The Buccaneers (Abridged)

by Edith Wharton, Marion Mainwaring Narrated by Dana Ivey

Overview

Set in the 1870s, the same period as Wharton's The Age of Innocence, The Buccaneers is about five wealthy American girls denied entry into New York Society because their parents' money is too new. At the suggestion of their clever governess, the girls sail to London, where they marry lords, earls, and dukes who find their beauty charmingamp;mdash;and their wealth extremely useful.

After Wharton's death in 1937, The Christian Science Monitor said, "If it could have been completed, The Buccaneers would doubtless stand among the richest and most sophisticated of Wharton's novels." Now, with wit and imagination, Marion Mainwaring has finished the story, taking her cue from Wharton's own synopsis. It is a novel any Wharton fan will celebrate and any romantic reader will love. This is the richly engaging story of Nan St. George and guy Thwarte, an American heiress and an English aristocrat, whose love breaks the rules of both their societies.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

"Brave, lively, engaging . . . a fairy-tale novel, miraculouly returned to life"
—The New York Times Book Review

"The Buccaneers brilliantly showcases Wharton near the top of her form."
—Chicago Tribune

"Mainwaring has added gloss to the story's original elegance and wit, and the novel emerges like a master's painting from the hands of a highly skilled restorer."
—Leon Edel

"Mainwaring's version of The Buccaneers is a tour de force. . . . [She] deserves high marks for her ingenuity, novelistic skill, and critical intelligence."
—USA Today

"A sense of unobtrusive accuracy of tone and detail prevails throughout Ms. Mainwaring's [writing]. . . . It's hard to imagine a better writer equipped to take on Edith Wharton."
—The Wall Street Journal

Library Journal

12/01/2014
Wharton was one of the great chroniclers of Gilded Age excess—several of her novels drew from her experiences as a wealthy woman of the era. Her final novel, unfinished at the time of her 1937 death, follows five young Americans—the original wave of 1870s "Dollar Princesses"—as they husband-hunt among the English aristocracy. Though it was first published in its original form, two attempts have been made at completing the story—one by scholar Mainwaring (published in 1993) and one the BBC adaptation of the novel, which aired in 1995.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940169442571
Publisher:	Penguin Random House
Publication date:	11/15/2019
Edition description:	Abridged

Related Subjects

• Fiction
• Literature
• Fiction Subjects
• American Fiction
• Science Fiction & Fantasy
• Phases of Life - Fiction
• 20th Century American Fiction
• Literary Fiction
• Literary Styles & Movements - Fiction
• Travel & Transportation - Fiction
• Women's Fiction
• 20s & 30s - Fiction
• 20th Century American Fiction - 1901-1945
• Manners - Fiction
• Travel - Fiction
• Women - Between Friends
• Women - Classics
• Women - Romantic Relationships

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