10 Greatest Unfinished Novels
6. The Buccaneers By Edith Wharton
Death cheated us of the concluding chapters of the last of Edith Wharton's works, to which numerous critics would award the crown of the best of her writings had she managed to complete it. And yet, even still, what we have is a glittering piece of prose.
The novel revolves around the fortunes of five American women, wealthy and ambitious, and the titled yet penurious gentry they marry from England. In particular, the book focuses on the marriage of Nan to the Duke of Tintagel. This is a return to similar material as her earlier masterpiece, The Age of Innocence, and has her working in a genre she is most comfortable with.
Upon publication, many critics noted that The Buccaneers contains some of Wharton's finest prose: at turns ironic, witty, and always well measured and precise. Had she finished, it may have been her masterpiece. And yet, even unfinished, it was brought to a point in the story that leaves no frustration in the reader when they reach the end, and up until that point, you have page upon page of dazzling prose and astute social commentary.