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1Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems2Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches3Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsThe Buccaneers follows a group of wealthy American young women who, shut out of established New York society, travel to England in the 1870s hoping to secure advantageous marriages. Edith Wharton left the novel unfinished; the familiar completed version was continued by Marion Mainwaring from Wharton’s synopsis. This summary covers the premise and explains what that distinction means for readers.
What is The Buccaneers about?
In Wharton’s 1870s setting, the young women have money but lack the social standing that comes with old family lineage. Their fortunes make them unwelcome in the circles they hope to enter in New York. They cross to England, where financially strained aristocrats may value American wealth as much as the young women value a title and a place in elite society.
Laura Testvalley, a governess, helps guide the young women through this unfamiliar social world. Penguin’s edition description particularly highlights Nan St. George and her connection with Guy Thwarte. The premise turns on an exchange: American money can support an aristocratic household, while marriage may offer the American heiress access to British rank and acceptance.
Wharton described the project to a friend as “a new novel of the same period as The Age of Innocence…This one, however, is considerably less innocent,” as quoted by The Mount. The line signals the novel’s interest in the pressures and bargains beneath respectable society, rather than promising a simple romance.
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Is The Buccaneers unfinished?
Yes. Wharton did not complete the manuscript before her death in 1937. The novel was published in September 1938, the following year, in unfinished form. As The Mount’s publication history explains, Wharton’s manuscript and the later continuations are distinct parts of the book’s publication story.
The distinction matters if you are reading for Wharton’s own writing: a completed edition carries the narrative beyond her surviving manuscript, so its ending should not be attributed solely to her.
Who completed the novel?
Marion Mainwaring published a completed version in 1993, using Wharton’s synopsis as a guide. A separate completion by Angela Mackworth-Young appeared in 1995 and was based on the television miniseries, according to The Mount. These are different continuations, not interchangeable editions of one fully authored ending.
Contemporary reviewers raised questions about the challenges of turning Wharton’s unfinished material into a continuous novel. Ruth Brandon’s 1993 Washington Post review described the manuscript as becoming increasingly sketchy toward its end and questioned how successfully the completed presentation reads as a whole. A Christian Science Monitor review published September 24, 1993 noted that Mainwaring followed Wharton’s outline and reported additions to the text, including a chapter inserted between original chapters eight and nine. These are critical assessments from the time, not a settled verdict on every reader’s experience.
Which edition should you read?
If you want a completed narrative based on Wharton’s own synopsis, the Penguin paperback is credited to Edith Wharton and Marion Mainwaring. Penguin’s catalog lists it as a 416-page edition published October 1, 1994, ISBN 9780140232028. The publisher also lists ebook and audiobook formats; its audiobook download is dated November 15, 2022 and has a stated duration of 14 hours 58 minutes. See Penguin Random House’s edition page for the format details.
Choose with the authorship distinction in mind: the Mainwaring edition gives you a continuation guided by Wharton’s synopsis, while the novel Wharton herself left behind was unfinished. The separate Mackworth-Young version is another completion, with a different stated basis.
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