JANUARY 2023 - AudioFile
Edith Wharton’s last, unfinished, novel (completed by Marion Mainwaring in 1993) is, unsurprisingly, about young women from New York’s moneyed class. In this audiobook they travel to England to seek their fortunes and husbands. Carol Monda’s British accent sometimes wavers, and the voices she creates for the characters are not uniformly strong and distinctive. But she conveys emotions well, especially those of the young women, “the buccaneers” of the title. All five of the pirates marry money or titles (in one case both), but “good” marriages are not always happy ones, and the results are (also unsurprisingly, for Wharton) mixed. Those unfamiliar with Victorian women’s fashions may be lost in spots, but this is still, overall, a satisfying listen. D.M.H. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine
Library Journal
Wharton's final novel (completed by Marion Mainwaring after the author's death in 1937) revolves around American and British society in the 1870s. Told in large part through the eyes of American debutantes, the story portrays innocent, wide-eyed, almost ethereal girls who turn into socially conscious women with financial worries--unrecognizable even to themselves. The beginning sections quickly catch the listener's attention, with lush descriptions of rooms, clothes, and the heights of feminine beauty. We enter a world of intrigue: secrets, characters with past relationships that could prove fatal, and competition taken to its limits. Its literary value notwithstanding, this book might appeal to soap opera and romance fans. For more attentive listeners, it quickly becomes disconcerting as more and more characters with awkward British-sounding names are added. It's increasingly difficult to recall who's who without backing up the tape. Most libraries can pass on this one.-- Rochelle Ratner, formerly Poetry Editor, ``Soho Weekly News,'' New York
From the Publisher
Praise for The Buccaneers
“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, author of the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winning Henry James: A Life
“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
JANUARY 2023 - AudioFile
Edith Wharton’s last, unfinished, novel (completed by Marion Mainwaring in 1993) is, unsurprisingly, about young women from New York’s moneyed class. In this audiobook they travel to England to seek their fortunes and husbands. Carol Monda’s British accent sometimes wavers, and the voices she creates for the characters are not uniformly strong and distinctive. But she conveys emotions well, especially those of the young women, “the buccaneers” of the title. All five of the pirates marry money or titles (in one case both), but “good” marriages are not always happy ones, and the results are (also unsurprisingly, for Wharton) mixed. Those unfamiliar with Victorian women’s fashions may be lost in spots, but this is still, overall, a satisfying listen. D.M.H. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine
