The Buccaneers

Edith Wharton’s last unfinished novel, written in the late 1930s but set in the 1870s, tells of five American beauties whose riches are too nouveau to open the doors of New York society. So they set off for London and excitedly marry into the (often impoverished) English aristocracy where they discover that the fortunes of their hearts are of little importance to the men who become their husbands, men who only care for the fortunes of their estates.

I wrote the last 30,000 words for the BBC Books edition of THE BUCCANEERS based on Maggie Wadey’s screenplay for the 1995 miniseries, produced by the BBC and WGBH. The novel is still available in secondhand editions.