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Rating: 
Summary: A travesty
Review: How could this Mainwaring person have the nerve to ruin an Edith Wharton novel? Her chapters were contrived and ridiculous, a romance novel tacked onto an intelligent exploration of Americans in England. The characters completely changed "character" when she took over. Phew! I barely made it through the last 50 pages they were so dreadful. IF YOU'RE THINKING OF TRYING EDITH WHARTON DEFINITELY SKIP THIS ONE.
Rating: 
Summary: The most romantic and well written Edith Wharton Novel.
Review: I adore this novel. It's my favorite Wharton novel and I just can't say enough about it. The language, setting, and tone just pull and draw the reader in. This novel is just so perfectly constructed. It's a wonderful read....not only do you get a WONDERFUL romance, but you get a well balanced, classical English novel. I also really love the friendship between the girls and how it ties the whole novel together.I can't even explain why and how much I love this book.
Rating:
Summary: Engaging and enjoyable
Review: I was skeptical about reading this book, since it was not complete by Edith Wharton. However, I was pleasantly surprised. Marion Mainwaring did a wonderful job of completing the novel. I was unable to tell where Edith's writing stopped and Marion's began. (The afterword describes exactly what Marion added.) -very fun book to read. I finished it in just a few days.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent novel by an excellent woman writer!
Review: The Buccaneers hooked me onto Edith Wharton. Her tone and use of subtle sarcasm is similar to that of Jane Austen. If you love Austen, give Wharton a try. Definitely lighter in tone than Ethan Frome, but equally substantial.
Rating: 
Summary: Died with Wharton
Review: The first two-thirds of THE BUCCANEERS is brilliant, Wharton's at the top of her form -- hilarious, penetrating, exciting, effortless. Before reading, I didn't know and didn't want to inform myself precisely where the original material ended; I wanted to perpetuate the hope that there could be another great Wharton novel I hadn't read. But the book dies after chapter 29. It's like falling off a cliff. You have to be pretty insensible not to feel it yourself, and it's tremendously disappointing. I couldn't read more than a few pages of the added material, and then quit out of loyalty. Still, the Wharton first draft is a kick to read -- if for no other reason, for instance, than to see what a perfect first chapter looks like.
Rating:
Summary: 5 stars to wharton and mainwaring both!
Review: The five stars apply to the book as a whole, and for Mainwaring's superb job of finishing the story that Wharton didn't live to do. I have read a lot of Edith Wharton, and this book is my favorite so far, but what I really found amazing was that I couldn't tell where one author left off and the other began. I tried to guess and found out I was mistaken! I won't give away the ending, but it's perfect down to the very last picture the reader is left with. There are lots of characters, so that the book is never boring, but not so many that it is confusing. The problems of women in the 1870s, social, legal, etc. are particularly well highlighted, and the people and the settings are entirely believable. This book made me go out and buy another Wharton novel.
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