Fast and Loose and The Buccaneers [Paperback]

Edith Wharton (Author), Viola Hopkins Winner (Editor, Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 22, 1993

With an Edith Wharton revival well under way, Fast and Loose, a romantic first novel begun when Wharton was fourteen and The Buccaneers, left unfinished when she died at seventy-five, are now back in print and available for the first time in one edition. The rich parallels seen when the two novels are presented together, along with Viola Hopkins Winner's critical Introduction, make this volume far greated than the sum of its parts.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

As the alpha and omega of a brilliant literary career, the two works gathered here are of interest chiefly to scholars. Fast and Loose , Wharton's first full-length work, was composed in 1876-77 when she was only 14, and, although its thematic concern with social standing and individual happiness anticipates the novels of her maturity, its plotting and characterization clearly reveal the hand of a juvenile. The boldest and most original section, in fact, is outside the work itself. Her own harshest (and truest) critic, Wharton appended three "reviews," one of which reads: "Is not the author very, very like a sick-sentimental school-girl who has begun her work with a fierce and bloody resolve to make it as bad as certain popular fiction & has ended with a blush, & a general erasure of all the naughty words which her modest vocabulary could furnish?" By contrast, The Buccaneers , left unfinished at Wharton's death in 1937, manifests a consummate artistry. (See Fiction Forecasts, June 28, for a review of Viking's Buccaneers as completed by Marion Mainwaring.) Included here is a facsimile of the version published by Wharton's literary executor in 1938; although Winner's textual notes are purely academic (e.g., "That Eglinton girl had" in one manuscript reads as "That Eglinton girl there" in another), her edition valiantly preserves the manuscript as a work-in-progress. Winner edited The Letters of Henry Adams.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Viola Hopkins Winner, an editor of The Letters of Henry Adams, has written widely on American literature.

Product Details

• Paperback: 514 pages
• Publisher: University of Virginia Press; 1st PAPERBACK edition (September 22, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0813914833
• ISBN-13: 978-0813914831
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.6 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,686,515 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars The Buccaneers, February 16, 2003

By 

J. Bennett (Nova Scotia, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fast and Loose and The Buccaneers (Paperback)

I read this book and also saw the TV movie a few years ago. I enjoyed the book very much. Very well written and I liked the ending as I couldn't see Annabelle with the stiff Duke. She belonged with Guy and they made a very adorable couple. In the movie , they changed some aspects of the book but it was still great. I recommend this book very much and the author who took over the ending due to the death of Edith Wharton did a commendable job. Well done.

3.0 out of 5 stars The Buccaneers -- completed by Marion Mainwarning 1993, October 13, 2002

By 

Ricci (Durango, CO USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fast and Loose and The Buccaneers (Paperback)

It's a shame that Marion Mainwaring took such liberties with Edith Whartons style The closing of her stories was always in another direction. And usually not a happy one.
Edith had she lived, I believe would have had the Brief Love Affair between Guy and Annibel end at Laura Testvalleys family home with a sad but brief good-bye; Annibel to Amrerica and Guy to where ever. Laura succeeds in achieving a safe harbour for her well deserved ending. And the Duke is still the Duke and that's bad enough. This ending was unfitting a good storyteller as Edith Wharton was.