Cbr17bingo “B”
I loves me some Edith Wharton. Wharton wrote what she knew: late 19th/early 20th century old New York society (think “The Gilded Age”) and its dark underbelly. Wharton grew up amongst the New York elite, and in novels like The Age of Innocence, The Custom of the Country and House of Mirth, she devastates readers with stories of stifling social mores, the struggle of “new money” families to break into elite “old money” circles, and the terrible repercussions for women dependent on men who might be unloving and irresponsible with money. This was a world where divorce was out of the question for women unless they had some sort of independent financial resources (unlikely) and were willing to put up with being ostracized by friends and family. Wharton’s novels are beautifully written but mostly depressing at the end.
The Buccaneers was Wharton’s final novel, and one that she did not live to finish writing. According to the afterward in my edition, when she died in 1937, she left behind a synopsis of where the story was going. It was finished by Marion Mainwaring and published in 1993. Apple TV has been running its own “The Buccaneers” TV series, now in season 2, and I happened to watch season 1. I did not love it and there were a lot of things in the show that I could not imagine Wharton actually wrote. Having now read the novel, I find that I was correct in that assessment. The TV show is only very loosely based on the novel. While I don’t think this novel is on a par with The Age of Innocence or House of Mirth, I still found myself fascinated by a story in which young women from “new money” families try to climb their way to the top of the social ladder. In The Buccaneers, the young women in question move from New York to London with the aim of marrying into financially strapped titled families. We need status, you need money, let’s make a deal!
The Buccaneers is the story of Annabelle “Nan” St. George as she and her older sister Jinny, and friends Conchita, Lizzy and Mabel try to make advantageous marriages in London circa 1880. While these girls’ mothers are social pariahs in New York because their husbands earned their wealth (investing, manufacturing, etc), they never give up on trying to make it into elite circles. Through the grapevine they learn about people who can help them achieve their goals through their daughters. Two important characters in the novel are Miss Testvalley the governess and Miss March, the American matchmaker in London. Testvalley is an Englishwoman of Italian descent and is described as “brown,” which I take to mean olive skinned? Her ancestors were artists and revolutionaries, and Testvalley is known for being a very good governess. The St. George family hires her primarily for Nan, who is the youngest of the girls in the story, 16 when it begins. The other girls, being older, treat Nan as a baby and she does seem a bit naive. She loves her governess and all that Miss Testvalley knows and can teach her. Testvalley will end up being one of Nan’s best friends and a confidante. When the girls and their mothers go to London, Testvalley hooks them up with Miss March. March had come to London as a young woman with the same hopes as her clients, but her one true loved jilted her. Now March uses her connections to titled families to help rich American girls find husbands.
Among the five girls, Virginia (Jinny) St George and Lizzy Elmsworth are great beauties, but Conchita Closson is both lovely and in possession of a flamboyant personality. In social situations they along with Mabel Elmsworth enjoy dancing, practical jokes and chatting. These American girls take London by storm with young men completely charmed but their families (moms and sisters especially) find them loud and unnerving. Still, these families need an infusion of cash in order to maintain their grand homes and lifestyles, and so when some of the girls land lords, they grit their teeth and put up with it. Meanwhile, the girls’ families in New York get the attention and status they crave. Once the girls marry, they try to live up to their roles as wives of earls, etc, but at least one will struggle with a spouse who spends money like water, ensuring that they are constantly in debt.
Nan’s story, however, is central to The Buccaneers. Nan, who was always overshadowed by her older sister and friends, is a sweet girl who is curious about her new environment, art, poetry and the bigger world. She has ideas and opinions and a big heart. Miss Testvalley is protective of her, but she attracts the attention of Ushant, the Duke of Tintagel. He is perhaps the most eligible bachelor in England but he hates the idea that women pursue him because of his title. When he meets Nan, it is clear she has no idea who he is and doesn’t care. She is also sweet and seemingly malleable, so Ushant decides this is the woman for him. Fast forward a few years and the reader sees that Nan is miserable. She is depressed and feels that something of her true self has died due to her marriage. Her husband and mother-in-law insist on Nan making herself fit into old habits and traditions that mean nothing to her. Her free spirit and independence are actively suppressed, culminating in a tragic incident that irreparably damages her relationship with Ushant. When an acquaintance from the past named Guy Thwarte returns to London, Nan realizes that her marriage has been a huge mistake and that she cannot simply go on as if it weren’t.
The specter of divorce hangs over the novel, and as mentioned above, divorce was absolutely unacceptable both in American and British society. Divorces were difficult to obtain and often involved having to threaten criminal charges. Women usually suffered more as a result of divorce and had their names and reputations dragged through the mud. Divorce cases made the newspapers on both sides of the Atlantic. Wharton herself went through a divorce and from what I understand had also dealt with depression.
The end of the novel surprised me a little, not because it was shocking or jarring but because for a Wharton novel, it was relatively happy. Or maybe just not as depressing as her other novels. While not her best work, The Buccaneers was still a good novel.