so NO ONE was going to tell me that there is going to be a limited series adaptation of my queen edith wharton's the buccaneers??!

L'ultimo romanzo di Edith Wharton, rimasto incompiuto, racconta la storia di alcune ragazze americane, ricche ma non di antica famiglia e perciò rifiutate dalla buona società newyorchese, che partono per il Regno Unito alla ricerca del successo in una società più gerarchica e antica, ma anche più bisognosa dei soldi dei nouveaux riches di Wall Street.

Come molti hanno fatto notare, il romanzo mette molta carne al fuoco (addirittura cinque personaggi principali, che poi perlopiù abbandona concentrandosi su due o tre), corre molto veloce con la trama e dà l'impressione, in parte anche stilisticamente che, se la Wharton non fosse morta nel frattempo, sarebbe stato significativamente rivisto e modificato. Io l'ho trovato accattivante e ben scritto ma privo della compostezza e del tono malinconico e allo stesso tempo ironico degli altri suoi romanzi, e la Wharton meno a suo agio tra i nobili inglesi rispetto alla vecchia New York in cui era nata.

Tutto sommato però una buona lettura, se non fosse che l'edizione che ho letto offre, senza soluzione di continuità con le pagine scritte dalla Wharton, un finale scritto da una certa Marion Mainwaring, che conclude il romanzo in un modo che non posso definire altro che un abominio.
Leggendo qualche articolo sulla faccenda (questa versione del libro venne pubblicata nel 1993), leggo che Mainwaring, alle critiche ricevute su questa sua conclusione, rispose le seguenti parole, che penso si commentino da sole:

"The argument that she was a great writer and how dare I? Well, I don’t think she was always a great writer, at least not as great as some. I wouldn’t have attempted this with a George Eliot or a Jane Austen novel. … Edith Wharton was not at her stylistic best here; that made it easier for me."

Nonostante la (a mio parere sciatta se non disonesta) mancanza di indicazioni su quando esattamente si smette di leggere Wharton e si inizia a leggere Mainwaring, io mi sono resa conto quasi subito che qualcosa non andava, nonostante avessi iniziato il libro convinta che le pagine concluse da qualcun altro fossero molte meno di quelle che sono effettivamente (più del 20% del romanzo): la trama diventa qualcosa di stupido e a tratti grottesco, con personaggi che si mettono a fantasticare sulla possibilità di uccidere un duca inglese in un incidente di caccia per favorire la propria ascesa sociale, e con l'apparizione in scena nientemeno che di Dante Gabriel Rossetti; i dialoghi e i monologhi interiori sono di una bruttezza imbarazzante, che non accetterei nemmeno in una soap opera: qualcuno dichiara a voce alta "I'm in love!"; una delle protagoniste è triste e pensa che vorrebbe tanto un "bear hug" da parte del padre, e in un momento precedente, dopo aver discusso col marito, dichiara che lui era "outraged. Now I understand the word. He was beyond rage".
È impossibile confondere la prosa della Wharton, raffinata, elegante, composta, caustica e allo stesso tempo ricca di comprensione per i suoi personaggi, per questa... roba. Per non parlare della assoluta incomprensione della poetica generale dell'autrice, come mostrato dal modo in cui Mainwaring conclude la storyline principale.

Se avessi scritto una cosa del genere a completamento di un romanzo di Edith Wharton (che personalmente penso sia senza alcun dubbio al livello della Austen e della Eliot), non sarei mai più potuta uscire di casa per l'imbarazzo.

E vi spoilero il finale, che è la degna conclusione, per così dire, di questa impresa:
L'amore trionfa!!!1 Avete mai visto l'amore trionfare in un romanzo della Wharton? Avete mai visto andare tutto per il meglio, tutti quanti trovare soluzioni e aggirare le strettissime regole sociali che controllano le loro vite? Bah.

The Buccaneers is a romantic anti-romance novel, if that makes any sense. Five young American daughters of fortunate financial speculators, finding themselves excluded from the crustiest New York society, begin to marry into an extended family of English nobility. As attractive as marrying into the top tier of society initially seems, navigating their responsibilities to ancestral mansions, families and tenants brings unhappiness, particularly for the youngest, Nan, who has married a duke who wanted a bride he could mold. Nan realizes that she’s made a mistake in marrying the duke, but there is no way for her to return to her schooldays, and pursing her true love will be disastrous.

This story could be completely depressing (typical for Edith Wharton) if it weren’t for the fun of comparing it to the real-life drama of the Churchill family’s American heiress brides. I listened to The Churchills: In Love and War back in February and March, and it’s clear that Wharton borrowed liberally from the sensational memoirs released by Consuelo Vanderbilt (married to the Duke of Marlborough) and Jenny Jerome Churchill (mother of Sir Winston Churchill). The result is that the book feels a little smutty, the way that reading a tabloid might.

If you don’t know anything about the disappointing fairy-tale marriages Wharton is referencing, I wouldn’t recommend this as a particularly fun or interesting read. Not that it was bad, exactly. It was just uneven. The depictions of the mothers in New York are from a comedy-of-manners, and the ruminations of Sad Nan come from a melodrama. Nan’s sister and friends basically disappear from the book halfway through, when it appeared from the beginning that they would have slightly larger roles. Wharton died before completing a first draft, so it’s possible that there would have been substantial editing. As it is, Marian Mainwaring made it a mostly cohesive story focused on Nan’s reclaiming her own identity.

I have mixed feelings about this book. Edith Wharton is exceptionally skilled in describing interactions with people. She could write about the most boring subjects and still keep you enchanted with her writing.

The story in itself is not that thrilling or exciting, but I could not put the book down because of of how well it was written. However, near the last third of the book, completed by a different author, this changes. Gone are the beautiful descriptions and the story turns into some kind of farcical soap opera. A kiss that should have filled me with emotion didn't resonate with me at all. It lacked that Wharton touch.

Compare that to the beginning of the book where just a description of the interaction between Mr. and Mrs. St. George did so much to describe their relationship: "He laid his hand on his wife's graying blond hair, and brushed her care-worn forehead with the tip of his moustache - a ritual gesture which convinced him that he had kissed her and Mrs St. George that she had been kissed."

Wharton's work is 4 stars. Mainwaring's work is 2 stars.

it's too bad edith wharton didn't live long enough to finish this bc there are so many ways the ending could've gone and i don't think marion mainwaring necessarily picked the best one. for when it was written, the story is weirdly very modern.

i adore adore adore parts 1 and 2. in a lot of ways, it read like an episode of downton abbey with the culture clashes between the english and americans, and with the sarcasm, classicism, and snobbery in conversations. i laughed out loud reading some of the dialogue in this.
part 3's time jump was awkward and i'm still on the fence about whether nan was in-character during this section.
part 4 is largely just fanfiction written by mainwaring, and while yes she did use wharton's notes, idk. i wish she'd diverted from trying to finish the story with a neat bow wrapped on top and instead focused on the characters and their interactions; in the end, it was oddly rushed and the relationships felt underdeveloped.

I found a copy of this book in a used bookstore, and hesitated before finally caving and buying it. I loved The Age of Innocence, but (as I learned from reading the book jacket while in the store) The Buccaneers is unfinished. Wharton wrote about 89,000 words of the story before dying in 1937, and Wharton scholar Marion Mainwaring picked up where the book left off and finished the novel. There's a note at the end about how Mainwaring made some changes to Wharton's draft to account for later changes in the story (and she also removed some hella racist language), but for the most part, the first two thirds of the book are primarily Wharton's. I don't like the idea of reading unfinished stories, and I can't decide what irks me more: an unfinished novel like Suite Francaise, which didn't have an ending because Irene Nemirovsky died before she could finish it; or The Buccaneers, where another author is brought in to complete the draft. Either way, it makes for a frustrating experience.

That being said, Mainwaring does a pretty good job of continuing Wharton's novel, to the point where I couldn't tell where Wharton's writing ended and Mainwaring's began. Maybe if I was a more experienced Wharton reader I would have noticed discrepancies, but as far as I was concerned, it was a solid story.

The story opens in 1876 New York, where "new money" sisters Virginia and Annebel St. George are preparing to find husbands. They find that they can't compete with the old money families of New York, and, after one of their friends marries an English lord who was visiting America, decide to follow her to England. Guided by their British governess, Laura Testvalley, the girls make their mark on the London social scene. Two more American sisters join the St. George girls, and their group becomes known as "the buccaneers," fortune-hunting Americans invading London to snatch up all the eligible lords and dukes. Each of the four American girls ends up marrying into the aristocracy, with varied success.

The story wasn't as tightly constructed or engrossing as The Age of Innocence, but I still loved reading Wharton's perspective on the shallowness and complexity of high society in the 1800's. She also makes it clear, without needing to slam it in your face, how much it sucked to be a woman in this world. The two most engrossing characters were Miss Testvalley, a confirmed spinster who's given up all hope of finding a husband and throws herself into the job of finding good marriages for her charges; and Annabel St. George, who ends up making the best marriage and is completely miserable. Her efforts to make the best of her circumstances, knowing that she's completely trapped in this life that she chose, were heartbreaking and beautiful.

"To begin with, what had caused Annabel St. George to turn into Annabel Tintagel? That was the central problem! Yet how could she solve it, when she could no longer question that elusive Annabel St. George, who was still so near to her, yet as remote and unapproachable as a plaintive ghost?
Yes - a ghost. That was it. Annabel St. George was dead, and would therefore never be able to find out why and how that mysterious change had come about. ...
'The greatest mistake,' she mused, her chin resting on her clasped hands, her eyes fixed unseeingly on the dim reaches of the park, 'the greatest mistake is to think that we ever know why we do things. ...I suppose the nearest we can ever come to it is by getting what old people call "experience." But by the time we've got that we
re no longer the person who did the things we no longer understand. The trouble is, I suppose, that we change every moment; and the things we did stay."

I hardly feel this book can be classified as an Edith Wharton -- she died before it was completed, and apparently even before it was fleshed out. The complete-r, one Marion Mainwaring (writing in 1993), stews the final chapters with injudicious parentheses, romance-novel prose (Nan is "a flower unfolding ... a rose in bloom") and exclamation points galore. God help us all.

I read this many years ago before my daughter married an Englisman.

Поради странен бъг в Amazon UK някак си съм купила незавършената оригинална работа на Уортън, а не новата версия, която е дописана от друг автор. Въпреки, че книгата не е довършена, в края има бележките на Уортън, в които е описана общо цялата история и добиваш идея какъв ще е краят за главната ни героиня.

Припомних си защо избягвам книгите на Уортън. Харесвам как пише и историите са красиви, но толкова депресиращи и убиващи всякаква светлина, че не мога да издържа повече от една на няколко години. Това реално ми е втората нейна книга и може би не беше добра идея да е последната ѝ незавършена творба, ама карай.

Хареса ми историята за петте американски момичета, които превземат английското общество, но в последните сто страници Нан (Анабел) почна много, ама много да ме дразни като героиня и откроено да ми е антипатична. Още от самото начало не харесвах Кончита, но Нан ми беше що-годе симпатична. Уви, накрая просто ми идваше да я зашлевя, което говори много добре за писателските умения на Уортън, ама не и за моята търпимост.

Та, както винаги, депресираме ме книгата и някак си се радвам, че получих само бегла идея какъв е краят. Не знам защо хората твърдят, че това е щастлив край. За мен е типично тъжен, напълно в стила на Уортън. Ако някога ме хване желанието да видя какъв край са измислили за петте момичета, винаги мога да изгледам екранизацията на Apple TV, но не вярвам да си го причиня. :)

2.5

Read because of the show and Kristine Froseth’s mention of the marriage between her character and the duke being dark in the book. Went on a rabbit hole from there and found out, while not physically abusive in the book and actually being so in the movie, was still extremely toxic. However, I didn’t rly like the book all that much. Loved it at the start, which I’m gonna assume is up until the part Edith Wharton’s parts ended, but it got tedious and kind of hard to read more than half way through. Also, I love the direction they took with Mable’s character in the show wayyyyy more than in the book.

Oh my God, if someone could resurrect the dead and had enough magic potion for one person, I would choose Madame Wharton. It devastates me that even if I visit the "W" shelf at the library a million times over, as if I were a pilgrim visiting a holy shrine, on my bleeding and torn knees, there will never be a new Wharton book propped there for me to read for the very first time. I guess I should be grateful that there are authors out there who inspire such devotion, dead or otherwise.

I've fallen in love, readers!

It took me about 12 hours from start to finish to read the last of Wharton's novels, left unfinished for decades and then completed in Wharton's style by scholar Marion Mainwaring. As I mentioned earlier, I've watched the PBS series three times now and there's something about it that gets to me. Perhaps because it's sexier and funnier and looser than what one would expect from the era, and because [SPOILER ALERT:] its ending which actually arises from Wharton's notes, is decidedly un-Whartonian. I'm terribly moved by the idea that at the end of her life, Edith Wharton would decide to write a novel about a heroine who behaves in the exact opposite way of nearly all her other major characters, who--to put it quite frankly--doesn't give a shit about social convention and flouts it utterly. I like to think of it as the author's reconciliation to romance, her final, deathbed middle finger to the rules and hierarchies with which she had such a deeply-tortured relationships.

Reading The Buccaneers is a dream for those who like comedies-of-manners for their own sake. Wharton will never be Austen: she takes ten lines to explain the social relationships that Austen dispatches with a sentence (this, I think, is evidence of Wharton's psychic struggle with society). But the first two thirds of the book, written by Wharton without revision, each page dropped off the side of her bed as she finished it, are blithe, satirical, sexy and both funny and sad.

The many scenes where the characters forge connections over poetry and art as well Nan St. George's stifling marriage and post-marital sexual awakening make me feel as though this is Wharton's Persuasion. And like that novel and other novels with heavy autobiographical elements--Copperfield, The Song of the Lark, etc. it has an emotional immediacy that feels startling and gives it a value different from a more controlled, classically perfect novel.

Wharton's contrast of Laura Testevalley, who gives up on romance and sacrifices her chance of happiness so that Nan can run away with Guy Thwarte, and Nan, who finds happiness with Guy after having giving up on it in her role as duchess, fascinates: one feels that Wharton is both Laura, in middle age loosening her scruple, and Nan herself.

Mainwaring's best contributions are a number of concluding love scenes that are satisfying (if not as satisfying as the wheat-field fornication in the film ;)) and a deft weaving-in of the horribly sexist divorce laws of the time that existed to punish women, humiliate them, and treat them as property. Marital rape is legal, and Nan's refusal to "produce heirs" for her huband after becoming emotionally estranged from him is a pivotal plot point.

This was definitely the best read I've embarked on in a while. I couldn't recommend it enough for Wharton fans who have long desired a less "thwarted" ending for her characters. I'd add that picturing Greg Wise in the romantic leading role definitely added a lot to the reading experience.



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