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The Buccaneers (Penguin Great Books of the 20th Century)
 
 
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The Buccaneers (Penguin Great Books of the 20th Century) [Paperback]

Wharton Edith
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Paperback: 416 pages
  • Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd; Reprint edition (27 Oct 1994)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0140232028
  • ISBN-13: 978-0140232028
  • Product Dimensions: 19.9 x 12.9 x 2.4 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,531,750 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Edith Wharton
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Product Description

Review

Joep Cornelissen has done a masterful job in integrating many ideas and approaches to corporate communication: academic theories, professional cases, management and communication theories, stakeholder theories, and U.S. and European perspectives. As a result, students, scholars, and practitioners all will gain a broad understanding of the discipline by reading this book (James E. Grunig ) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Description

A companion website is available for this text

Request an e-Inspection Copy

The Third Edition of this market-leading text has been updated and expanded with contemporary case material and more detailed coverage of the main topics and trends in corporate communication.

New to the Third Edition:

- New chapters on strategic planning and campaign management, research and measurement and CSR and community relations

- Greatly expanded coverage of key areas: internal communication, leadership and change Communication, issues management, crisis communication and corporate branding

- Other topics to receive new coverage include: public affairs, social media, internal branding and issues of globalization.

- New and up-to-date international case studies, including new full-length case studies and vignettes included throughout the chapters.

- Further reading and new questions-for-reflection will provide the reader with a means to challenge and further their understanding of each of the topics in the book.

- Online teaching material for lecturers and students including: instructors manual, PowerPoint slides and new international case studies of varied length, SAGE Online journal readings, videos, online glossary and web links

Praise for the Second Edition:

"This is a must-have reference book for Chief Executives, Finance Directors, Corporate Communicators and Non-executive Directors in this "involve me" era of stakeholder engagement and corporate communications. How I wish I had had this book on my desk as a Chief Reputation Officer!" - Mary Jo Jacobi, Former Chief Reputation Officer of HSBC Holdings, Lehman Brothers and Royal Dutch Shell

'This is a comprehensive and scholarly analysis of corporate communications. It will offer students and practitioners alike a considerable aid to study and understanding which will stand the test of time in a fast changing business' - Ian Wright, Corporate Relations Director, Diageo

(20110425) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.


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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
The last of Edith Wharton's novels, The Buccaneers kept me intrigued from beginning to end. The focus of The Buccaneers is the clash of two cultures - young American women of the 1870s marrying into British aristocracy. Edith Wharton's heroines are fresh and modern, and don't seem distanced by their long dresses or old-fashioned customs. Although their lives must revolve around finding husbands, since women of their time generally had no other future than that of a wife and mother, they remain spirited and lively young women and so are fascinating characters even to us 21st century readers. Nan St George, a free-spirited girl whose dreams sit uncomfortably amongst the stiff traditions of her husband's noble lineage, is especially sympathetic as she comes to realise that her marriage has become her prison despite it being a glorious success in the eyes of society.

The description in this novel is powerful, summoning up vivid scenes in only a few well-chosen words, and her evocation of rural landscapes is often exquisite. This is a novel that those who write will delight in, and those who simply enjoy a good read will find a tale to lose themselves in. My only complaint was that Edith Wharton did not finish it before she died! I was so eager to find out what would become of Nan and whether she would eventually find happiness, that the abrupt finish mid-chapter came as a shock and I was sorry to close the book having been denied the pleasure of seeing a wonderful story come to what would undoubtedly have been an exciting and well-crafted conclusion. However, most of the novel is here, and only the ending is left to the reader's imagination.

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
By Mary Whipple HALL OF FAME TOP 100 REVIEWER
Format:Paperback
Unfinished at the time of Edith Wharton's death in 1937, The Buccaneers was later completed by Marian Mainwaring and published in 1993. Set in the late nineteenth century, it is a story in which newly rich American girls go to London for "the season" and to find husbands. Like the novels of Henry James, one of Wharton's friends, it stresses the contrast between the values of new American society and those of long-established society of Europe, setting the bright enthusiasms of the Americans against the ritualized behaviors of upperclass Europeans, the freedoms of the Americans against the social and familial obligations of those abroad.

The daughters of the St. George and Elmsworth families have been snubbed by New York society for the newness of their wealth, and when their friend Conchita Closson marries a member of the British nobility, they follow her to England, intending to participate in "the season" and perhaps find husbands of their own. Though the older girls sometimes compete for the same suitors and are preoccupied with the superficialities of society, the youngest St. George sister, Nan, still retains her carefree spirit, her innocence, and her zest for life.

Wharton completed about three-fifths of the novel before her death, leaving a plot outline for the remainder of the novel. More melodramatic than most of her other novels, The Buccaneers is filled with domestic intrigues, as straightforward but remarkably naïve American heiresses are wooed by faithless suitors who need funds to support their traditional lifestyles. Nan's courtship and marriage become the emotional and dramatic focus of the last part of the novel.

The point at which Mainwaring begins writing is obvious. Though she follows the plot summary which Wharton left behind, her language is less elegant and less formal, her emphasis on the sexual aspects of the relationships more blatant. Marriage, when viewed by the participants as a social responsibility, rather than as a free, romantic choice, leads to the opportunistic marriages we see here, with one partner gaining at the expense of the other. Women take lovers, withhold sexual favors from their husbands--and talk about everyone else who does what they are doing. Trapped in stultifying relationships, they gain social acceptance at the expense of their freedom and happiness. The ending, filled with ironies, is unique among Wharton's novels, feeling more like a Gothic romance than Wharton's usual social commentary. Mary Whipple

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Pretty pirates 25 Mar 2007
By E. A Solinas HALL OF FAME TOP 100 REVIEWER
Format:Hardcover
It's an unfortunate fact that any prolific author is going to leave a half-finished book behind them. And when Edith Wharton died in 1937, she left a partly-finished novel, "The Buccaneers," which was later finished by Marion Mainwaring. Unfortunately, Mainwaring couldn't equal Wharton's style, and the resulting book is a bit too rough to be excellent.

The St. George family is wealthy and cultured, but since they are "new money," haughty Virginia and childlike, passionate Nan are excluded from New York society. Nan's governess offers an alternative: the girls and three other snubbed debutantes will spend a season in England, where the newness of their money won't matter. The girls all jump at the opportunity (especially with handsome young aristos running around).

England's aristocracy greets them with both suspicion and delight: Most people love the honest, innocent attitude of the American girls. But when Virginia becomes engaged to a mild-mannered aristocrat, some people see the Americans as "stealing" eligible Englishmen. Meanwhile, Nan has fallen in love with an impoverished aristocrat, but she has some growing up to do first...

Okay, nobody expected Wharton's manuscript to simply sit there, unfinished. It's not very satisfying, for one thing. But "The Buccaneers" doesn't quite work as a Wharton novel. Don't worry, it's a fun read with glimmers of Wharton's wit and societal observation. She just took the story across the pond to England.

The problem is that Marion Mainwaring doesn't write like Wharton. She writes like someone TRYING to write like Wharton, and so her style and characterizations seem very exaggerated at times. Fortunately she only wrote about thirty percent of the book (based on Wharton's original synopsis) and so most of the book has Wharton's flavor.

Not that the Wharton sections are quite perfect either -- since the book was unfinished, some parts of it have a "second draft" feel. And her sharp observations feel dulled here. But it accurately captures Wharton's preoccupation with Victorian propriety, manners, and the delicate social structure around old New York. Not to mention a dash of Henry James, with the stories of American innocents abroad.

The concept of new vs. old money was a big deal in the 1870s, especially since it eventually overturned the old social order. Wharton populated her novel with wide-eyed (and sometimes loudmouthed) American girls, and impoverished young dukes and earls who are trying to keep the crumbling old estates going. Wharton also spiced up the cast with flamboyant mistresses, amnesiac noblemen, and a prim governess who happens to be the cousin of Dante Gabriel Rossetti.

Edith Wharton left a promising book behind her when she died, and fortunately "The Buccaneers" was given passable treatment by Marion Mainwaring. It's too rough to be among Wharton's best, but this flawed novel is still a fun read.
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