Forever Amber (Paperback)

Normally I dislike reading fiction when there is so much interesting non-fiction to go round. However "Forever Amber" reminds me a lot of some of the pop-history books I have enjoyed in the past - incredibly detailed, going into lascivious detail about the period and about all walks of life, from the poor in Newgate to the upper echelons of the court. It's also heartening to read that the Stuart royal family was just as decadent as our own, and it actually makes Charles, Camilla and Diana look positively virtuous by comparison.

Amber is a very unsympathetic heroine and the end is very abrupt (there is another doorstop of a sequel here for anyone who cares to write it, about what Amber finds when she disembarks in America). Until she and Lord Bruce Carlton recover from the plague, they are both admirable characters; they seem to lose their gloss after this escapade leaves both in turn fighting for their lives, as if the Black Death has taken some of their soul away. All of the characters - including the non-fictional ones such as Nell Gwynne, who makes a cameo, the King, his mistress Barbara Palmer and her rival Frances Stewart - are three-dimensional with their own lusts, needs and station in society to maintain. While seeming beyond the pale to modern readers (or those reading the book when it was first published in 1944) they are all in their own way genuine, honest and open: Amber's only flaws are her naivete and her extravagance, which looks set to ruin her at every turn. No-one hides behind a mask of hypocrisy, not even the beatific Corinna Carlton, who is brought down into the mud of jealousy by Amber's wanton behaviour, and the delicate Queen Catherine of Braganza, whose barrenness led Charles to seek amusement elsewhere, and by failing to produce an heir for the Merry Monarch ultimately contributed to the downfall of the House of Stuart and the imposition of Hanoverian rule.

In Amber's world, it is vice which always gains the upper hand over virtue; the virtuous, such as Samuel Dangerfield, the poor Quakeress with no money to buy her way into comfort in Newgate, and Jenny Mortimer, are all diddled and left by the side of the road. Therefore any "nice" character cannot be successful; at the end of the book you find yourself siding with Corinna Carlton only to be oddly satisfied when she reveals herself to be as jealous and catty as Amber herself. The book is full of deliciously amoral catfights, and you can feel the fur fly over an emerald necklace and hear the scratch of nails on face as if it was right in front of you. Much more satifying than an angelic heroine being ripped to shreds by a cruel world!

The rich text is written in a seventeenth-century patois; while still intelligible to a modern reader the period flavour of the characters' speech betrays extensive research into terminology, oaths and cant despite sounding rather corny at times.

A really satisfying and indulgent read and one which should keep the reader absorbed from start to finish. The only similar book I've ever read is "Nana", by Emil Zola, but that is high literature and so has an unhappy ending, while "Amber" is under no such obligation - which makes the actual ending rather disappointing. Essential reading for any fans of period drama or just someone wanting something really meaty for a holiday book. One to be enjoyed thoroughly - and guiltlessly.