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Apr 26, 2011

Kay rated it:

This book is my cure for the doldrums -- a comic masterpiece. Granted, it helps to be an anglophile and a bit of a misanthrope to boot, but the antics of the villagers of Riseholme, led (or dominated) by the immortal Lucia always make me realize just how absurdly delicious life can be.

Once a Luciaphile, always a Luciaphile. It's a select but oddly inclusive group, I've found over the years. Most of my closest friends are Benson devotees. And those folks who aren't? Well, let's More...

5 comments like (6 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Writerlibrarian rated it:

First novel in his Lucia series that has been praised since it was published. It's just an exquisite portrait of a society where pretentiousness, fake emotion, fake culture are the norm. A wonderful satirical view of a class of people that are still very much alive today. Human nature doesn't change that much. Best example the poor Mrs Quantock and her addiction to fads from yoga to medium to Christian diet and so on. There is no real plot but the incisive portraits of the people inhabiting this More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Apr 05, 2010

Jeslyn rated it:

"The hours of the morning between breakfast and lunch were the time which the inhabitants of Riseholme chiefly devoted to spying on each other." Now these are my kind of people!

Hilarious - life in "backwater" England with a flair unmatched...from yoga to opera to seances, the jockeying of the village's inhabitants to hold onto (or pilfer) their "next great thing" is well worth reading.

Laughing loudly in public places while reading this...
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2 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jun 19, 2011

Rosalind rated it:

This is just the sort of thing that makes the Kindle worthwhile; I suspect that without the Kindle, this would have passed me by. And I'm so glad it didn't.

This is an account of a year in the life of a small English town early in the twentieth century, and the doings of its upper middle-class inhabitants. If that sounds unpromising then take heart; E F ’Fred’ Benson sketches his subjects with a wry savagery that is outrageously funny. At the centre of the community is Mrs Emmeline More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

May 25, 2010

Surreysmum rated it:

[These notes were made in 1984:]. I picked this up because Nicholas Pennell announced in an article that Benson's Lucia and Mapp stories were favourites ('Imitation is the sincerest form,' and all that). I can see how he might enjoy them - this, the first in the series, is written in a deliciously light, ironic tone throughout, gently showing up the silly pretensions of Lucia and her shallow friends while yet keeping us interested in their little goings-on. The events are slight enough: the ar More...

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Sep 10, 2011

Roger rated it:

These days, most of us (ahem, myself included) can only imagine what a lotus-eating life of indolence and leisure, with days spent eating, reading, playing cards and listening to music, must be like. But thanks to E.F. Benson's Mapp and Lucia books, we have a good idea of what such an existence must have been like in provincial middle England in the 1920s and 1930s. I have been a fan of these books for years. They are surely amongst the funniest novels in the English language. They are gentle More...

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Jul 10, 2009

Katie rated it:

A 1920's British novel about petty little people in a petty little town. This makes it sound so pointless, but it's not. It's the story of a year in the life of the upper middle class people in a tiny English town. They plot, they scheme, they create myriads of tiny dramas to amuse themselves. As the reader you get to laugh at their pompous attitudes and schemes. It's kind of the fictional version of Queen Bees and Wannabes.

Oddly enough you never really bond with Lucia, most peop More...

0 comments like

Jan 30, 2012

Eliza rated it:

1/28/2012: Gentle satire of 1920s and 30s British village life--not something I read a lot of, but what a refreshing read Queen Lucia is! Benson writes his hilarious characters with such sympathy that I hardly noticed their general pettiness and idiocy: they bumble through the most ridiculous schemes, they are taken advantage of on a regular basis, and they obsess and gossip over the tiniest observations of one another. Yet they are still frighteningly familiar; although their exploits are exagg More...

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Jun 04, 2011

Joyce rated it:

This was part of a single-volume collection of all of the Lucia stories that I picked up in a discount bookstore while on vacation in Florida almost 30 years ago. I bought it because I remembered how much I enjoyed watching "Mapp and Lucia" on PBS when I was in college (and if you like the stories, get the DVDs of that series; you won't regret it).

It turned out to be one of the best book purchase I've ever made. I've read the stories in that collection a dozen times -- proba More...

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Aug 15, 2011

Tracy rated it:

I've known of the Mapp and Lucia books for years but resisted reading them because I thought they might be dated and therefore difficult to read. I'm glad I finally picked one up, because I thought this book was hilarious. It's possible I like them better now than I would have when I was younger anyway, since most of the characters are in their "middle age", as I am now. The funniest aspect for me was that I know plenty of people in my everyday life, who, if they did not have childr More...

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Nov 05, 2011

Morticia rated it:

I thoroughly enjoyed this witty satire of English village life in the 1920s, the first book of Benson's I've read.

The village in question, Riseholme, is presided over by the preposterous Lucia, who views herself as both the pinnacle of culture and good taste, and the de facto organiser of village life. The book traces a sequence of events involving the arrival of a fake guru, and a charming opera singer, which expose the foolishness and shallowness of Lucia's pretensions. It's all More...

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Dec 21, 2011

Mel B. rated it:

It took me a while to figure out the characters -- three of them at the beginning all have different names. I think part of my confusion was that I got a slow start to the book over several days, so what I had read wasn't that clear.

The book is a playful look at a middle-class pretender to culture and taste, and how she directs the culture of the rest of the village. Then a newcomer, a famous opera singer, comes in and upsets her once-solid reign.

I was alternately amused and More...

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Jan 26, 2011

Katie rated it:

Queen Lucia introduces the village of Riseholme, its inhabitants and, most importantly, Lucia Lucas who presides over Riseholme’s social scene as benevolent dictator. In this first installment in the series, Lucia’s unspoken sovreignty comes under threat from an Indian guru, a Russian medium and a celebrated opera singer and we see how she deals with these attempts, whether intentional or not, to go against the status quo.

The appeal of Queen Lucia is explained rather well by Olga Br More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 24, 2009

Bob rated it:

The first of half a dozen books in the Lucia series, a gentle (though hardly subtle) satire of English small country town life in the 1920s. The first volume introduces the handful of main characters, their milieu and pretensions - among the most absurdly memorable is the classification of formality of dress into "hightum, tightum and scrub" (fully formal dress, fancy dress for more ordinary occasions and relatively casual), the appropriate designation printed on party invitations on s More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 28, 2009

Maureen rated it:

i knew about e.f. benson because ben had read some of his ghost stories, and i am wont to read ghost stories just about any where i can get my hands on them. it is not at all astonishing that i would read, for example, a collection of edith wharton ghost stories after i had forsworn reading any more of her novels (for the foreseeable future) because every time i read one i am even more depressed than i was when i started, and that is not why i want to read. that i feel that wharton's novels are More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 10, 2011

June Louise rated it:

Having read Mapp and Lucia years ago and absolutely loved it, I was very eager to read the first of E F Benson's Lucia/Mapp novels; and this one did not at all disappoint. Lucia, the town "First Lady", who *has* to be the best in everything suddenly faces opposition in the form of Olga, a glamorous singer, who moves into her neighbourhood. Not only that, but Daisy Quantock is determined to put up a fight for Riseholme Queen by introducing new fads: namely Yoga and Spiritualism, to the More...

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Oct 28, 2011

Melee rated it:

This was my first reading of a Lucia novel and I must admit I was less than enchanted. (Apparently my tastes are not on par with those of Auden and Coward.) I will try to read the next in the series or perhaps one of the later ones, but if I don't like it any better I doubt I'll continue on.

(Actually, my favourite part of the book was the introduction which detailed some of the humorous things that happened in the attempt to get the Lucia books re-published. The thing is, nowhere cou More...

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Aug 26, 2011

Stuart rated it:

I read this as it was recommended as similar to P.G. Wodehouse. I didn't find it similar except that it was set at a similar time (1910?) and dealt with the travails of the upper middle class. A town is run by a middle aged social tyrant. Slowly the village slips from her iron fist when a famous opera singer comes to live in their town and disrupts all of the power structures. Eventually all is righted and she resumes controls and the opera singer leaves. Sort of interesting but I find the cha More...

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Sep 07, 2009

Anne rated it:

Hilarious. Benson's bella Lucia and her little kingdom of Riseholmites with their squabbles and foibles are delightful. They vie for the attentions of the meditation guru from India (who turns out to be a curry cook!), and are cast under the thrall of the visiting Princess Popoffski as she performs her seances. Lucia and her sidekick, Georgie (he of the epic comb-over), impress one another by sprinkling their dialogue with simple Italian phrases, setting the scene for what is perhaps the funnies More...

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Oct 27, 2011

Esther rated it:

Aahh. I don't know. I'm hemming and hawing - Miss Mapp or Queen Lucia? Lucia is the perfect anti-hero; stuck-up, self-centered, snide - well, you name it. But *interesting* more than anything else. I despised her, but couldn't help being fascinated. (I actually liked Miss Mapp.) One thing I know for sure - I am dying to see the two of them pitted against each other. Must.Read.More. A whole lot of back-biting, cattiness and snooping in this book. I didn't find it as laugh-out-loud as "Miss M More...

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Oct 21, 2010

Shauna rated it:

With all the glowing reviews of this "satire of the pretensions and foibles of provincial middle-class life in Britain in the 1920s and '30s" I checked out the anthology of the whole series, thinking I would have a wonderful time reading romp after romp of these "fun" stories. But frankly, I could hardly make it through the first book. I put it aside again and again, even having to renew it from the library, but I was determined to slog through it to the end to see if there More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Jan 21, 2011

Mmyoung rated it:

While I have read this book at least once a year for the last two decades I never cease to find some new delight in the writing and with the characters around whom this book focuses. Having arrived once again at the last page I could hardly wait to move on to Miss Mapp.[1] Several chapters into Miss Mapp I put the book down and started to think about the similarities and differences between these two books and the impact of the 1985 British television series or public perceptions of the series, More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 03, 2011

Bettie rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

3 comments like

Jan 06, 2010

Carrie rated it:

This is the first of the Make Way for Lucia series, a collection of books written in the 1920s about Lucia, a middle aged English woman who rules those around her with an iron fist. Lucia is pretentious, selfish and scheming. She is one-hundred percent self centered. She is completely fake. She is also a hoot. The books absolutely skewer the small town life and the social scene therein, with all its artificial ups and downs, and its unceasing concern with each others business. In this book Lucia More...

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May 03, 2010

Donna rated it:

First in a comic series about life in an English village in the 1920's. Lots of spying on each other, gossip, power plays, silly fads... I definitely enjoy this type of book and I will read more in the series. The only drawback for me is that the title character, Lucia, is just not very like-able. She's scheming, mean-spirited and almost cruel to her friends. She does get taken down a peg or two but ends up back on her throne. I just wish I could feel a little bit of sympathy for her.

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Jan 19, 2012

Ann rated it:

If you haven't read the Lucia books by E.F. Bensen, you MUST! I've reread them twice already and I'm on the third reading.

The setting is a rural town in England between the two World Wars. Lucia is the queen of the middle class set in the town of Riseholme. Social intrigue is the game - fought over teas, dinners, "spontaneous" piano recitals of the Midnight Sonata, faux Italian. Lucia schemes and wins, always. Very witty. Very distracting. Very enjoyable.

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Jun 17, 2010

Sarah rated it:

I started Queen Lucia just after reading Cranford and was struck by the pairing. I feel I should compose a thesis comparing and contrasting the two works. But I won't.

Aside from the year and the snarkiness level, Riseholme is very like Cranford -- the minutiae of everyday life is the lifeblood of the town.

Adults speaking baby talk to each other made me cringe; that seems very inelegant of Lucia, especially with her Italian efforts, but perhaps that is the point.

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Feb 06, 2012

Christopher rated it:

I was immediately chuckling aloud from the first page of this book. It hilariously skewers the vanity and pettiness of a particularly provincial and smug subset of society, but just when you think all the snark might be getting obnoxious it surprises you with genuine kindness and sympathy for the human beings who have been made to appear ridiculous. I was surprised, based on the way this book began, at how bitter-sweetly it ended. I definitely intend to read the other installments.

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Jul 11, 2011

Linda K rated it:

Written in 1920, Queen Lucia is like a breath of fresh air and a nice change for me in what I have been reading. Living in the small village of Riseholme, the town's eminent quirky citizens all line up behind the doings and such of Lucia, the self-appointed Queen. Most important is who is doing what and who else knows it and how they might take credit for it. Various realms of belief to enlighten their lives are sought with fervor. The humor is superbly dry, witty and quite English in the extre More...

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Jul 29, 2009

Jodi rated it:

A light, quick read! Benson writes light-hearted humor set in England between the wars. Lucia's world is reminiscent of Wodehouse's Jeeves and Wooster, but without Jeeves' cleverness. The characters in Queen Lucia are droll and hilarious as they put on airs and meddle in small-town life. The implied author / narrator has a condescending tone that is at times quite funny and at other times a bit annoying.

3 comments like (1 person liked it)