The Big Picture Edith Wharton's novel The Buccaneers has been adapted into a series for Apple TV+ and will premiere on November 8. The series will certainly be compared to Sanditon, the much-beloved Jane Austen adaptation whose third season aired earlier this year on PBS and BritBox. Both are historical romance novels written by literary icons. More specifically, The Buccaneers, just like Sanditon, was not completed at the time of the author's death.
Wharton is known for her writing about this period, which sets her work apart from Austen's work, and from romance novels like Bridgerton, which are set earlier in the 19th century, during the Regency era. Wharton's best-known novels are The House of Mirth and The Age of Innocence, both of which have been adapted into feature films . Wharton began writing when she was a teenager.
The novel then follows the five girls through their courtships and marriages in Britain. Nan finds herself torn between two men Guy Thwaite, son of a baronet, and the Duke of Tintagel. Wharton explores the cultural clashes between the free-spirited Americans and the British aristocrats, bound by strict social codes. Through it all is the guidance of Laura Testvalley. Wharton is frank that to Laura, being a governess is just a job, and that she needs the money desperately.