Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A wonderful read despite the missing ending, 21 Jan 2001
By A Customer
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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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
"You're a gang of buccaneers, you [Americans] are.", 22 Jan 2006
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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4.0 out of 5 stars
"You're a gang of buccaneers, you [Americans] are.", 30 Jun 2008
(3.5 stars) 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 the long-established society of Europe, setting the bright enthusiasms of the Americans against the ritualized behaviors of upperclass Londoners, the freedoms of the Americans against the social and familial obligations of the Europeans.
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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