The Buccaneers - Edith Wharton

‘The Buccaneers’ was the last novel Wharton began before she died. The afterword explains that Wharton produced detailed outlines and notes, which allowed her biographer Marion Mainwaring to complete the novel, which was hailed as a posthumous masterpiece. Mainwaring tried to stay true to Wharton’s prose style only changing language where Wharton describes race in ways that modern readers might find offensive. It’s extremely easy to read, rather romantic but punctuated by cutting, yet small incidents that contradict the lightness of Wharton’s tone and characters.

Nan and her sister live in Saratoga with her mother, part of a hotel dwelling community of wealthy Americans, who are not quite wealthy enough to follow fashion and migrate to Newport, or the more fashionable destinations. As a consequence Nan and her friends are without eligible suitors, destined to dress up and dance for no one but themselves. Into their lives comes Laura Testvalley, a governess for Nan as she is not yet out in society. Laura is the catalyst for the girl’s trip to England where some of the American girls will cause an upset by marrying into aristocratic British families. Only too late does Laura realise that for Nan’s character may not be suited to the strict bindings of British propriety.

It’s rare to find a novel that cuts through all the cynicism and all the knowledge, that most people acquire over the years about class and gender relations. It’s my experience that after a certain point every new book about what women went through and the treatment of the poorer classes tends to get filtered through a protective barrier that has to be constructed to keep the fits of weeping, shouting and violence at bay. So while I intellectually understand how awful these things were, I no longer always fully emotionally connect with historical characters who suffer injustice – I just can’t. But in ‘The Buccaners’ Edith Wharton just takes a stone and chucks it through my barriers with passages like the one below, relating to her character Nan whose husband believes that now he has given her a sum of money, for an undisclosed reason, she has made a bargain that she will resume sleeping with him to try and produce an heir:

‘ “Well you see Annabel has been rather nervous and uncertain lately; I’ve had to be patient. But I thought – I thought that when she found she’d gained her point about the money…she…er…would wish to show her gratitude…”

“Naturally.”

“So, when the men left the smoking room last night, I went up to her room. It was particularly late, and she had not undressed. I went in, and she did thank me…well, very prettily…But when I…when I proposed to stay, she refused, refused absolutely…”

The Dowager’s lips twitched. “Refused? On what ground?”

“That she hadn’t understand that I’d been driving a bargain with her. The scene was extremely painful,” the Duke stammered.

“Yes; I understand.” The Dowager paused, and then added abruptly: “So she handed back the envelope -?”

Her son hung his head. “No; there was no question of that.”

“Ah –her pride didn’t prevent her accepting the bribe, though she refused to stick to the bargain?” '

I knew this kind of thing happened. I studied how marriage and the rape laws evolved throughout history, so I’m well acquainted with rape as a property crime, marriage actively used as a legal contract and rich wives who were expected to view sex as a financial transaction, where allowance equalled heir. It wasn’t a surprise to hear the Duke’s pragmatic opinion, but it shocked me to feel an emotional connection with this idea that had little to do with how much I liked Nan (although I did like her). The connection seemed to come straight from the way this exchange was written, simple, quick and with a minimum of any kind of author commentary.

Then towards the end, when everything seems fine and Nan, having found her perfect partner in Guy, is on her way to happiness, Wharton again proves devastating, as she shows just how culturally blind Nan’s higher class privilege makes her. Despite her friendship with her former governess Laura Testvalley, despite her chats with her husband’s servants, she still manages to miss how her happiness will damage Laura’s own chances. She misses it partly because of how concentrated she is on escaping her marriage to a new relationship, which means everything to Nan and partly because Laura’s happy ending revolves around her potential marriage to Guy’s father, a man in a much higher social position. Nan doesn’t notice the growing feeling between Laura and this man, because her position as the daughter of a moneyed family means she is conditioned not to countenance the possibility of such a relationship. Nan and her American friends initially disrupt British social ideas by marrying some of the highest ranking men (marrying an American woman, whose family money had been made in trade was not considered proper behaviour for the aristocracy of Britain) and Nan will later subvert social conventions in the pursuit of romance, yet for all this Nan still remains to an extent, adherent to the social mores of the past. And with one exchange:

‘ “There’s something else, Val, isn’t there? Have I another response – There’s something you’re not telling me!”
….
“Miss Testvalley, is there more we should know? – Some obligation? – Is there someone else who will suffer besides Ushant and” – he halted, but then went on firmly – “my father?”

Miss Testvalley looked into the friendly, worried eyes that were searching hers. Did he know, did he guess? She couldn’t tell. But if he did, what difference would it make?” '

Nan and Guy leave her friend to a never ending life of bringing up other people’s children, living in other people’s homes to support her relatives:

‘ She clenched her fists so tight that her nails cut into her palms. Where next? A textile magnate’s family in Yorkshire? A broker’s in Purley? Or New York again? Saratoga? With no respectable references…’

And with these few, harsh words it becomes clear that Nan, the heroine Wharton has encouraged her readers to champion, has revealed something that can’t help but taint their ideas about the happiness she may achieve with Guy after the book ends.

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