I picked up this book in large part because of all the comparisons to Gone With the Wind. The plot and character similarities are numerous, and although that classic is still the better book, Forever Amber is great fun and absolutely worth a read. Amber is an English country girl who in 1660 follows a gentleman to London to become his mistress, only to be left alone and pregnant. The result is a fascinating page-turner that takes the reader through all classes of London society over about a decade in time. Not knowing much about the Restoration, I learned a lot about the time period and particularly appreciated all the research into social history that the author had obviously done. We witness the Great Plague, the Great Fire of London, and day-to-day life from the prisons to the palace. Meanwhile, Amber's life is never dull and it's great fun to read about her going through men as she makes her way up the social ladder.

There's nothing particularly notable about the character development or quality of the prose, although I didn't find them especially bad either. The descriptions are quite evocative, even though the descriptions of finery are overdone. And it's not exactly a romance novel, in that there's precious little actual romance in the book. What we actually get, though, is better: a vivid portrayal of the decadence of Charles II's court and an era when morality and love were scorned in favor of hedonism. (Yes, believe it or not, this isn't just a bodice ripper; it's actually got something to say.) As for the book's salacious reputation, it's quite tame by today's standards; Amber has a lot of sex, but none of it is on-screen or described in detail.

I was not as interested in the chapters about King Charles and his mistresses, and didn't think they added much to the book, although I seem to be in the minority there. And I felt rather let down that many of the secrets and misadventures from the early part of the book had no effect on the later plot. For instance, the prologue shows us that Amber is secretly the daughter of nobility--but she never finds out, and her true identity has no effect on the plot. I'm not sure why this subplot exists at all. And the ending was quite abrupt. Still, these are minor quibbles about what is otherwise a delightful book.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbRyH...

This has to be the WORST book I have ever read. I got to page 300 and literally threw the book across the room. I can't understand how it got such great reviews! I loathed the main character Amber. She was dimwitted, selfish and a completely narcassitic! None of the characters in the book had any redeeming qualities and there was no way I could suffer through 1000 pages of it. Everytime something bad would happen to Amber she would throw a temper tantrum! I found myself wishing something bad would happen to her!!! Glad I didn't pay a lot for this book or I would be really mad! This book is first in line for the next garage sale we have!

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).

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.

Toward the end of the novel, there is a passage which says, n   “But it was not enough, now she had it, to make her happy.” nThis, 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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

I first read this book in 1968 and started a life-long interest in Restoration England. This novel (the unabridged version, if you please) I smuggled away to read at night. Back then, such books were not considered suitable reading material for 12 year olds.

Amber herself reminds me now of Scarlett O'Hara in GWTW (a book I didn't read until much later). Besides, my interest was not in the heroine but in the times, the events and (naturally) King Charles II himself. Okay, I'll admit to being a bit smitten by Bruce Carlton.

Reading the book again in my late 20s I still found much to enjoy. Pure escapism in an historical setting. One can do far, far worse than read this novel.

This book had everything you could ask for in historical fiction - court intrigue, infidelites, Newgate prison, smallpox, the plague, fire in London...It kept me going for 992 pages, yet I hated every character - there was no one with any redeeming qualities!! It was a very interesting read!

Charles II is restored to the throne, Cromwell is dead. Monarchy will rein once more in England. Amber St. Claire, a seemingly yeoman farmer's daughter happens across cavaliers one day and begs to be taken away from the country and travel with them into London. Here she believes, an entrancing beauty such as herself can live a larger and more important life. Lord Bruce Carlton is just the means to do it. She believes she can charm him like all the other men in her life.

Amber is a complex character, her story is about her rise and subsequent follies once she is left alone to fend for herself in London. She is vain, rash, immature and yet she is beautiful, resourceful and cunning. You will cheer her schemes and wish she fails. She does not let people, poverty, birthing children, the deadly plague, or the great fire of London stop her. She definitely uses her beauty and man's infatuation to help her rise in status in life. Amber finds that life in London isn't as easy as she thought. She is taken advantage of. Subsequently landing her in jail, the theater, a mistress, a wife a few times.

Her only love, Bruce keeps coming back to Amber's life. Each time he finds her in a better position in life, he secretly suspects that her life hasn't always been so care free each time he leaves her to travel. Carlton is an adventurer, disguised as a privateer for the Crown, Bruce refuses to crawl on his belly in Court to regain what was once his or clamor and scheme for power. He is a very respectable man in most regards, except for his refusal to marry Amber.

Possibly at first it was for her own good, but traveling through this sweeping saga, I cannot help but think that at times Amber channeled her inner Scarlett O'Hara. Bruce definitely is a different character than the other men in Amber's life. He keeps insisting about not marrying Amber, he's smart, and selfish, and I can't help but think channeling his inner Rhett Butler at times too.

I would recommend this book to any lover of great historical fiction, by complaint was that although it was detailed and you get a great representation of Charles' court, this story could have been shorter. I read on Wikipedia that the resulting 972 pages of this book was edited down by 1/5 from its original manuscript. I don't want to give too many spoilers away, if you are thinking of trying this book, I would say go for it!

I read this book as a teenager and thought it deserved another read. It was fun to see the book through old lady eyes.

First, the characters in this book are not, for the most part, likeable. Oddly, that seemed to make the book more enjoyable for me. There’s an honesty in that approach. These are people who are all scrambling to get what they want. Amber comes off as extremely selfish and self entered but that makes sense when you look at women in that time period. She has one resource and she mercilessly markets that resource to achieve her goals. She’s no different from the male characters in this book she’s just using different methods.

This was a super groundbreaking book when it was first published and you can see why. Amber is this odd feminist antihero and it was fun to get to know her again. This is a super well researched book and it works hard to capture life in restoration England. Not a quick romance read with a happy ending but we’ll worth the time. Just don’t expect to like anyone!

This is a really enjoyable piece of historical fiction. Amber St. Clare runs away from the countryside to London with a handsome young courtier after one afternoon with him. She is thought to be the daughter of a farmer but she is really so much more than that. They have a long standing relationship between his long and many travels. She endures many hardships but through sheer will and force climbs her way to money and title at court.

Amber is willful, selfish, and ruthless, yet she is also loyal, determined and an independent woman well ahead of her time who survives against unbelievable and nearly insurmountable odds. She freely enters into whatever she believes will further her cause be it sordid relationships, marriage for convenience and money, acting and comes out as a favored mistress of the King, but there is always only one person that she really wants and really cares about.

There are also other mini stories built around other personalities at court but Amber's story is dominant. I loved it, but was given pause at the ending. With time to think about the ending though I have decided that someone of Amber's grit and willingness to do whatever is needed to survive and to prosper will be fine and either turn things back to her advantage or find some new means and way of living!

Ugh! I thought I'd never finish this book. I have never before read so many pages about a protagonist I hated this much.
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.
Well. Life did 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 hated 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.
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.

My only regret is that I waited this long to quit. I had such high hopes, I was going to push toward the finish line in case Amber somehow became anything besides a pile of dirt after page 700. But then I read all the reviews and I couldn't make myself ruin my summer reading even further.

After a misfortunate beginning, Amber is raised in the country by relatives after her mother dies in childbirth. Through an acting career filled with turmoil and a fair share of awful, greedy husbands, she soon rises to infamousy in the court of King Charles.

This book was truly set up for success. True historical characters, an interesting time in history, a royal court, "scandal," a beautiful oil portrait for a cover, and every other ingredient that a bodice-ripper requires. This wasn't a bodice-ripper. It was an aggravating young girl who paraded around in low-cut dresses and was offended when men didn't fall at her feet.

I think this was meant to be a Gone With the Wind. An obese book, a fiery and beautiful narrator, hard-to-get and dashing scalawags, you name it. However, Gone With the Wind has some important components such as character development and plot.

Everyone was flat and static. Also, Amber's continuing pursuance of a man who repeatedly wanted nothing to do with her wasn't romantic, it was sad. I had no compassion for any of the characters, and wish they had actually been caught by the plague and groin boils.

All in all, I don't know who to recommend this to you. But if you like it more power to you--you are a more patient person than I.

Spellbinding till the very last sentence!

I never heard of this book written in 1944, until hearing it mentioned via old radio shows which really piqued my interest for many reason but mostly for experiencing the thrill others had when it first was published. One reading forum had someone mentioning it was basically nonsense & not worth ones time, which interested me more so. I loved every minute of this book & felt the twists and turns of this historical work of fiction. Kathleen Winsor made this period in history interesting & enlightening which she had read and researched for years. This book is 1/5 (973 pages) of its original size. Deemed pornographic in its day, but nothing compared to books of today. It has the epic appeal like Gone With the Wind, the Scarlet O'hara gumption & ruthless but dialed up more, the Dickens' London's mise en scene to all ones senses & Thackeray's Becky Sharp social climbing but more likeable IMO. From the first English civil war, Restoration, plague, London fire and more, the Royal court & the moral laxity after the Cromwell's rule. Amber lives to be someone even though she has always been since the prologue but unbeknownst to her & her undying love of someone unattainable.