Forever Amber

A little known trivia about this book. Artie Shaw wanted his beautiful young wife Ava Gardner to be well read, and so he encouraged her to read many intellectual books. He was very annoyed when he found her reading Forever Amber. He called it a 'trashy romance novel.' Years later Artie Shaw would wed the author, Kathleen Winsor.

If you're looking for a rollicking romp through 17th century Restoration England then this is it! 16 year old Amber St Clare finds herself homeless and penniless on the streets of London, and to make matters much worse she's also pregnant. However, Amber is an enticing young girl, both in terms of her beauty and her personality and wit. She's particularly well versed in the use of feminine wiles and eventually becomes the mistress of Charles II.<br /><br />Gosh, this story is a whirlwind of bawdiness, taking us into the Royal Courts, ( and its many bedrooms! ) The historical events of The Plague and The Great Fire of London add interest, but it's the characters that stand out, and not always for the right reasons.<br /><br />Amber is definitely a flawed amoral individual, and she's not the only one. The circles that she moves in have more than their share of characters who take whatever they want at the expense of others. <br /><br />It was difficult to find an affinity with many of the characters. Amber herself was likeable at times, and positively frustrating at others ( she never seemed to learn from her mistakes ) but it was a fun read, taking readers through the Royal Court, and the taverns and theatres of the day and overall it was really enjoyable.

I know some of you just love this book...and I'm happy for you...you are the good kind people who are able to go out into the world and make friends easily because you see the good in everyone regardless of how horrible and shallow and rotten they are. <br /><br />I am not like you...I'm fussy, I'm particular, I'm very judgmental...and I could only stand to read 323 pages of this awful book!<br /><br />I too am one of those people who thinks you should finish the book if you start it. I have never left a review about a book that I didn't complete, I'm making an exception here because 323 pages IS a book for most authors and certainly plenty long enough for me to know I wasn't going to like it any better by reading 650 more.<br /><br />If you are particular like I am and you like what I like (take a look at my other reviews to get an idea) you will probably think this book is horrid drivel too. But if you liked Slammerkin you might just love this.<br /><br />I did not like any of the characters, they were rotten, especially Amber. I have to like someone in the story in order to read 975 pages about them, I'm funny like that. <br /><br />The character development was seriously lacking, the dialogue was horrid, the story line was barely if at all believable...And I will admit I am happy to suffer all of those things if I love the protagonist. Here, I couldn't even like her.<br /><br />Save your money and borrow this from the library if you have to read it!<br />The two nice things I can say are the cover is pretty and it's heavy enough to use as a doorstop.

Meet Amber, the Scarlett O'Hara of the English Civil War and Restoration era.<br /><br /> Nothing could stop this teenage country girl, from a small English village as she rises to the top in the court of King Charles II, becoming one of his MANY mistresses. <br /> <br />Amber's tale borders on the trashy but my goodness, she was so much fun.<br /><br /> Like Scarlett, Amber wants the man she can not have, whilst moving heaven and earth to obtain his love. <br /><br /> Poor Scarlett was so besotted with Ashley that she barely noticed the south being invaded and the town of Atlanta set on fire - while the feckless Amber, in much the same manner, successfully conquers the bubonic plague - with both considering their travails a minor inconvenience. <br /><br /> As long as Amber shares the sick-bed with her lover Bruce she barely has time to notice her, no doubt, painful experience. BRUCE MUST LIVE! or Amber will die. <br /><br /> This is one of those rare romantic stories that's impossible to forget. The author's description of the Plague is absolutely brilliant with no gory detail omitted as she conveys the hellish experience of life during the plague.<br /><br />Does Amber's machinations finally win the love of Bruce? You'll have a lot of fun reading this book if you want to find the answer to this question.<br /><br />If Amber lived in our modern time she would probably be the successful CEO of a major conglomerate instead of vainly chasing her romantic interest.

Ugh! I thought I'd never finish this book. I have never before read so many pages about a protagonist I hated this much.<br />At the beginning of the book, Amber is a childish, selfish, spoiled little brat who uses her natural beauty and sexuality to get what she wants. But I thought, it's a book about a journey! Life will Happen, Amber will learn and grow and become a better person, and by the end of the book, I'll be happy when good things happen to her.<br />Well. Life <i>did</i> happen, but Amber didn't change one bit. Throughout the entire book she stayed the same childish, selfish person she was at the beginning, and I <i>hated</i> her. It was about halfway through the book that I realized she was never going to change, because this was not, in fact, a book about Amber. It was a book about Amber's Obsession With Bruce And How She Let It Ruin Her Life and The Lives of Everybody She Touched, and if she ever grew up, she'd stop being such a selfish, obsessed twat. Her self-absorption lead to the DEATHS of no fewer than four people, only one of whom deserved it. Even the ending was only about her obsession, and the only good thing about it was that it was open ended enough that it lets me imagine the many horrible things that ought to happen to her after the events in the book have ended.<br />The story itself might have been good (hence my two-star rating, and not one) if only the protagonist had been in the least likable. But she wasn't, and so I am only relieved that I'm done reading this book, and can move on to something different.

<b>Forever Amber, Kathleen Winsor</b><br /><br />Forever Amber (1944) is a historical romance novel by Kathleen Winsor set in 17th-century England. It was made into a film in 1947 by 20th Century Fox.<br /><br />Judith Marsh has been engaged since birth to her neighbor, John Mainwaring, heir to the Earl of Rosswood. In 1644, she has her engagement broken off when her family and the Mainwarings find themselves on opposing sides of the English Civil War. During a break in the fighting, John visits Judith and the two consummate their relationship. Pregnant, Judith abandons her family and goes to Parliamentarian territory on John's instructions, introducing herself as Judith St. Clare. <br /><br />There, she ends up staying with farmer Matthew Goodegroome and his wife Sarah. Judith dies in childbirth after naming her daughter Amber. In 1660, Amber, now a flirtatious teenager, is being raised by the Goodegroomes in ignorance of her origins. She meets a band of Royalists who inform her that Charles II of England is returning. Amber is particularly attracted to Lord Bruce Carlton. <br /><br />During a fair, she lures him into the woods and loses her virginity to him. After she persuades him, Carlton reluctantly takes her to London, but tells Amber he will not marry her and she will come to regret her choice.<br /><br />In London, Carlton makes Amber his mistress. She quickly grows accustomed to their luxurious lifestyle. She longs to marry Carlton and believes becoming pregnant will make him marry her. However, when she does become pregnant, Carlton announces plans to become a privateer. <br /><br />He leaves Amber a significant amount of money and tells her if she is clever she can legitimize herself and her child by marrying well. <br /><br />Left alone, Amber is befriended by a woman named Sally Goodman and passes herself off as a rich country heiress. Sally introduces Amber to her nephew Luke Channell, who Amber quickly marries out of fear that her pregnancy will soon be visible. <br /><br />She soon discovers Sally and Luke are not who they appear. When they realize she is not as wealthy as she claimed they abandon her, leaving her penniless. <br /><br />Amber is pursued by creditors and taken to a debtors' prison. Salvation comes when she catches the eye of Black Jack Mallard, a highwayman who takes Amber with him when he escapes. <br /><br />Black Jack takes Amber to Whitefriars, where she is introduced to the ways of criminals and gives birth to a son who she gives to a countrywoman to raise properly. <br /><br />Black Jack hires a student of noble birth, Michael Godfrey, to educate Amber, and begins to use her as bait in schemes where she lures handsome, rich men to quiet corners before Black Jack robs them. ...<br /><br />‏‫‬‭Forever Amber‏‫‬‭ by Kathleen Winsor. ‏‫‬‭‬‭New York‏‫‬‭: The Macmillan Company‏‫‬‭, 1945‏‫‬‭ = 1324. 652 Pages.<br /><br />تاریخ نخستین خوانش: سال 1969 میلادی<br /><br />عنوان: امبر برای همیشه (عنبر، شاهکار کاتلین وینسور)؛ نویسنده: کاتلین وینسور؛ مترجم: مجید مسعودی؛ تهران، کانون معرفت؛ چاپ اول 1333؛ چاپ دوم 1335؛ در 432ص؛ فروست: (صد کتاب از از صد نویسنده بزرگ دنیا)؛ موضوع داستانهای نویسندگان آمریکایی سده 20م<br /><br />آمبر (عنبر) برای همیشه؛ رمان عاشقانه ای است، که توسط خانم «کاتلین وینسور»، نویسندهٔ اهل «ایالات متحده آمریکا» نگاشته شده ‌است؛ این کتاب با عنوان «عنبر» توسط روانشاد جناب «مجید مسعودی» در سالهای دهه ی سی سده چهاردهم خورشیدی به فارسی برگردان شده است؛ <br /><br />دختری شانزده ساله به نام «آمبر سنت کلار»، خویشتن خویش را در خیابانهای «لندن» بیخانمان و بیپول مییابد، و بدتر از همه اینکه ایشان، باردار نیز هستند؛ با اینحال، او دختری جوان، و فریبنده، هم از نظر زیبایی ظاهری، و هم از نظر شخصیت، و تیزهوشی، نیز هست؛ «آمبر» به ویژه در استفاده از حیله های زنانه مهارت دارد، و در پایان کار خویش معشوقه ی «چارلز دوم» میشود؛ داستان فرعی رمان، در باره ی «چارلز دوم» است، ایشان پس از درگذشت «کرامول»؛ از تبعیدگاه خود، یعنی از کشور «فرانسه»، برای بدست آوردن اداره امور، به «انگلستان» برمیگردند، مردمان «انگلیس»، که تازه از زیر یوغ حکومت «کرامول»، آزاد شده بودند، درگیر هرج و مرجی پر دامنه بودند، البته که پس از برچیده شدن هر دیکتاتوری، هرج و مرج، در همه ی شئون زندگی مردمان هر دیاری، حکمفرما میگردد؛ و سیاست، و طاعون، و آتش سوزی بزرگ لندن، و ماجراهای خواندنی دیگر ...؛<br /><br />تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 01/02/1400هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی

<i>"Never again, she had promised herself a dozen times will I be such a fool." Yeah right, like we all know that's never going to happen don't we? </i><br /><br />Amber St. Clare never felt she belonged with the poor family who raised her, and when one day a troop of cavaliers ride into her village she's swept away by Lord Bruce Carlton. Well, actually it's more like the other way around - Amber won't say no and begs Bruce to take her to London and against his better judgment he agrees - although lust for the beauteous Amber might have something to do with it. <b>Nah</b>. Bruce makes it perfectly clear he'll never marry her and when his privateering ships are ready to sail she's on her own. Amber accepts Bruce's terms and they're off to London as Charles II is crowned and his bawdy court and courtiers are in full swing. As he warned, Bruce soon has to leave and it doesn't take long for a pregnant Amber to get herself royally swindled (what a fool) out of every farthing Bruce left her and thrown into Newgate prison for debt. Not one to be down and out for long, Amber soon hooks up with a notorious highway man and he breaks them out and the game is on...... <br /><br />Until of course Black Jack Mallard is caught and hanged and finding herself in another pickle she goes for the stage - but she still needs to find man to keep her in the style in which she wants to become accustomed to - and handsome Captain Rex Morgan will fit the bill quite nicely. That is, as soon as she can take him away from his current mistress. Of course, once Bruce is back Amber manages to screw things up nicely (what a fool) and fresh out of likely prospects (young men with money), Amber finds herself an older one to protect her from life's little problems. But then older men don't live forever and when their family doesn't like you well, then she's off on the hunt yet again.... <br /><br />Amber's story takes her through all walks of Restoration England, from prison to theatre to the decadent, conniving court of Charles II (loved Castlemaine and Buckingham's antics), from the plague (A.W.E.S.O.M.E.) to the Great Fire and from man to man and bed to bed. Amber is most definitely one of fiction's most flawed heroines and despite the many lessons life dishes out do you think she ever learns from them? Not on your life, nor does she ever figure out that Bruce is never ever going to marry her - sleep with her, yes. Don't worry though, as busy as Amber is in the bed chamber and despite the fact that when published in the 40's this was so scandalous it was banned in Boston, the sex is pretty tame and left to the reader's imagination (how refreshing). Watching Amber is like watching a train wreck - you can't take your eyes away for fear of missing what's going to happen next. As for the ending? Kathleen Winsor dishes up the most delectable bit of Just Desserts at the end - I can't recall ever seeing better . A grand and glorious romp through the court of Charles II, don't miss it.

I read this book because of my grandfather. That sounds funny, but my grandpa Duke was in WWII and he was stationed mostly on ships. When this book came out, he the whole crew were given one copy to share. So they tore the book apart and passed the chapters around. You might get the third chapter one night and the tenth another. He read the whole book, but completely out of order. After he told me this story I went to the library and checked out the book. It was a good book especially if you like historical novels. I think one of the reasons I liked it so much was the background my grandpa gave me for it.

I am always interested in how my adult self reacts differently to books than my adolescent self did. I first read this book when I was about twelve years old and I am surprised none of the adults around me prohibited it. Probably because of my own innocence, I failed to see how very jaded this character actually was. For me then, there was this marvelous love she had for this man who was always just out of reach (I would mistakenly have said through no fault of her own). <br /><br />What I took away from it this time was quite different. Amber is not a lovely or likable person, and Bruce Carlton is much more callous, but for much better reason, than I had thought. There is much to be said for he never lies to her. But, like her, he is willing to take whatever he wants and damn the consequences. <br /><br />Toward the end of the novel, there is a passage which says, <i> <b> “But it was not enough, now she had it, to make her happy.” </b> </i>This, I think is the true theme of this novel. Amber is never happy with anything she gets, no prestige, no material wealth, no amount of admiration, nothing is enough for her. I suspect Bruce Carlton would not be enough for her either, but the fact that she cannot have him makes him seem like the ultimate prize. She does not understand him at all, while I think he has her nailed. He knows she is not evil, but he also knows she is amoral and insatiable. <br /><br /><i>I’ve done some things I hated, but that’s over now and I’m where I want to be. I’m somebody, Almsbury! If I’d stayed in Marygreen and married some lout of a farmer and bred his brats and cooked his food and spun his linen--what would I be?</i><br /><br />Therein lies Amber’s problem. She sees nothing of what makes a person great or even good. She has no respect for any achievement that doesn’t show itself in the form of gold and property, and she does not know what happiness is. Her greatest misfortune is the one she knows nothing of: she was born to an aristocrat. Parents who would have married and raised her in exactly the world she desires never got that opportunity because of the civil war and the rise of Cromwell. She believes herself to be common and to have risen above her beginnings. Little does she know, she has in fact sunk far below her station, even when she is the whore of the King.<br /><br />Finally, this is a very interesting peek into the court of Charles II, the great fire, the plague, the troubles of the restoration, the constant wars with France and the Dutch, and the rise of English imperialism. It is a period for which I have little frame of reference, so I enjoyed the historical aspects of the novel.<br /><br />It is a long read, but it has a fast pace and Amber holds your interest navigating between her husbands and her lover. The most interesting character for me is still Bruce Carlton. He is cut from a different cloth than many of the men of his time, and he is the seed that produced America. I also love the character of Almsbury, who might appear to be minor, but reflects a balance that the other characters lack: he is kind, steady and capable of actually loving Amber, had he ever been given a chance.

- Please sit down.<br /><br />- Thank you Prime Minister.<br /><br />- Now, as I think you heard from Carrie, we may have a little job for you.<br /><br />- Yes sir.<br /><br />- Carrie tells me you like to read.<br /><br />- Yes sir, I do. <br /><br />- Good! Then I wonder if you've read Ayn Rand's novel <i>Atlas Shrugged</i>.<br /><br />- I have read that book sir.<br /><br />- And why did you read it?<br /><br />- Well sir, so many of my American friends, particularly those - ah, to the right of the political spectrum -<br /><br />- Exactly. If you're an American with conservative values, the book you're most likely to say you've been influenced by is the Bible, and the second most likely is <i>Atlas Shrugged</i>.<br /><br />- Yes sir.<br /><br />- Did you think it was a good book?<br /><br />- Ah - <br /><br />- Please be frank.<br /><br />- Well, in that case sir, I didn't. To the British reader, it comes across as rather appallingly, how shall I put it -<br /><br />- American?<br /><br />- Ah, yes sir.<br /><br />- All the same, you agree that it does a fine job of conveying the moral virtues of being as selfish as possible. The very bedrock of conservative philosophy. And it presents female voters with a beautiful, empowered heroine they can identify with.<br /><br />- Yes sir, it does all that. But -<br /><br />- Too American.<br /><br />- Yes sir.<br /><br />- British conservatives won't read it.<br /><br />- No sir. Very few of them.<br /><br />- So, here's my question. Is there any similar book which British conservatives might read? In particular, female ones. I assume you've seen the latest bloody focus group figures.<br /><br />- Yes sir.<br /><br />- Well? Please take your time and consider it carefully.<br /><br />- Ah, sir, in fact I do have a suggestion.<br /><br />- Yes?<br /><br />- It's a 1943 novel called <i>Forever Amber</i>. By Kathleen Winsor. Maybe you know it?<br /><br />- Restoration bodice-ripper, I believe? <br /><br />- Sir, with all respect, that's very unfair to Ms Winsor's book. It may formally be a trashy historical romance, but I'm prepared to claim that it's every bit as philosophical as Ayn Rand's novel. And it argues for essentially the same position.<br /><br />- Namely?<br /><br />- Well sir, Amber's an ambitious girl, but she's been brought up on a farm. Her only future prospect is to marry another farmer and have a lot of children. She's beautiful, she's smart, she wants more. She meets a dashing nobleman and persuades him to take her away with him to London.<br /><br />- She wants to level up then?<br /><br />- Ah yes sir, you could put it that way.<br /><br />- So what happens when she gets to London?<br /><br />- Well, unfortunately, the nobleman, Lord Carlton, has to leave soon. He's headed West.<br /><br />- He's a businessman?<br /><br />- Not exactly sir -<br /><br />- An entrepreneur?<br /><br />- Ah, actually sir he's a privateer.<br /><br />- A privateer?<br /><br />- Yes sir. With the government's permission, he attacks foreign merchant ships and steals their cargo.<br /><br />- These would be European ships?<br /><br />- Yes sir. Primarily Spanish and Dutch ships.<br /><br />- So he's strongly Eurosceptic and has a buccaneering business model?<br /><br />- I, ah, I suppose you could -<br /><br />- Would the Holland of the time have included Brussels?<br /><br />- I'm, er, I'm not quite sure sir, I think the Spanish Netherlands -<br /><br />- But you could say that?<br /><br />- Well, possibly -<br /><br />- Let's get back to Amber. What happens to when Lord Carlton leaves on his business trip?<br /><br />- Initially, things don't go well. She's taken in by some tricksters and ends up in debtor's prison. But she's beautiful and resourceful and she gets out. She soon learns how to use her talents to get what she wants from men.<br /><br />- Not hampered by old-fashioned ideas about ethics then?<br /><br />- No sir. She's willing to say anything, do anything, tell any lies if it helps her get ahead. And it works. She ends up as King Charles II's favourite mistress and extremely rich and powerful. <br /><br />- How is Charles II portrayed?<br /><br />- Corrupt through and through sir. Only interested in women and partying. Completely incompetent at running the country. But popular. The people adore him.<br /><br />- I must say that I have underestimated this book.<br /><br />- Thank you sir.<br /><br />- One last question. What is Amber's hair colour?<br /><br />- She's a natural blonde sir.<br /><br />- Sold.<br /><br />- Sir?<br /><br />- We're printing fifty thousand copies and distributing them free at the conference. Can we arrange a BBC series?<br /><br />- I'll contact them right away sir.<br /><br />- I'm counting on you to make this happen.<br /><br />- I won't let you down sir.<br /><br />- Good man. Move!