When it comes to literature, I love a good period novel—notably, the work of Jane Austen. The famed British author of Pride and Prejudice is renowned for her Regency romantic comedies that poke fun of manners in high society. But if she had an American counterpart, it would no doubt be Edith Wharton, an American heiress born in 1862 and prolific writer of over 40 books. As the host of a classics book club, Wharton's oeuvre has been on my reading list for some time, and we recently voted to read The Buccaneers. The novel is currently a popular AppleTV series in its second season, with an impressive 93 percent approval rating on the Popcorn meter. So does the book measure up to the adaptation?
Everyone Is Raving About This Raunchy AppleTV+ Show—So I Read the Book to See if It's Just as Good
jane austen would be scandalized
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Published Jun 1, 2025
AppleTV
Austen Would Be Horrified—and Wharton? Giddy
The Buccaneers follows five new-money American socialites who, shunned by old-money New York high society, set sail for England. There, Nan and Jinny St. George, Conchita Closson and Lizzy and Mabel Elmsworth discover that the impoverished nobility find their beauty—and inheritances—highly charming. But a novel about high society is where similarities between Wharton and Austen end.
Where Mr. Darcy helping Elizabeth Bennet into a carriage was a cause for blush, the five rambunctious buccaneers have rightfully earned their sobriquet. They barrel into the world of the corseted peerage with brash manners, pranks and no regard for decorum.
AppleTV
Nan St. George Is a Revolutionary
While Pride and Prejudice is one of my favorite novels, one thing I can't help but remark every time I read it (doing my 21st pass this year) is that sure, Lizzie Bennet marries for love...but ultimately, nothing revolutionary changes about her station. She's still a woman in Regency England, doing what women in that time period are expected to do: Get married.
In The Buccaneers—both the book and the TV series—we live in this raucous world through through the eyes of Nan St. George. She shares Lizzie's headstrong spirit, but takes it a step further. Unhappy in her marriage to the country's most powerful duke, Nan struggles to break free. In the process, she defies convention, family expectation, tradition...all with the support of her friends. I couldn't imagine this story for many other characters of period and historical dramas, no matter how unconventional. Think about it. All the protagonists of Bridgerton end up married, even if they do it their own way. The same for all of Austen's heroines, for Jane Eyre, for Little Women and countless others.
For its time, Wharton's final novel was ambitious—even scandalous. It's refreshing to have an heroine who is ready to truly lose everything, if only to find herself. That being said, I think the series' season two will be excellent; the source material certainly is.
