The buccaneers

Mainwaring commendably completes Wharton's unfinished novel about five wealthy American women seeking entrance into elite society by marrying British aristocrats. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Wharton was one of the great chroniclers of Gilded Age excess-several of her novels drew from her experiences as a wealthy woman of the era. Her final novel, unfinished at the time of her 1937 death, follows five young Americans-the original wave of 1870s "Dollar Princesses"-as they husband-hunt among the English aristocracy. Though it was first published in its original form, two attempts have been made at completing the story-one by scholar Mainwaring (published in 1993) and one the BBC adaptation of the novel, which aired in 1995. (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.