Reviews - The Buccaneers | The StoryGraph

175 reviews for:

The Buccaneers

Angela Mackworth-Young, Edith Wharton

3.72 AVERAGE

readingoverbreathing's review against another edition

4.0

emotional lighthearted sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

I tried reading (a different edition of) this years ago at a point in my life when I didn't have a lot of time to read. What with the new Apple adaptation out and me being on a bit of a Gilded Age kick at the time I started this, a revisit certainly seemed in order.

To begin: Edith Wharton is one of my favorite authors. I will genuinely read anything of hers, from her very first work on interior design to her autobiography which I also read earlier this year. This novel, however, was left unfinished upon her death and later completed by preeminent Wharton scholar Marion Mainwaring, so I braced myself and my expectations a bit.

I thought there would be some kind of noticeable turn where Wharton's manuscript ended and Mainwaring's speculation began, but I was never really able to pinpoint that much of a distinction between the two, unless it was where the timeline jumped ahead a few years and took a darker turn. Perhaps in the two and a half months it took me to read this I missed it somewhere.

I will say that the overall writing style and tone here felt very different to me than other Wharton novels I've read (though admittedly it has been a while — I've spent a lot more time with her nonfiction recently). It felt lighter, sillier, less literary, and more candid. There are overt references to sex and even a miscarriage that I wouldn't usually expect from Wharton, though perhaps that's just indicative of how late in her life this was written, the furthest from the prewar gilded world of her girlhood. It's difficult to determine how much of all of this was Wharton versus Mainwaring.

Though this tone wasn't what I was expecting, that's not to say I didn't have a good time here. The plot is a bit more fabricated than other Wharton novels, but the whole concept is just so fun that you can't help but have a good time, at least in that first half.

Overall, you could definitely tell there was something a bit off here, but I did find this a refreshing and fun break from my regular reading, especially as someone who has now spent years living in both England and America, albeit 100 years and several social rungs apart from those the St George girls and their friends occupy. I can see why Apple chose to adapt this at this present moment — the contemporary appeal is definitely there.

Content Warnings

timeforgsopinion's review against another edition

3.75

emotional reflective slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

kelly_shea's review against another edition

5.0

5 stars for the part done by Wharton! I loved finally seeing a novel of hers with female friends who actually supported each other. Wharton definitely seemed to be taking things in a new direction in her later years, and I am so sad that we’ll never know how she would have ended this.

I read a version without Mainwaring’s part. From what I’ve heard, she didn’t conclude it in a way that Wharton would have ended a novel. I also found her statements about Wharton as a whole distasteful. She only felt fit to attempt this because she thought Wharton was “not as great” as writers like Eliot or Austen? Not a great look to insult Wharton while (presumably?) earning money off of “completing” her work…