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A review by courtneydoss
The Buccaneers by Edith Wharton
2.0
I don't think I have ever wanted to like a book more than I wanted to like this one. I mean, it was written by Edith Wharton and I LOVE everything she does, so why couldn't I love this?
Well, for one, this is a manuscript that Wharton died before finishing and which was taken by Marion Mainwaring in order to complete it. It was ended, I'm told, in the way that Wharton wanted it to be ended, which is great. But, and this is a big but, I'm not sure that Mainwaring was the right person to try to complete this.
Edith Wharton's style is very specific, and Mainwaring just didn't grasp it. The writing style changes so abruptly from one chapter to the next that it was impossible not to feel torn out of it, and I decided that I didn't even want to give it a chance. I finished the portion of the novel that was written by Wharton, plus a handful of Mainwaring's chapters, and I'm good with calling that done. I just can't make myself read something that is so unlike the writer that I started reading the book for.
That's not to say that I can't appreciate what Mainwaring did. It is an incredibly risky thing to take someone else's work and try to complete it in their style. Mainwaring apparently knows/knew a lot about Edith Wharton so I suppose she assumed that knowing about the person made her qualified to write it.
However, I also was turned off by knowing that Mainwaring saw Wharton as less than one of the greats. She didn't respect Wharton's work here, making a comment that she wouldn't have attempted this with George Eliot or Jane Austen. The fact that she didn't grasp Edith Wharton's talent and said something like this about work that she was pilfering really bothers me because I feel that Edith Wharton's work was nearly perfect, and it was largely because she edited and re-edited everything she did. This is the beginning of a project. Not the ending of it. And it frankly would have been just as good as any George Eliot or Jane Austen novel if Edith Wharton had had the time or Marion Mainwaring had had the respect to make it such. I just can't get behind someone who literally takes someone else's work, tacks on a quarter of the pages, and then has the balls to criticize the author and her work. Not a good look, in my opinion.
So, while I love Wharton and she has been a perfect author for me thus far, I have to rate this lower than I wanted to. But any flaws in it, I'm going to blame on Mainwaring.
Well, for one, this is a manuscript that Wharton died before finishing and which was taken by Marion Mainwaring in order to complete it. It was ended, I'm told, in the way that Wharton wanted it to be ended, which is great. But, and this is a big but, I'm not sure that Mainwaring was the right person to try to complete this.
Edith Wharton's style is very specific, and Mainwaring just didn't grasp it. The writing style changes so abruptly from one chapter to the next that it was impossible not to feel torn out of it, and I decided that I didn't even want to give it a chance. I finished the portion of the novel that was written by Wharton, plus a handful of Mainwaring's chapters, and I'm good with calling that done. I just can't make myself read something that is so unlike the writer that I started reading the book for.
That's not to say that I can't appreciate what Mainwaring did. It is an incredibly risky thing to take someone else's work and try to complete it in their style. Mainwaring apparently knows/knew a lot about Edith Wharton so I suppose she assumed that knowing about the person made her qualified to write it.
However, I also was turned off by knowing that Mainwaring saw Wharton as less than one of the greats. She didn't respect Wharton's work here, making a comment that she wouldn't have attempted this with George Eliot or Jane Austen. The fact that she didn't grasp Edith Wharton's talent and said something like this about work that she was pilfering really bothers me because I feel that Edith Wharton's work was nearly perfect, and it was largely because she edited and re-edited everything she did. This is the beginning of a project. Not the ending of it. And it frankly would have been just as good as any George Eliot or Jane Austen novel if Edith Wharton had had the time or Marion Mainwaring had had the respect to make it such. I just can't get behind someone who literally takes someone else's work, tacks on a quarter of the pages, and then has the balls to criticize the author and her work. Not a good look, in my opinion.
So, while I love Wharton and she has been a perfect author for me thus far, I have to rate this lower than I wanted to. But any flaws in it, I'm going to blame on Mainwaring.