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Mapp & Lucia #1-6
Mapp And Lucia - Complete Make Way For Lucia Collection
Mapp and Lucia is a collective name for a series of novels by E. F. Benson which features humorous incidents in the lives of (mainly) upper-middle-class British people in the 1920s and 1930s, vying for social prestige and one-upmanship in an atmosphere of extreme cultural snobbery. Several of them are set in the small seaside town of Tilling, closely based on Rye, East Sussex, where Benson lived for a number of years and (like Lucia) served as mayor. Lucia previously lived at Riseholme, based on Broadway, Worcestershire, from where she brought to Tilling her celebrated recipe for Lobster à la Riseholme.
6 Novels & 2 Short Stories In One Volume: Queen Lucia, Miss Mapp, Lucia in London, ... or The Worshipful Lucia, Trouble for Lucia...
6 Novels & 2 Short Stories In One Volume: Queen Lucia, Miss Mapp, Lucia in London, ... or The Worshipful Lucia, Trouble for Lucia...
Paperback
First published January 1, 1977
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About the author
E.F. Benson
1,027 books341 followersEdward Frederic "E. F." Benson was an English novelist, biographer, memoirist, archaeologist and short story writer.
E. F. Benson was the younger brother of A.C. Benson, who wrote the words to "Land of Hope and Glory", Robert Hugh Benson, author of several novels and Roman Catholic apologetic works, and Margaret Benson, an author and amateur Egyptologist.
Benson died during 1940 of throat cancer at the University College Hospital, London. He is buried in the cemetery at Rye, East Sussex.
Last paragraph from Wikipedia
E. F. Benson was the younger brother of A.C. Benson, who wrote the words to "Land of Hope and Glory", Robert Hugh Benson, author of several novels and Roman Catholic apologetic works, and Margaret Benson, an author and amateur Egyptologist.
Benson died during 1940 of throat cancer at the University College Hospital, London. He is buried in the cemetery at Rye, East Sussex.
Last paragraph from Wikipedia
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 91 reviews
January 14, 2020
I've read this one several times--whenever I need something to cheer me up it's this or Agatha Christie. Not that they're remotely the same. The Benson books are hilarious, witty and nasty. Perfect.
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December 1, 2017E. F. Benson apparently had two obsessions: ghost stories, and high society, with an unrelenting hatred of social climbers. The distant rumbles of Bolshevism and the nearer-at-home threat of Black Shirts and incipient Nazis don't stir him to the heat of indignation that he reserves for middle class people pretending to a rank to which they are not entitled; a great many of his short stories are savage satires of bumptious mushrooms trying to shoulder their way into society, to the extent of certain plots being revisited repeatedly.
His stories about the tempests in the teapots of Riseholme and Tilling are not silver fork novels. The denizens of these two towns all have cooks and maids, but the people are decidedly bourgeois, and get flustered in the presence of noble titles, whether the humans wearing the titles deserve it or not. There is nothing silver fork about the gleefully funny satire of Mrs. Poppit returning in triumph to Tilling with her Order of the British Empire, and her description of her triumphant visit to the king and queen.
The Lucia and Mapp stories are twenties and thirties English comedy of manners, whereas his early novel about Dodo was very much in the silver fork tradition. In fact, in some ways I think Mapp and Lucia define twenties and thirties comedies of manners in a way that even Noel Coward didn't quite achieve, judging by the number of references I've picked up in collections of letters, memoirs, diaries, and the occasional obscure reference in a cozy mystery or other type of novel of the period.
I end up taking these out and rereading them whenever, like now, I've got a cold and can't wrap my brain around anything else, but I've reread all my Austens and PG Wodehouse too recently.
I also don't read them all the way through. For example, I usually skip over Lucia in London, which is an entire novel about Lucia playing the snob and being made fun of behind her back. I can only stand humiliation stories if I have no sympathy whatever with the victim, and I like silly Lucia (who does have a good heart in the clinch) too much to enjoy her being slow roasted by this smug collection of duchesses and countesses. And the ultimate chapter is exceptionally painful rather than entertaining.
That said, I rejoice in the foiling of Elizabeth Mapp, as she does not in any sense have a good heart. The small doings of Tilling are even more fun than Riseholme's tempests, which I think Benson realized, because he soon brings Lucia and Georgie Pillson to Tilling, whence he proceeds to pit the two female titans against each other, one winning, then the other, with generally (I am glad to say) Lucia coming out the better.
It's surprising, just how much subversive fun Benson has playing around with gender roles. There are some married couples, and a sprinkling of widows, but except for Mrs. Boucher, who managed to produce the peculiar daughters Piggy and Goosie, and Susan Poppit, whose vegetarian, suntanning daughter is around briefly in Tilling until she fades off somewhere, there is no evidence whatsoever that anyone in either Riseholme or Tilling's high society knows anything about sex.
Georgie Pillson, who at first appears to be a rather effeminate Bertie Wooster, takes on some depth and complexity during the Olga Bracely episodes (it is clear that she, at least, lives life to the full in all senses). Irene Coles of Tilling is unrepentantly lesbian, cavorting happily through the stories until she paints a picture so heavily ironic that it is voted Picture of the Year by the Royal Academy, a painting so jaw-droppingly awful that it is regarded as genius.
In both the marriages made in Tilling, between the horrible Elizabeth Mapp and the boozy but weak Major Benjy, and then Lucia and Georgie, it is quite clear that the female wears the pants. (Or as Lucia and Georgie decide after the Mapp-Flint marriage, they wear one trouser leg each), yet Georgie is the only one who can halt Lucia's worst high flights, and it is clear that matrimony for them is very happy in its mutual innocence. Unlike Elizabeth and Major Benjy, whose silent matrimonial duel never quite achieves a lasting truce.
Some of the best chapters are about the smallest incidents, such as the War of the Poppies, and especially the tightly, brilliantly plotted chapter concerning hoarding. A little poking into Benson's life provides the information that Tilling is based on Rye, a picturesque town in which the most picturesque house was his, once belonging to Henry James. Mapp is given this house, where she rules in dingy parsimony until Lucia takes it over and makes it gracious. I wonder how many of the characters of Tilling are based on residents of Rye, or if Benson put together characteristics of all those he met over the course of a lifetime. One thing for sure, Lucia and Georgie, Elizabeth and Diva, Olga Bracely and all the others are distinctive and endlessly fun.
His stories about the tempests in the teapots of Riseholme and Tilling are not silver fork novels. The denizens of these two towns all have cooks and maids, but the people are decidedly bourgeois, and get flustered in the presence of noble titles, whether the humans wearing the titles deserve it or not. There is nothing silver fork about the gleefully funny satire of Mrs. Poppit returning in triumph to Tilling with her Order of the British Empire, and her description of her triumphant visit to the king and queen.
The Lucia and Mapp stories are twenties and thirties English comedy of manners, whereas his early novel about Dodo was very much in the silver fork tradition. In fact, in some ways I think Mapp and Lucia define twenties and thirties comedies of manners in a way that even Noel Coward didn't quite achieve, judging by the number of references I've picked up in collections of letters, memoirs, diaries, and the occasional obscure reference in a cozy mystery or other type of novel of the period.
I end up taking these out and rereading them whenever, like now, I've got a cold and can't wrap my brain around anything else, but I've reread all my Austens and PG Wodehouse too recently.
I also don't read them all the way through. For example, I usually skip over Lucia in London, which is an entire novel about Lucia playing the snob and being made fun of behind her back. I can only stand humiliation stories if I have no sympathy whatever with the victim, and I like silly Lucia (who does have a good heart in the clinch) too much to enjoy her being slow roasted by this smug collection of duchesses and countesses. And the ultimate chapter is exceptionally painful rather than entertaining.
That said, I rejoice in the foiling of Elizabeth Mapp, as she does not in any sense have a good heart. The small doings of Tilling are even more fun than Riseholme's tempests, which I think Benson realized, because he soon brings Lucia and Georgie Pillson to Tilling, whence he proceeds to pit the two female titans against each other, one winning, then the other, with generally (I am glad to say) Lucia coming out the better.
It's surprising, just how much subversive fun Benson has playing around with gender roles. There are some married couples, and a sprinkling of widows, but except for Mrs. Boucher, who managed to produce the peculiar daughters Piggy and Goosie, and Susan Poppit, whose vegetarian, suntanning daughter is around briefly in Tilling until she fades off somewhere, there is no evidence whatsoever that anyone in either Riseholme or Tilling's high society knows anything about sex.
Georgie Pillson, who at first appears to be a rather effeminate Bertie Wooster, takes on some depth and complexity during the Olga Bracely episodes (it is clear that she, at least, lives life to the full in all senses). Irene Coles of Tilling is unrepentantly lesbian, cavorting happily through the stories until she paints a picture so heavily ironic that it is voted Picture of the Year by the Royal Academy, a painting so jaw-droppingly awful that it is regarded as genius.
In both the marriages made in Tilling, between the horrible Elizabeth Mapp and the boozy but weak Major Benjy, and then Lucia and Georgie, it is quite clear that the female wears the pants. (Or as Lucia and Georgie decide after the Mapp-Flint marriage, they wear one trouser leg each), yet Georgie is the only one who can halt Lucia's worst high flights, and it is clear that matrimony for them is very happy in its mutual innocence. Unlike Elizabeth and Major Benjy, whose silent matrimonial duel never quite achieves a lasting truce.
Some of the best chapters are about the smallest incidents, such as the War of the Poppies, and especially the tightly, brilliantly plotted chapter concerning hoarding. A little poking into Benson's life provides the information that Tilling is based on Rye, a picturesque town in which the most picturesque house was his, once belonging to Henry James. Mapp is given this house, where she rules in dingy parsimony until Lucia takes it over and makes it gracious. I wonder how many of the characters of Tilling are based on residents of Rye, or if Benson put together characteristics of all those he met over the course of a lifetime. One thing for sure, Lucia and Georgie, Elizabeth and Diva, Olga Bracely and all the others are distinctive and endlessly fun.
October 18, 2011
I have just finished rereading the complete Mapp and Lucia series and, though I would have thought it beyond the bounds of possibility, I enjoyed it even more second-time around.
There are six books in the series (seven counting the included short story). Whilst each is stand-alone, they are best read in sequence and what pure delight there is in store for those at the start of this hilarious immersion into middle-class, small-town England. Though the Great War is only just behind them, the people of Riseholme and Tilling give it not a thought, so deeply mired are they in the trench warfare of their own declaration. The generals are Miss Mapp and Mrs Lucas (Lucia). The war they wage is for social dominance, their battlefields are the gardens and parlours of decorous Elizabethan and Queen Anne homes, their skirmishes are fought over recipes for red-currant fool and Lobster “a la Riseholme”, over the veracity of one’s teeth or one’s spoken Italian or one’s visiting Indian guru, and endless other matters so trivial as to be normally hardly worth mentioning, but which obsessively occupy the minds of Tilling and Riseholme with invariably complicated comical consequences. A victory is inevitably followed by a defeat which is the spur to fresh strategic campaigns and reprisals.
E.F. Benson lived in Rye (the fictional Tilling), in “Lamb House”, (Miss Mapp’s fictional “Mallards”). The town is as quaint and “delicious” as its fictional inhabitants believe it to be, as can be seen on Street-map; sadly, what cannot there be seen is spherical Diva whirring from shop to shop, Miss Mapp wreathed in awful smiles, Major Benjy infuriated at the sight of camp Georgie (“Miss Milliner”) gaily tripping down the high street, Lucia being maddeningly condescending to her subjects, all of them furious at being held up once again by dear Susan’s enormous Royce, and all of them voraciously and maliciously gossiping. They are insufferable snobs, dreadful hypocrites, unerringly selfish and completely self-centred - and I love them so, so much. Au reservoir!
There are six books in the series (seven counting the included short story). Whilst each is stand-alone, they are best read in sequence and what pure delight there is in store for those at the start of this hilarious immersion into middle-class, small-town England. Though the Great War is only just behind them, the people of Riseholme and Tilling give it not a thought, so deeply mired are they in the trench warfare of their own declaration. The generals are Miss Mapp and Mrs Lucas (Lucia). The war they wage is for social dominance, their battlefields are the gardens and parlours of decorous Elizabethan and Queen Anne homes, their skirmishes are fought over recipes for red-currant fool and Lobster “a la Riseholme”, over the veracity of one’s teeth or one’s spoken Italian or one’s visiting Indian guru, and endless other matters so trivial as to be normally hardly worth mentioning, but which obsessively occupy the minds of Tilling and Riseholme with invariably complicated comical consequences. A victory is inevitably followed by a defeat which is the spur to fresh strategic campaigns and reprisals.
E.F. Benson lived in Rye (the fictional Tilling), in “Lamb House”, (Miss Mapp’s fictional “Mallards”). The town is as quaint and “delicious” as its fictional inhabitants believe it to be, as can be seen on Street-map; sadly, what cannot there be seen is spherical Diva whirring from shop to shop, Miss Mapp wreathed in awful smiles, Major Benjy infuriated at the sight of camp Georgie (“Miss Milliner”) gaily tripping down the high street, Lucia being maddeningly condescending to her subjects, all of them furious at being held up once again by dear Susan’s enormous Royce, and all of them voraciously and maliciously gossiping. They are insufferable snobs, dreadful hypocrites, unerringly selfish and completely self-centred - and I love them so, so much. Au reservoir!
March 24, 2010
I'm adding this book years after I read it, but certain cherished passages inevitably recur in my fading memory, especially as I'm now reading Saki and Sōseki's I Am A Cat.
For years I sniffed at Benson's Lucia novels, somehow imagining that I was above them, that they were the sort of thing old queens who loved Ronald Firbank would read. Well, maybe they are – but I was wrong about myself. When I pick up this doorstop of a book, I can only echo the Foreword by Anne Parrish: "although my copies are warped from falling into brooks and baths, and their pages dotted with semi-transparencies from buttery crumbs that have fallen on them from tea-times, I cannot exhaust their freshness." In my case, the pages are wrinkled & stained from juicy burgers at Hot & Hunky, dabs of wasabi and vinaigrette from the salad bar at Harvest Market.
Which is to say, these tales are addictive – and lucky is the soul who wanders into their quintessentially English pages, because she is in for hours and hours of pure malicious merriment. At 1119 pages, it wasn't long enough.
For years I sniffed at Benson's Lucia novels, somehow imagining that I was above them, that they were the sort of thing old queens who loved Ronald Firbank would read. Well, maybe they are – but I was wrong about myself. When I pick up this doorstop of a book, I can only echo the Foreword by Anne Parrish: "although my copies are warped from falling into brooks and baths, and their pages dotted with semi-transparencies from buttery crumbs that have fallen on them from tea-times, I cannot exhaust their freshness." In my case, the pages are wrinkled & stained from juicy burgers at Hot & Hunky, dabs of wasabi and vinaigrette from the salad bar at Harvest Market.
Which is to say, these tales are addictive – and lucky is the soul who wanders into their quintessentially English pages, because she is in for hours and hours of pure malicious merriment. At 1119 pages, it wasn't long enough.
April 7, 2008
My life would have been much sadder had this book (these books, really) not have been in it. Went so far as to go on a pilgrimage to Tilling itself, where I learnt exactly how Mapp was able to spy on Lucia from the church steeple ....
December 2, 2014
These books present a quintessential fishbowl view of early 20th century priveleged English village life. The characters are so well-drawn that they're almost caricatures. They become family; they make you crazy sometimes, but just when you're ready to kick them out, they endear themselves in a way that makes you want to hug them to your chest instead. These are literally (ha! that sounds like a pun) some of my favorite books. I would take them to that proverbial desert island with me.
November 29, 2017
The GR description of this book is incorrect -- this is NOT the stage adaptation but is an omnibus edition of the complete 6 novels in the Lucia series as written by E.F. Benson.
May 30, 2025
You may have loved Lucy, but you won't love Lucia.
Frederick Benson was a popular, prolific writer in several genres, but is best known for his books featuring Mrs. Emmeline (Lucia) Lucas. Lucia is an acquired taste, but once you're hooked you'll wish Benson had written more Lucia books.
Lucia is vain, domineering, and not nearly as smart as she thinks. Petty intrigue and ill-natured gossip are mother's milk to her. You yearn to see put in her place, but none of her frenemies are people you can root for, either. All are either silly, self-absorbed, pretentious, or all three. Benson was a genius at creating small village societies which are boiling cauldrons of spite and ambition.
So what makes his books worth reading? The sly, bitchy humor is delightful and the reader is drawn into the endless feuds of the characters as they scratch and claw their way to social prominence. It's absurd, but you have to keep reading to find out what happens next.
You don't want to KNOW any of them and you don't cry when one or the other of them meets with a set-back, but they ARE interesting. How can they not be when they find themselves and each other so fascinating? They're eccentric without being aware of it and they're naively proud of being such important members of their small towns. As the old saying goes, they're big frogs in little ponds and quite happy to be so.
There are six books in the series and it's best to read them in order. "Queen Lucia" introduces Lucia, her dim husband Philip, and her prissy boyfriend Georgie Pillson. All live in Riseholme, which prides itself on being a center of Elizabethan culture. This book is notable for showing that Benson COULD create a likable character when he wanted to.
Opera singer Olga Bracely is beautiful, talented, and world-famous. She's also kind, generous, and unashamed of her low origins. Without meaning to, she threatens Lucia's position as Queen of Riseholm and the results are hilarious. Fortunately, Olga is a recurring character in the later books.
"Lucia in London" has the Queen of Riseholm abandoning her subjects when an inheritance makes living in London possible, She resolutely climbs the social ladder and his infuriated to see that Olga is already at the top of it. Typically, Olga has arrived without effort and with indifference to her social status. In the end, Lucia realizes that it's better to rule a tiny realm than to be an afterthought in London.
"Miss Mapp" leaves Lucia and Riseholme and introduces us to Miss Elizabeth Mapp, Lucia's counterpart in the seaside village of Tilling. Like Lucia, she's in a constant state of warfare with anyone who refuses to acknowledge her sovereignty. Unlike Lucia, she's single and there are no fewer than three eligible bachelors to pursue.
"Mapp and Lucia" brings Lucia (now a widow) to Tilling and it's the Clash of the Titans as the two queens battle for prominence. Georgie comes along, too, so technically that's three queens, but as Diva Plaistow observes shrewdly, "Men don't count for much in Tilling."
In "Lucia's Progress" (published in England as "The Worshipful Lucia") Lucia enriches herself by dabbling in the stock market and uses her increased wealth to become a community patroness. Money talks and the generous lady ends up being elected Mayor of Tilling, with Georgie (now her husband) as a disgruntled Prince Consort.
"Lucia in Trouble" shows the Mayoress's subjects rebelling against her despotism. As she always does, Lucia pushes people a bit too far, never seeing the dangers looming. And beautiful Olga is back in the picture and she's now a widow. Will the Queen of Tilling lose both her throne and her husband?
The two short stories attached are both good and show the rivalry between Elizabeth Mapp and Diva Plaistow in pre-Lucia days. Both are delightful. If Benson wrote any more short stories about these characters, I hope they'll be included in future editions.
This is a well-edited Kindle edition of six great books. Fred Benson died right before the outbreak of WWII. If he had lived, would Lucia have invaded London and helped Mr. Churchill defeat Hitler? If you love old novels, you should give these a try. Benson was a fine writer with a genius for mining humor from the lives of silly, pompous people. I don't love Lucia, but I love reading about her.
Frederick Benson was a popular, prolific writer in several genres, but is best known for his books featuring Mrs. Emmeline (Lucia) Lucas. Lucia is an acquired taste, but once you're hooked you'll wish Benson had written more Lucia books.
Lucia is vain, domineering, and not nearly as smart as she thinks. Petty intrigue and ill-natured gossip are mother's milk to her. You yearn to see put in her place, but none of her frenemies are people you can root for, either. All are either silly, self-absorbed, pretentious, or all three. Benson was a genius at creating small village societies which are boiling cauldrons of spite and ambition.
So what makes his books worth reading? The sly, bitchy humor is delightful and the reader is drawn into the endless feuds of the characters as they scratch and claw their way to social prominence. It's absurd, but you have to keep reading to find out what happens next.
You don't want to KNOW any of them and you don't cry when one or the other of them meets with a set-back, but they ARE interesting. How can they not be when they find themselves and each other so fascinating? They're eccentric without being aware of it and they're naively proud of being such important members of their small towns. As the old saying goes, they're big frogs in little ponds and quite happy to be so.
There are six books in the series and it's best to read them in order. "Queen Lucia" introduces Lucia, her dim husband Philip, and her prissy boyfriend Georgie Pillson. All live in Riseholme, which prides itself on being a center of Elizabethan culture. This book is notable for showing that Benson COULD create a likable character when he wanted to.
Opera singer Olga Bracely is beautiful, talented, and world-famous. She's also kind, generous, and unashamed of her low origins. Without meaning to, she threatens Lucia's position as Queen of Riseholm and the results are hilarious. Fortunately, Olga is a recurring character in the later books.
"Lucia in London" has the Queen of Riseholm abandoning her subjects when an inheritance makes living in London possible, She resolutely climbs the social ladder and his infuriated to see that Olga is already at the top of it. Typically, Olga has arrived without effort and with indifference to her social status. In the end, Lucia realizes that it's better to rule a tiny realm than to be an afterthought in London.
"Miss Mapp" leaves Lucia and Riseholme and introduces us to Miss Elizabeth Mapp, Lucia's counterpart in the seaside village of Tilling. Like Lucia, she's in a constant state of warfare with anyone who refuses to acknowledge her sovereignty. Unlike Lucia, she's single and there are no fewer than three eligible bachelors to pursue.
"Mapp and Lucia" brings Lucia (now a widow) to Tilling and it's the Clash of the Titans as the two queens battle for prominence. Georgie comes along, too, so technically that's three queens, but as Diva Plaistow observes shrewdly, "Men don't count for much in Tilling."
In "Lucia's Progress" (published in England as "The Worshipful Lucia") Lucia enriches herself by dabbling in the stock market and uses her increased wealth to become a community patroness. Money talks and the generous lady ends up being elected Mayor of Tilling, with Georgie (now her husband) as a disgruntled Prince Consort.
"Lucia in Trouble" shows the Mayoress's subjects rebelling against her despotism. As she always does, Lucia pushes people a bit too far, never seeing the dangers looming. And beautiful Olga is back in the picture and she's now a widow. Will the Queen of Tilling lose both her throne and her husband?
The two short stories attached are both good and show the rivalry between Elizabeth Mapp and Diva Plaistow in pre-Lucia days. Both are delightful. If Benson wrote any more short stories about these characters, I hope they'll be included in future editions.
This is a well-edited Kindle edition of six great books. Fred Benson died right before the outbreak of WWII. If he had lived, would Lucia have invaded London and helped Mr. Churchill defeat Hitler? If you love old novels, you should give these a try. Benson was a fine writer with a genius for mining humor from the lives of silly, pompous people. I don't love Lucia, but I love reading about her.
February 15, 2008
I absolutely love this book. It is actually a compilation of 7 stories about Lucia and Miss Mapp. The first two stories are about Lucia which I didn't get too much out of. But when Miss Mapp enters the story in book three, it becomes the most hilarious book I've ever read. It takes place in a small British hamlet and covers the lives of certain individuals who live in the town. The busybody Miss Mapp is the center of the story and I have never laughed so much as when I read about her adventures. She is a spy, just like me. Always checking on her neighbors to see what they are up to. I can't recommend this book enough.
April 9, 2021
I first found out about these characters in a 2014 miniseries. When I mentioned it to some friends they told me they had all 6 books in one volume. Wonderful!!! loved it....sorry there is not more.
May 22, 2014
"Georgie held her hand a moment longer than was usual, and gave it a little extra pressure for the conveyance of sympathy. Lucia, to acknowledge that, pressed a little more, and Georgie tightened his grip again to show that he understood, until their respective fingernails grew white with the conveyance and reception of sympathy. It was rather agonizing, because a bit of skin on his little finger had got caught between two of the rings on his third finger, and he was glad when they quite understood each other."
And that, in a nutshell, is the world of Lucia. Make Way For Lucia is the consolidation of all six of Benson’s books, approximately half of which are set in Riseholme (based on a town in Worcestershire), and half in Tilling (which is Rye). So it’s a monstrous thing once combined, and mine sits beside my bed like a Gideon bible.* I can pick it up any time, start reading anywhere, and know exactly where I am and usually what’s going to happen. Because I read it, and read it, and read it. I buy it whenever I see it in a used bookstore, and give it to someone. I have to be careful, because not everyone is going to run with it. Because ....
There is nothing of import that ever goes on. There are no children. There are no poor, at least not that we see. No one has a job. No one is particularly nice, absolutely no one is selfless, and everyone is frantically curious about what everyone else is doing. They garden, they gossip, they have tableaux, they host themed dinner parties, and when they get bored, they bring in a swami or an opera singer to stay. They are not really supposed to be realistic portraits, though they’re not caricatures. It is one of the most delightful ways to pass the time you could dream up.
It is everything, I think, to do with Benson’s homosexuality and his Englishness, and thus his scathing but generous wit, and his endlessly inventive ways to talk about the same thing and make it humorous all over again. I couldn’t imagine a straight man able (or willing) to write this book, nor even necessarily a woman, although there is that British Club of Splendid Women of a certain age that could likely pull it off. (Elizabeth Taylor and Barbara Pym spring to mind.)
The opening paragraph is quintessentially Benson, and I think it’s funny as stink. This is a desert island book, for sure and certain.
*My copy is about a four pound trade paperback, and although I could replace it with a hardcover I found in a bookstore, I’m sentimentally attached to this copy. I loaned it to a friend once and she reached over to pick it up off the floor, and ripped the cover off like tearing the wing off a bird. She confessed it to me right away, but she had trouble doing so because she found it all so funny. She still finds it very funny and it’s been years. I still do not find it funny. The cover is back on with VERY YELLOW cello tape. Kathy, I’m talking to you. Still not funny.
And that, in a nutshell, is the world of Lucia. Make Way For Lucia is the consolidation of all six of Benson’s books, approximately half of which are set in Riseholme (based on a town in Worcestershire), and half in Tilling (which is Rye). So it’s a monstrous thing once combined, and mine sits beside my bed like a Gideon bible.* I can pick it up any time, start reading anywhere, and know exactly where I am and usually what’s going to happen. Because I read it, and read it, and read it. I buy it whenever I see it in a used bookstore, and give it to someone. I have to be careful, because not everyone is going to run with it. Because ....
There is nothing of import that ever goes on. There are no children. There are no poor, at least not that we see. No one has a job. No one is particularly nice, absolutely no one is selfless, and everyone is frantically curious about what everyone else is doing. They garden, they gossip, they have tableaux, they host themed dinner parties, and when they get bored, they bring in a swami or an opera singer to stay. They are not really supposed to be realistic portraits, though they’re not caricatures. It is one of the most delightful ways to pass the time you could dream up.
It is everything, I think, to do with Benson’s homosexuality and his Englishness, and thus his scathing but generous wit, and his endlessly inventive ways to talk about the same thing and make it humorous all over again. I couldn’t imagine a straight man able (or willing) to write this book, nor even necessarily a woman, although there is that British Club of Splendid Women of a certain age that could likely pull it off. (Elizabeth Taylor and Barbara Pym spring to mind.)
The opening paragraph is quintessentially Benson, and I think it’s funny as stink. This is a desert island book, for sure and certain.
*My copy is about a four pound trade paperback, and although I could replace it with a hardcover I found in a bookstore, I’m sentimentally attached to this copy. I loaned it to a friend once and she reached over to pick it up off the floor, and ripped the cover off like tearing the wing off a bird. She confessed it to me right away, but she had trouble doing so because she found it all so funny. She still finds it very funny and it’s been years. I still do not find it funny. The cover is back on with VERY YELLOW cello tape. Kathy, I’m talking to you. Still not funny.
October 7, 2020
"Scrumptious" is a word I've probably never used in my life, but it seems rather apt for this series. E.F. Benson's delectable light comedy is a cross between Austen and Wodehouse, somehow more savage than either and yet more fond of the characters at the same time.
Queen Lucia introduces us to the immortal Emmeline Lucas, renowned for her dinner parties in which she will play the First Movement of the Moonlight Sonata, but will then beg off playing the second and third movements on the grounds that they are more "morning and afternoon" (*cough* she can't quite play them yet *cough). Lucia dominates life, along with her effete best friend Georgie, in their idyllic town of Riseholme, while Lucia in London takes the characters on the road for some urban satire. Miss Mapp, originally a separate novel entirely, shows us the life of the doughty, determined Elizabeth Mapp in the quirky, rather insular town of Tilling. Finally, in Mapp and Lucia, the two women are brought together, two generals in the field, each determined to have complete control of their terrain. Benson would eventually carry on this story in Trouble for Lucia and Lucia's Progress.
This joyous series is light and sparkling, but remains a fantastic break from reality 100 years after the first book was published. The last three novels were famously adapted in the 1980s with Prunella Scales, Nigel Hawthorne, and a career-best Geraldine McEwan in the lead roles. This led to McEwan and Scales releasing the books on tape, which are a real gem if you can find them. (Like Wodehouse, Benson's novels lend themselves to being read aloud.) The books were adapted again for a far shorter miniseries in the 2010s which was well cast but a little over-zealous in my opinion.
Since the 1980s adaptation brought the books back into the culture, several novelists have tried their hand at sequels. Tom Holt's two volumes are well worth reading, but the more recent trilogy by Guy Fraser-Sampson were, to my mind, a complete failure, utterly at odds with Benson's approach.
I was so glad to find this six-volume Folio Society edition from the 1990s, with the original six novels in beautiful cloth-bound hardcover, and elegant illustrations.
A lifelong treat for lovers of this sort of humour.
Queen Lucia introduces us to the immortal Emmeline Lucas, renowned for her dinner parties in which she will play the First Movement of the Moonlight Sonata, but will then beg off playing the second and third movements on the grounds that they are more "morning and afternoon" (*cough* she can't quite play them yet *cough). Lucia dominates life, along with her effete best friend Georgie, in their idyllic town of Riseholme, while Lucia in London takes the characters on the road for some urban satire. Miss Mapp, originally a separate novel entirely, shows us the life of the doughty, determined Elizabeth Mapp in the quirky, rather insular town of Tilling. Finally, in Mapp and Lucia, the two women are brought together, two generals in the field, each determined to have complete control of their terrain. Benson would eventually carry on this story in Trouble for Lucia and Lucia's Progress.
This joyous series is light and sparkling, but remains a fantastic break from reality 100 years after the first book was published. The last three novels were famously adapted in the 1980s with Prunella Scales, Nigel Hawthorne, and a career-best Geraldine McEwan in the lead roles. This led to McEwan and Scales releasing the books on tape, which are a real gem if you can find them. (Like Wodehouse, Benson's novels lend themselves to being read aloud.) The books were adapted again for a far shorter miniseries in the 2010s which was well cast but a little over-zealous in my opinion.
Since the 1980s adaptation brought the books back into the culture, several novelists have tried their hand at sequels. Tom Holt's two volumes are well worth reading, but the more recent trilogy by Guy Fraser-Sampson were, to my mind, a complete failure, utterly at odds with Benson's approach.
I was so glad to find this six-volume Folio Society edition from the 1990s, with the original six novels in beautiful cloth-bound hardcover, and elegant illustrations.
A lifelong treat for lovers of this sort of humour.
February 15, 2020
I read these stories many years ago when I found the books at some sort of sale. I found them quite entertaining and decided I needed a little light-hearted reading and wanted to read them again. So I am.
I had to take a break. I can only take so much cleverness and snark before I needed a rest from it. I did read seven of the stories and got partway through the last before I stopped.
Lucia is the "Queen" of Riseholme. She and her husband are undisputed leaders of the society in Riseholme. There are occasional skirmishes and rebellions, but she usually manages to triumph. If she doesn't, she magnificently ignores the whole thing. Then she moves to Tilling where Elizabeth Mapp runs the society. There then ensues a deal of jockeying and wheeling and dealing as to who comes out on top as the recognized leader in the society. Lots of snarky antics and wild goings on. Amusing stories and quite a bit of fun.
I had to take a break. I can only take so much cleverness and snark before I needed a rest from it. I did read seven of the stories and got partway through the last before I stopped.
Lucia is the "Queen" of Riseholme. She and her husband are undisputed leaders of the society in Riseholme. There are occasional skirmishes and rebellions, but she usually manages to triumph. If she doesn't, she magnificently ignores the whole thing. Then she moves to Tilling where Elizabeth Mapp runs the society. There then ensues a deal of jockeying and wheeling and dealing as to who comes out on top as the recognized leader in the society. Lots of snarky antics and wild goings on. Amusing stories and quite a bit of fun.
Read
July 29, 2012Mapp and Lucia: The Complete Series contains all six of the Lucia novels, which are also compiled under the title Make Way for Lucia. The novels, needless to say, are excellent -- particularly the first four. You'll laugh out loud.
This Kindle anthology contains no table of contents and is otherwise quite difficult to navigate. The font, very difficult to read, is one I haven't seen since the days of IBM Selectric typewriters. Considering Mapp and Lucia: The Complete Series cost a mere 99 cents, it's OK, but don't expect the usual Kindle quality. In fact, every free Kindle book I've gotten has been of higher quality. Caveat emptor.
This Kindle anthology contains no table of contents and is otherwise quite difficult to navigate. The font, very difficult to read, is one I haven't seen since the days of IBM Selectric typewriters. Considering Mapp and Lucia: The Complete Series cost a mere 99 cents, it's OK, but don't expect the usual Kindle quality. In fact, every free Kindle book I've gotten has been of higher quality. Caveat emptor.
October 29, 2021
I've read it, and read it again, and again, and again. Now I'm reading it again. This is likely the only book I have read as many times. I can predict the dialogue and narrative as it happens. And yet I keep wanting to read it again. Can you tell I love all of the Lucia and Mapp books? One of the things that happens every time for me is that my opinion of Lucia changes from bad to good every time as I meet Miss Mapp. Benson does a fine job of creating a society where the main characters have nothing to do but entertain themselves and each other. No actor will every be able to fully portray them as well as the author does.
January 4, 2009
My mom lent me this book last Christmas. It's one of her favorites -- she'd been talking it up to me for a long time. It's a collection of seven novels about a character named Lucia, the town she lives in, and all her wacky friends. Takes place in England in the 1930s (or is it 1940s?). I've read the first two novels, and just started the third. It's a fun read. The characters are vivid and memorable, and their exploits are funny -- very entertaining.
November 13, 2007
This is the all-time sure-fire depression cure! Whenever I have the blues, I dip into this book. The War of the Chintz Roses; Mapp's underhanded efforts to steal the recipe for Lobster a la Riseholme, Georgie's beard, and Diva striving to keep her place as Queen of the Fete...
A hysterical comedy of manners, set in Britain between the wars.
A hysterical comedy of manners, set in Britain between the wars.
December 7, 2012
This book forever to read, but was worth it. I enjoyed the humour, and it's a very different type of read for me.
January 26, 2021
Somewhat of a guilty pleasure. Should we delight in a male author making fun of the pretentions and machinations of upper middle class women, circa 1920-1939. Edward Frederic Benson creates an isolated world: no mention of shell shock, strikes, depressions here. Virtually no mention of children, except in groups upon whom the ladies bestow charitable outings.
While the tale is of the property owners in two small English towns: Riselholme and Tilling (the later based on Rye, where Benson lived at the end of his life), there is a bit of an Upstairs/Downstairs element. The servants provide back channel gossip; sometimes their masters' lives are dependent upon the whims and loves of the servants.
Benson creates Lucia, the self-appointed queen of Riselholme and Mapp the wannabe queen of Tilling in separate novels. Then he has the widowed Lucia move to Tilling and the war is on in the later novels.
Benson does also make fun of the mostly stuffy male characters, but except for one, they are subsidiary to the main plot. The exception is Georgie Pillson, one of the first gay characters in English fiction. Georgie's life revolves around Lucia. Eventually in the series he marries her after following her from Riselholme to Tilling. But Benson makes it perfectly clear that Georgie has a horror of sexual relations with women; he adores the ladies' gossip, but is too occupied by his needlework, painting, music, and sartorial decisions to have physical contact beyond holding hands.
Benson comes by his knowledge of gay men through his own experience. He came from an extraordinary, particularly for the times, family. His father became Archbishop of Canterbury; when he died, his wife brings her lesbian lover into her house for the remainder of her life. Benson and all his siblings were gay. After his friend, Oscar Wilde was imprisoned, Benson moved to the expatriate gay community on Capri. Later he was great friends with Henry James and lived in James' Lamb House in Rye after James' death. Lamb House is the model for Mallards in the Lucia novels.
Make Way for Lucia makes for light reading, if you can get past its total absorption in societal power ploys. I came across it as a recommendation by the Washington Post for pandemic reading.
While the tale is of the property owners in two small English towns: Riselholme and Tilling (the later based on Rye, where Benson lived at the end of his life), there is a bit of an Upstairs/Downstairs element. The servants provide back channel gossip; sometimes their masters' lives are dependent upon the whims and loves of the servants.
Benson creates Lucia, the self-appointed queen of Riselholme and Mapp the wannabe queen of Tilling in separate novels. Then he has the widowed Lucia move to Tilling and the war is on in the later novels.
Benson does also make fun of the mostly stuffy male characters, but except for one, they are subsidiary to the main plot. The exception is Georgie Pillson, one of the first gay characters in English fiction. Georgie's life revolves around Lucia. Eventually in the series he marries her after following her from Riselholme to Tilling. But Benson makes it perfectly clear that Georgie has a horror of sexual relations with women; he adores the ladies' gossip, but is too occupied by his needlework, painting, music, and sartorial decisions to have physical contact beyond holding hands.
Benson comes by his knowledge of gay men through his own experience. He came from an extraordinary, particularly for the times, family. His father became Archbishop of Canterbury; when he died, his wife brings her lesbian lover into her house for the remainder of her life. Benson and all his siblings were gay. After his friend, Oscar Wilde was imprisoned, Benson moved to the expatriate gay community on Capri. Later he was great friends with Henry James and lived in James' Lamb House in Rye after James' death. Lamb House is the model for Mallards in the Lucia novels.
Make Way for Lucia makes for light reading, if you can get past its total absorption in societal power ploys. I came across it as a recommendation by the Washington Post for pandemic reading.
June 6, 2021
I've never seen either a TV mini-series or a play of "Lucia," but for some reason when I saw this I realized it was something I should pick up. What I ended up reading was Part One ("Make Way For Lucia") of "Queen Lucia" - and what a delight it was.
Not knowing what to expect, I had trouble getting into the story, but once opera singer Olga Bracely arrived in Riseholme, the book was absolutely charming. Olga, with her generous nature; Lucia, with her pretentious ways and endless need for adoration, and Georgie, transferring his devotion from Lucia to Olga with nary a backward glance. Each story - from the Yogi to the Italian encounter to the Medium - is fraught with the overwrought, and entertaining, social disasters.
E. F. Bensen (1867-1940) wrote over 80 books, including biographies, autobiographical sketches, ghost stories, and six notable Lucia stories (for which I will now be searching endlessly). Satire seemed to be his greatest gift and his biggest success.
I don't think this sort of book is for everyone, but it certainly is satisfying for many of us - particularly me. Wonderful.
Not knowing what to expect, I had trouble getting into the story, but once opera singer Olga Bracely arrived in Riseholme, the book was absolutely charming. Olga, with her generous nature; Lucia, with her pretentious ways and endless need for adoration, and Georgie, transferring his devotion from Lucia to Olga with nary a backward glance. Each story - from the Yogi to the Italian encounter to the Medium - is fraught with the overwrought, and entertaining, social disasters.
E. F. Bensen (1867-1940) wrote over 80 books, including biographies, autobiographical sketches, ghost stories, and six notable Lucia stories (for which I will now be searching endlessly). Satire seemed to be his greatest gift and his biggest success.
I don't think this sort of book is for everyone, but it certainly is satisfying for many of us - particularly me. Wonderful.
August 28, 2024
Absolute delight
If you, when reading this book, forget the times in which the stories are set, and just immerse yourself in the characters, then I think I can promise absolute delight.
Each character will remind you of someone you know, the situations they get themselves in to, and the solutions they come up with, will usually confirm your identifications.
I found myself saying, " that's just like ...... " reading on a little and then smiling to yourself in delight, or even laughing out aloud.
You will love, hate, approve, disapprove, agree and become horrified at the machinations of these people, and you could guess early what their solutions to their problems are, or, more likely, step back in amazement at their justifications.
Enjoy, this is my third visit, and I have no doubt that I will be back again.
If you, when reading this book, forget the times in which the stories are set, and just immerse yourself in the characters, then I think I can promise absolute delight.
Each character will remind you of someone you know, the situations they get themselves in to, and the solutions they come up with, will usually confirm your identifications.
I found myself saying, " that's just like ...... " reading on a little and then smiling to yourself in delight, or even laughing out aloud.
You will love, hate, approve, disapprove, agree and become horrified at the machinations of these people, and you could guess early what their solutions to their problems are, or, more likely, step back in amazement at their justifications.
Enjoy, this is my third visit, and I have no doubt that I will be back again.
August 12, 2017
Had to read in few-chapter bits, because scary in an everyday way. The main women are mean, funny until the reader imagines being victim to their bullying.
Lucia rules her small village into submission with pretensions to culture and Italian, until opera singer Olga, fluent, humble, kind, falls as a shining star. Elsewhere, Miss Elizabeth Mapp, jolly smiles outside, vengeful mean anger inside, bullies her village with demonic sweetness.
1 Queen Lucia
2 Miss Mapp
3 The Male Impersonator
4 Lucia in London
5 Mapp and Lucia
6 Lucia's Progress
7 Trouble for Lucia
Partial review for first two books.
Lucia rules her small village into submission with pretensions to culture and Italian, until opera singer Olga, fluent, humble, kind, falls as a shining star. Elsewhere, Miss Elizabeth Mapp, jolly smiles outside, vengeful mean anger inside, bullies her village with demonic sweetness.
1 Queen Lucia
2 Miss Mapp
3 The Male Impersonator
4 Lucia in London
5 Mapp and Lucia
6 Lucia's Progress
7 Trouble for Lucia
Partial review for first two books.
February 19, 2018
Really fun read. Fabulous and hysterical.
January 4, 2020
I read this once a year for over a decade.
May 27, 2022
22. What a delightful book. I loved the humour, the characters and the place and time. Highly recommended to the Anglophile’s in the normal crew.
August 14, 2022
Will read all the titles in this compendium but not straight through. Can only take Lucia in small doses. Will record the six titles as separate books as I read them.
October 15, 2024
Read first in the late '80s and reread many many times since.
July 15, 2025
So hilarious! Clever and a real picture of social life viewed thru a lens focused on the snobbish!
November 2, 2020
After 40 years since last reading, it is still pretty entertaining. Fascinating how one book can manage to be at the same time so very dated and yet so timeless
April 14, 2023
I have lost count of the number of times I have read these, six books and two quite slight short stories all in one volume.
They are the quintessence of camp, deliciously waspish, yet affectionate in their portrayal of the foibles and social machinations and pretensions of their middle-class protagonists.
Lucia and Mapp are sometimes grotesque, the one in her snobbery, the other in her attempts at one-up-woman-ship, but are ever-believable. The supporting cast is pure fun, from the maidenly Georgie to the tipsily-macho Major Benjy, from sable-clad Susan to trousered Irene, not forgetting Algernon, Diva, the Padre and squeaky Evie.
Blissful bedtime reading!
They are the quintessence of camp, deliciously waspish, yet affectionate in their portrayal of the foibles and social machinations and pretensions of their middle-class protagonists.
Lucia and Mapp are sometimes grotesque, the one in her snobbery, the other in her attempts at one-up-woman-ship, but are ever-believable. The supporting cast is pure fun, from the maidenly Georgie to the tipsily-macho Major Benjy, from sable-clad Susan to trousered Irene, not forgetting Algernon, Diva, the Padre and squeaky Evie.
Blissful bedtime reading!
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