The Buccaneers

The novel portrays the varying outcomes of marriages in which the parties swap American wealth for British status. As both Virginia and Nan St. George marry into the British aristocracy, crossing from New World fortunes to Old World houses, they use their father’s wealth to gain land and titles and achieve access to elite British society. However, although Virgina deems the transaction worthwhile, Nan enters marriage with Ushant without fully recognizing that the role of duchess will severely limit her actions, identity, and agency. Upon realizing that she values personal understanding and historically informed interest over the pomp and ceremony associated with Ushant’s title, she concludes that the match was a grievous mistake. However, as miserable as the marriage makes her, she understands that leaving Ushant will come at an even greater cost to her personally, as she will be turned into a social outcast with an irreparably ruined reputation.

When Nan accepts this eventuality as the cost of seizing her freedom, she faces the consequences of her own family’s strategic ladder-climbing, and her escape from this restrictive role reflects her solid core of integrity. She states privately that she cannot return to a role that treats her body as a means for succession, and she deems it “immoral” (395) for her to return to Ushant if all he wants from her is a viable heir.