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The Buccaneers: A Novel is a charming historic fiction e book that follows a group of adventurous buccaneers on the significant seas. Set in the 17th century for the duration of the golden age of piracy, the novel normally takes visitors on a thrilling journey filled with swashbuckling action, betrayal, and romance. Join Captain Blackbeard and his crew as they navigate treacherous waters, struggle rival pirates, and hunt for buried treasure. With vivid storytelling and abundant character enhancement, this book is sure to transportation viewers to a planet of adventure and intrigue. Attain for The Buccaneers: A Novel and embark on an unforgettable looking at working experience currently.
DNA –
The book is much better than the movie – SPOILER ALERT!
Movies often don’t do justice to the original material and I believe this is true for The Buccaneers. After seeing the movie I was a bit wary about reading the book, but I’m glad I took the chance and hope this review encourages others to do the same.The story concerns five American heiresses â Conchita Closson; Virginia and Annabel “Nan” St. George; and Lizzie and Mabel Elmsworth â who are unable to gain entrée into the upper echelons of American society because their families’ wealth comes from “new money.” So the girls are introduced into English society with the assistance of Conchita, who has married the younger son of a marquess, and their governess, Miss Testvalley, whose previous posts included some of the noble families now on the girls’ radar.The Buccaneers was only about 2/3 complete when Edith Wharton died in 1937, and though her notes were not extensive they did include a synopsis of the main story lines. Marion Mainwaring completed Wharton’s book in the 1990s, around the same time that the movie was being made. Both achieved the end result that Wharton intended but Mainwaring’s version is superior in every way, building as she did on the foundation Wharton had laid without subordinating or supplanting it.***SPOILERS***Though the basic framework of the movie and the book are the same, the movie introduced several significant deviations that not only detracted from the story Wharton was trying to tell but turned it into soap opera fodder, i.e., Wharton never said or suggested that the Duke was sexually attracted to men, or that he consummated the marriage by raping Nan; the reason Conchita needed money was to pay off her and her husband’s debts, not to terminate an unwanted pregnancy, and her husband did not have a venereal disease; and Guy never actually occupied a political perch from which to give revolutionary speeches. Nan left the Duke in both renditions but the movie’s handling of this event was painfully anachronistic whereas Mainwaring’s depiction fits more credibly with the place, the time and the characters that Wharton described.In both book and movie Nan is the heroine of the piece, an endearing character whose romantic nature has been nurtured by her governess, mentor and friend, Miss Testvalley. The book effectively conveys why this was such a recipe for disaster: meeting the Duke among the “magical” ruins of his Cornish castle, Tintagel, Nan imbued him with qualities he simply did not possess. He was not a bad man, just so rigidly traditional and unimaginative that he didn’t know how to function outside of strict order and ritual. Even his restoration of Tintagel lacked any hint of romanticism or whimsy – he considered it a “costly folly” that he was obligated to finish only because it had been started by his father.The Duke fell in love with Nan (as much as he was capable) because of her “childish innocence, her indifference to money and honours”, but he never gave a single thought to how stifling the rigid rules, the pomp and ceremony of life as he and his family lived it, were to the very qualities in Nan that first attracted him. She was simply expected to adapt. And she might well have done so in a less stagnant, emotionally stifling setting, such as the vastly different environment she later found at Lady Glenloe’s home. But the Duke and his mother, the Dowager Duchess, had been firmly inculcated in the supremacy of tradition (“It has always been like that”), and they were as intolerant of the smallest suggestion of change as they were of Nan’s “asking the reason of things that have nothing to do with reasons.” So, for example, Nan was surprised by the radiant Correggio paintings (“those happy pagans”) hanging on the walls of her boudoir, a room previously occupied by the Dowager Duchess, until she realized the Dowager would have considered displacing the paintings to be the more subversive act.Mainwaring picks up Wharton’s thread at the point where Nan is on an extended visit to the Glenloe family. Miss Testvalley is now employed there, and Guy and his father are near neighbors and regular visitors. Guy had recently agreed to become the Duke’s candidate for the House of Commons but he knows this is impossible once he realizes he’s in love with Nan and how unhappily married she is. Too honorable to act on his feelings, neither can he bear the thought of spending time with her and the Duke as he would have to do as the Duke’s political protege. So he decides to hire on with his old engineering firm and leave England again, and he only seeks out Nan to convince her to go with him after hearing that she has left the Duke.The resolution of Nan and Guy’s love story is only part of the appeal of Mainwaring’s brilliant ending. She pulls together the threads placed by Wharton herself, drawing on the characterizations and events laid out in those earlier chapters to craft a delightfully satisfying conclusion. Reinforcing the titular theme as she ties up the loose ends, she puts on display the awe-inspiring talents of the truest buccaneers of them all, the Elmsworth sisters, as they surreptitiously aid the cause of Nan and Guy in pursuit of their own ambitious but believably achievable aims.
Carlos & Ana –
Nice read
One of those easy readings for a rainy weekend, however this is one of those rare occasions where the Apple TV version is better than the actual book adding some more details and character development.
Joanna D. –
Edith Wharton’s last novel, an unfinished masterpiece
Edith Wharton is one of my favorite, if not my favorite American novelist. The background of New York and European society life is of course always entertaining, but her deep insight into the emotional life of women is what makes me enjoy every book she wrote. My favorite may be “The Age of Innocence”. “House of Mirth” is a contradiction in title; it’s so painful to read that I find it emotionally draining. “The Buccaneers” is set again between the American and English aristocracy and super-rich, delving into the private emotions that run secretly and sometimes, scandalously not so secret, beneath the glossy surface.If you find the book difficult to get into, you can always watch the admirable miniseries with Mira Sorvino and get a flavor for the story. But the book has more characters and is richer in texture. The ups and downs of Annabelle, her family and their reversal of fortune are breathtaking.Edith Wharton died before she could finish this novel and it has been completed from her notes and synopsis. It is not my favorite novel of Wharton (that remains Age of Innocence) but it is a masterpiece and well worth reading.
Jenny Jenkins –
An Edith Wharton replica that rings hollow
The first two-thirds of the novel are interesting and historically relevant â not Wharton at her finest but as with almost anything written by Edith Wharton always a few on-point revelations about status conscious humankind sprinkled among the descriptions of clothes and social events. But then Whartonâs manuscript ends and Mainwaring steps in to complete the novel. It feels insipid, predictable and not quite right â whoever claimed they couldnât tell the difference between Mainwaring and Wharton are either lying or far from insightful readers. I was cruelly disappointed by the final third of the novel â but I am glad to have had Wharton with me during the first two thirds.
Cindie Snyder –
Not a bad read
A little different but a very good read. First time I read this author.
Norhan –
this copy is not original nor is it printed by the publisher described in the description
Misty Clouds –
Beautiful! I couldn’t put it down.
a nice guy who likes reading –
Edith Wharton’s last novel (sadly incomplete) is full of wittily observed adventures by a group of loveable American heiresses in the 1800s. I responded warmly to all of the characters and loved the story’s sense of fun which pervades right up to Wharton’s last pages. This version of the book has been completed by another writer. This second section of the book was a bit too different to Wharton’s prose for my liking and I didn’t bother reading it. I preferred to let my own imagination finish off the story.
Cliente Amazon –
Edith Wharton è una delle mie scrittrici preferite e da questo suo ultimo libro, ultimato da un’allieva dopo la sua morte, è stato tratto uno dei film che preferisco in assoluto, un vero capolavoro della BBC. Chi come me ha amato il film apprezzerà quindi anche il libro che l’ha ispirato.
Ms A Dennis –
This novel is more like a Jane Austen novel with greater humanity. The characters have strengths and weaknesses and depth. Its humerous and a really enjoyable read. It follows primarily a group of characters rather than just one and gives a much broader account of the early 20th Century than Austen. I really enjoy Wharton novels and consider this one well worth reading, Marion Mainwaring manages to complete with sensitivity and seamlessly.