of my all-time favourites. You can't beat it for sheer 'can't put down' quality. The book was actually banned in Boston once after damning reviews - deemed too sexually explicit at the time (1947). It is so good to see it re-released so a whole new generation of readers can enjoy.

Forever Amber : A romping bodice ripper!
This has to be one of the ultimate novels that I have ever read. When I picked it up and brought it home my Mother warned me that work as an English teacher would pale into insig ificance. Believe me, I have read a lot of books, literary value, merit and not. I had never heard of this but was taken by the topic as one I had studied myself many years before. You will not be disappointed by this novel. Deliciously chunky, frightfully addictive and completely unputdownable, I was thrilled from page one...you are hooked from the moment that you meet the ravishing and delightful Amber St Clare
I loved being whisked through the court of Charles II and almost believing that I was stepping back into 1660 with the characters; surely if you read nothing else all summer make time for this novel, it is one that you will never forget having read and never regret having picked up.
It's both voluptuous, historically amazing and an incredibly rewarding read; personally it was worth waking at 5am to read it and I hate early starts but I had to find time to read this novel just to find out if Amber would really meet a truely happy ending or not.....
From my mother's generation to mine, it's a real classic and I'm so pleased to have found it and read it.

'Tis pity she's a...
I ripped through this at an amazing rate, it took me three days cover to cover.

Normally I dislike reading fiction when there is so much interesting non-fiction to go round. However "Forever Amber" reminds me a lot of some of the pop-history books I have enjoyed in the past - incredibly detailed, going into lascivious detail about the period and about all walks of life, from the poor in Newgate to the upper echelons of the court. It's also heartening to read that the Stuart royal family was just as decadent as our own, and it actually makes Charles, Camilla and Diana look positively virtuous by comparison.

Amber is a very unsympathetic heroine and the end is very abrupt (there is another doorstop of a sequel here for anyone who cares to write it, about what Amber finds when she disembarks in America). Until she and Lord Bruce Carlton recover from the plague, they are both admirable characters; they seem to lose their gloss after this escapade leaves both in turn fighting for their lives, as if the Black Death has taken some of their soul away. All of the characters - including the non-fictional ones such as Nell Gwynne, who makes a cameo, the King, his mistress Barbara Palmer and her rival Frances Stewart - are three-dimensional with their own lusts, needs and station in society to maintain. While seeming beyond the pale to modern readers (or those reading the book when it was first published in 1944) they are all in their own way genuine, honest and open: Amber's only flaws are her naivete and her extravagance, which looks set to ruin her at every turn. No-one hides behind a mask of hypocrisy, not even the beatific Corinna Carlton, who is brought down into the mud of jealousy by Amber's wanton behaviour, and the delicate Queen Catherine of Braganza, whose barrenness led Charles to seek amusement elsewhere, and by failing to produce an heir for the Merry Monarch ultimately contributed to the downfall of the House of Stuart and the imposition of Hanoverian rule.

In Amber's world, it is vice which always gains the upper hand over virtue; the virtuous, such as Samuel Dangerfield, the poor Quakeress with no money to buy her way into comfort in Newgate, and Jenny Mortimer, are all diddled and left by the side of the road. Therefore any "nice" character cannot be successful; at the end of the book you find yourself siding with Corinna Carlton only to be oddly satisfied when she reveals herself to be as jealous and catty as Amber herself. The book is full of deliciously amoral catfights, and you can feel the fur fly over an emerald necklace and hear the scratch of nails on face as if it was right in front of you. Much more satifying than an angelic heroine being ripped to shreds by a cruel world!

The rich text is written in a seventeenth-century patois; while still intelligible to a modern reader the period flavour of the characters' speech betrays extensive research into terminology, oaths and cant despite sounding rather corny at times.

A really satisfying and indulgent read and one which should keep the reader absorbed from start to finish. The only similar book I've ever read is "Nana", by Emil Zola, but that is high literature and so has an unhappy ending, while "Amber" is under no such obligation - which makes the actual ending rather disappointing. Essential reading for any fans of period drama or just someone wanting something really meaty for a holiday book. One to be enjoyed thoroughly - and guiltlessly.