I think I was about 14 years old when I was attracted by a book in my local library.
The title, the picture on the cover of a Restoration beauty with plunging neckline, and the many pages which promised days of reading pleasure, made me pick it up.
My mother’s eyebrows went up when she saw the copy, but she allowed me to read it. I still remember how gripped I was by the sexy tale of Amber St Clare and her adventures and misadaventures in Restoration London. She was a feisty, often badly behaved heroine, deeply in love with Royalist Lord Bruce Carlton, and she flings herself at him with abandon throughout many of the 972 pages (and that was after an editor had reduced the manuscript to one fifth of its original size).
It’s an historical novel which contains many real figures from history. Amber becomes mistress to King Charles II, fights with his established mistresses, meets gentlemen of the court such as the Duke of Buckingham and Samuel Pepys. The book paints a vivid picture of the English court once the King returned from exile in Europe.
Kathleen Winsor (1919 – 2003) was an American author. She grew interested in that historical period when her husband was working on a paper about Charles II and, out of boredom, she read one of the books he was using for research. She then read hundreds of other books about the era. Her novel was finally accepted for publication after it went through five drafts and it appeared in 1944. It was a runaway bestseller, selling over 100,000 copies in its first week. It popularised the name Amber for girls, and in 1947 a movie version was made, starring Linda Darnell and Cornel Wilde. 20th Century Fox paid $200,000 for the rights, one of the largest sums ever paid up until that time.
The film reduced the number of Amber’s lovers from over thirty to only five, and toned down much of the content. It was hugely costly to make, but was a box office hit. Today you can easily find the movie on YouTube.
The book’s success was probably helped by the fact that it was banned in many US states and other countries, including Australia where the Minister for Customs, Richard Keane, stated “the Almighty did not give people eyes to read that rubbish”. Most disapproval was of the fact that the novel contains adultery, 70 references to sex, 39 illegitimate pregnancies, 7 abortions and far too many descriptions of women undressing in front of men who were not their husbands – shock, horror! The Catholic Church condemned it for indecency. Forever Amber became a bestseller in sixteen countries. It’s important to remember that it came out during WWII. Women had to display resilience and fortitude, divorces skyrocketed as couples spent too long apart and the threat of war made many people live for the moment. Amber’s determination to succeed, although a defenceless woman, in the face of hardship and plague (the descriptions of the Great Plague are some of the most vivid scenes in the book) resonated with 1940s women, while descriptions of Amber’s gorgeous clothes with ruffles and lace must have seemed like a fantasy to females managing on clothes coupons. In many ways, it is an English version of Gone with the Wind and you can see why women in war-torn Britain loved it. I should think it raised their spirits no end and provided much-needed escapism.
I have never gone back to reread Forever Amber. I loved it so much that I’m afraid I’d be disappointed as an adult reader, though I do remember feeling that Amber had gone too far when she appeared almost naked at a ball. Have you ever read it? Is it a book for impressionable teenage girls and bored housewives or is it, as critic Elaine Showalter claims, “a modern classic”? I’d love to hear your thoughts. Tell me your thoughts by leaving a comment.
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