The book switches back and forth between Amber’s story and the real-life intrigue in the court of Charles II, liberally mixing historical and fictional characters. Dying in childbirth, her last wish being that the baby is named Amber, after the color of her father’s eyes. Already pregnant, she stays with a peasant family in the countryside under the assumed identity of Lady St. The book opens with a lengthy prologue detailing the story of Amber’s parentage, as a young noblewoman defies her parents arranged marriage to the Earl of Radclyffe and runs away with her one true love, as he prepares to join the Royalists to fight in the civil war on behalf of Charles I. Clair as grows from a self-centered farm girl of 16 to a haggard old crone of… 26. All of which and so much more will figure into the life of Amber St. I don’t want to be too reductive, because Restoration England is a very fertile period as a setting: there is a Civil War, religious conflict, a plague, London’s Great Fire, and women started acting on the stage. This is totally Gone with the Wind set in the 1600s I wasn’t going to bring it up, but my friend Rachael (fellow 7 th grade Junior Friend of the Library, and one of the very first supporters of this website) said it for me: I mean, I’m showing my American biases, but this does seem slightly familiar… How epic is Forever Amber? Well, it’s got a self-centered anti-heroine making her way through a Civil War and its aftermath, marrying men out of a sense self-preservation while fruitlessly pursuing her unrequited love (a gentleman born of a higher station than herself), who has married a refined lady… let’s see, Slavery in the Americas provides some key plot components… the Heroine escapes from a big fire… there is a dramatic scene involving her being shunned for wearing a scandalous gown… it was made into an epic movie with a lot of publicity surrounding the search for the leading lady… Well, Constant Readers, I vowed to get to our first massive tome of the summer in July, and I almost made it.

This week, the first selection, Forever Amber by Kathleen Winsor)

( Click here for information on the 2022 edition of Molly’s Imaginary Summer Book Club Featuring Classics of Women’s Literature.

Kathleen winsor books