The Buccaneers: A Novel (Penguin Great Books of the 20th Century) - Softcover

Wharton, Edith; Mainwaring, Marion

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140232028 ISBN 13: 9780140232028

Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group, 1994

Synopsis

Nan and Virginia St. George have the great good luck to be born beautiful and wealthy - the two qualities prized above all others in 1870s New York - but the insurmountably bad luck to come from "new money." Shunned by the snobbish guardians of Manhattan society, the lively girls still attract many admirers, but no offers of marriage from eligible men - the grail pursued discreetly but with single-minded intensity by all young women of polite birth (and their mothers). Their spirited governess, Laura Testvalley, determines to launch these buccaneers in London society, whose impoverished aristocracy, groaning under the burdens of massive country estates, are only too willing to trade a title for a fortune. But the earls and lords have failed to reckon with the strong wills of the buccaneers - especially exquisite Nan's. She dares to hope for more than position and wealth: a genuine, enduring love is what she craves, and she's willing to sacrifice everything she's attained for something true and real. Edith Wharton's novel pits tradition against vitality and change in a lushly romantic tale, observed with all her characteristic elegance and wit.

About this title

Review:

"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

About the Author:

The upper stratum of New York society into which Edith Wharton was born in 1862 provided her with an abundance of material as a novelist but did not encourage her growth as an artist. Educated by tutors and governesses, she was raised for only one career: marriage. But her marriage, in 1885, to Edward Wharton was an emotional disappointment, if not a disaster. She suffered the first of a series of nervous breakdowns in 1894. In spite of the strain of her marriage, or perhaps because of it, she began to write fiction and published her first story in 1889.Her first published book was a guide to interior decorating, but this was followed by several novels and story collections. They were written while the Whartons lived in Newport and New York, traveled in Europe, and built their grand home, the Mount, in Lenox, Massachusetts. In Europe, she met Henry James, who became her good friend, traveling companion, and the sternest but most careful critic of her fiction. The House of Mirth (1905) was both a resounding critical success and a bestseller, as was Ethan Frome (1911). In 1913 the Whartons were divorced, and Edith took up permanent residence in France. Her subject, however, remained America, especially the moneyed New York of her youth. Her great satiric novel, The Custom of the Country was published in 1913 and The Age of Innocence won her the Pulitzer Prize in 1921.In her later years, she enjoyed the admiration of a new generation of writers, including Sinclair Lewis and F. Scott Fitzgerald. In all, she wrote some 30 books, including an autobiography, A Backward Glance (1934). She died at her villa near Paris in 1937.

Marion Mainwaring (1922-2015) was an Edith Wharton scholar most notable for having completed Wharton's unfinished manuscript The Buccaneers in 1993. In addition to her research focused on Wharton, Mainwaring also published several original works including the novels Murder in Pastiche: Or Nine Detectives All at Sea and Murder at Midyears, as well as a biography on Wharton's lover, Mysteries of Paris: The Quest for Morton Fullerton.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0140232028
• ISBN 13: 9780140232028
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 416