Book to Screen
‘The Buccaneers’: Who Does Nan End Up With in Edith Wharton’s Book?
We love a faithful book-to-screen adaptation, but sometimes, it’s fun being kept on our toes. The Buccaneers has certainly been doing that.
Apple TV+’s series takes inspiration from Edith Wharton‘s posthumously published 1938 novel, but it doesn’t follow the plot to the letter. The premise, however, is the same. In both versions of the story, five rich, American girls travel to Gilded Age-era England with the goal of snatching husbands, preferably of the noble variety. As the young women shake up the English social scene, most succeed in landing matches. Some are more romantic in nature, while others… aren’t.
In Season 1, we saw Nan St. George (Kristine Froseth) torn between the penniless Guy (Matthew Broome) and Theo (Guy Remmers), a duke. The finale seemingly determined Nan’s fate: It ended with her becoming a duchess, even though she was still pining after Guy. Now that Season 2 is underway, Nan’s romantic storyline seems set in stone, but we can’t help but wonder if it truly is. We checked to see who Nan ends up with in the book, just in case the show sticks to its source material.
Is The Buccaneers book different than the show?
The show’s framework comes from the book, but it does take some liberties with Wharton’s unfinished plot by modernizing it, upping the drama, and adding some new relationships and characters. However, its central cast is the same, and in both, Nan must decide between Guy and the Duke (who goes by Ushant in the book). However, unlike the show, she doesn’t ever have strong feelings for the Duke. Regardless, they marry in both stories.
“We wanted to make [the Duke] more sympathetic, and less of a bad bet for Nan,” creator Katherine Jakeways told Town & Country. “We wanted to make it a genuine choice for Nan about which of the two romantic options she gets presented with she ought to be with. We did change the character of Theo probably more than any of the others, just to make it more of an interesting love triangle, really, rather than it just be ‘the obvious choice’ and ‘the bad choice.'”
Jakeways elaborated more on departing from the source material: “We’ve done lots that’s different from the book, of course, and we’ve taken that as a starting point and we’ve expanded the characters and we invented bits of it, but the main meat of it and the main characters are absolutely as Edith Wharton wrote them,” she told ScreenRant. Producer Beth Willis added that they didn’t refer to a copy of the book that had a complete ending, either.
Who is Nan with at the start of Season 2?
Season 2 picks up right where Season 1 left off—at Nan and Theo’s wedding. Although Nan nearly abandoned Theo at the altar, hoping to pursue her stronger feelings for Guy, she determines that her becoming a duchess will allow her to protect her sister. Jinny has run away from England to escape her abusive husband — and Guy goes with her.
So, on paper, Nan is locked into a marriage with Theo at the beginning of Season 2, but she isn’t happy about it. Meanwhile, Guy is away in Italy.
Does Nan end up with Guy or Theo in the book?
Wharton’s novel leaves off with Lizzy inviting a married Nan to a party, which Guy is expected to attend. Wharton, who died in 1937, did leave notes about how she planned to wrap up the story: Nan would have run away from her unhappy marriage to be with Guy. Writer Marion Mainwaring used those notes to write a complete version of The Buccaneers, which was published in 1993. In it, Nan abandons the Duke for Guy, but her choice is borne out of necessity as the Duke becomes increasingly villainous, assaulting her for an heir.
Since the show’s creators have been clear that the adaptation isn’t concerned with faithfulness, there’s no telling what’s in store for Nan’s romantic journey. Will Nan escape her marriage? Will Nan and Guy ride off into the sunset by the end of Season 2? Tell us your predictions in the comments below!
The Buccaneers, Season 2, Episodes Every Wednesday, Apple TV+
