SRP Book Review #24:

Forever Amber by Kathleen Winsor

972 pages

Written in 1944, Forever Amber seemed to me a kind of cross between Gone with the Wind and Moll Flanders . In her characterization of Amber, Kathleen Winsor is seems like she might have been trying to capitalize on some of the success Margaret Mitchell had creating a scandalous, strong-willed heroine to drive her historical epic.

I did learn a lot about the Restoration, a time period I wasn't very familiar with before. According to the forward, Winsor became interested in the Restoration while her husband was researching the time period for his thesis. She read the same book she was reading, and her research shows in her descriptions of manners, fashion, and events such as the plague outbreak and The London Fire.

Usually, I don't enjoy books if I don't like the main character, but in spite of really disliking Amber (she's intensely unsympathetic), I found myself wanting to keep reading to see what she would do next. In fact, there was really only one character I liked in the whole book, but everyone was so outrageous that I was always entertained by what they were doing.