![]() ![]() Winsor was born in Olivia, Minnesota, and grew up in California, where her father built a property business. In his injunction against it, the state's attorney-general noted that he had found 70 references to intercourse, 39 illegitimate pregnancies, seven abortions and almost 50 "miscellaneous objectionable passages". Though comparatively tame by modern standards, at the time these were regarded as shockingly racy and led to Forever Amber being banned in Massachusetts. ![]() But what lent the book its frisson of scandal was Winsor's vivid descriptions of Amber's many romantic encounters. The novel provides a panoramic tour of the period, taking in the Great Plague and the Great Fire of London. For Amber, "adultery is not a crime, it's an amusement". Set in Restoration England, it tells the story of Amber St Clare, the illegitimate daughter of a nobleman who, through 972 pages, works her way up from penury to the bed of Charles II by making promiscuous use of her charms, although her true love always eludes her. The book, for which the term bodice-ripper might have been coined, was published in 1944 and eventually sold some 3 million copies. ![]()
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