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 so on.Thoug...

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 sa...

Here on GR, DaytimeRiot told me this:“I think the Mapp and Lucia series by E.F Benson is the best humorous literature Britain produced in the 20th century. They mock class in very different ways, but Benson's humor is far more subtle and understated: it lovingly, surgically eviscerates British village life like a diamond cutting glass. Benson is what Wodehouse could have been if Wodehouse had finally accepted adulthood.”I was intrigued! Wodehouse hadn’t worked for me so I thought I would give Be...

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...

I really enjoyed this. Very funny, very entertaining, full of fantastically silly characters. It is a little dated in places, but mostly is great fun.

I read all of the Lucia books when I was 13 and thought they were so funny. I remember laughing out loud quite a bit. This time around I still enjoyed Queen Lucia, but not as much, and I'm not sure why. It was all very witty and amusing, but I found myself a little bored. Also, the silly factor, which I thought was so funny when I was younger, grated on me a bit. Maybe I'm just jaded now! Solid three stars for me this time.

A lovely comic novel about middle-class people attempting to pass for upper class and rich people with too much money and time on their hands getting involved with charlatans in the form of: Indian gurus, Russian mediums, weird religions and fake cures. I kept hoping for someone with common sense, but only one came along, Olga, an opera singer from a poor background.

A wickedly funny & entertaining read excellently narrated by Nadia May, where we are shown how a self-anointed Queen (actually a rather small fish in an even smaller pond blowing herself up) is deprived of her laurel leaves and the "empress has no clothes". Hats off to E.F. Benson. "Mrs Lucas amused herself, in the intervals of her pursuit of Art for Art's sake, with being not only an ambassador but a monarch. Riseholme might perhaps according to the crude materialism of maps, be included in

My introduction to the world of E.F. Benson's Mapp & Lucia novels was via the BBC TV adaptation broadcast in the UK in late December 2014. E.F. Benson's Mapp & Lucia novels were also recommended to me on GoodReads. I am writing this review having just finished Queen Lucia, the first book in the Mapp and Lucia series. The novels, in chronological order, are:Queen Lucia (1920)Miss Mapp (1922)Lucia in London (1927)Mapp and Lucia (1931)Lucia's Progress (1935) (published in the US as Trouble for Luci...

Emmeline (Lucia) Lucas wants nothing more than to rule over her friends and neighbours in the Elizabethan village of Riseholme. This novel is the first in a series featuring ‘Queen Lucia’ and introduces us to the characters and settings where the books are set. Published in 1920, the story begins with Lucia returning from London and looking forward to her pursuit of Art for Art’s sake. Riseholme is her own, personal fiefdom, where she reigns supreme with no poverty, discontent or upheaval. She i...

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 just say I don't

4.5 stars Nadia May does a marvelous narration of this satire of the social maneuvers in English village life during the 1920s. If you like Gaskell's Cranford, you will probably enjoy this.

Darlings, you simply must visit Riseholme. It's just the most precious 1920s English village that you ever could see. Delightful! Decadent! Devious! Demented! Delicious!Riseholme is ruled by its very own doyenne of style and taste and class, one Emmeline Lucia Lucas. She utterly commands the village, an ever-benevolent dictator over all things that truly matter. Her right-hand "man" is Georgie, a bachelor of means and of a certain age, a faithful lieutenant whose extensive time spent in Lucia's

What a horror of a main character, and what a charming book! Lucia is a pretentious, posing, preening, self-aggrandizing petty tyrant, who cannot bear to let anyone else share an inch of spotlight that she does not arrange and grant to them with royal magnanimity. And following her determined rivalry with old sparring partners and a spectacular newcomer was a delight. I can see why this was such a cult favorite of authors at the time. The characterization is wonderful. We all know, or have been

I'm sad because I didn't love this. Both women are so unpleasant. I do realize that they're supposed to be comic characters, but this just didn't work for me at this time. I'm going to watch the BBC series and see if that helps.

Queen Lucia, the first of Edward Frederic Benson’s Mapp and Lucia books, turns a 100 this year, and so I thought I should revisit. The stories centre around Emmeline Lucas (‘Lucia’) and Miss Elizabeth Mapp who battle for social supremacy in the village of Tilling (based on Rye where Benson himself lived). The first book, Queen Lucia, which introduces us to Lucia (the second introduces us to Miss Mapp) has a different setting—the village of Riseholme (from where Lucia moves to Tilling in book 4),...

3.5“Hitum, Titum and Scrub”Don’t you just love discovering new books with charming characters. I’d never heard of Lucia, or indeed Benson, and it is with surprise that I entered the leisurely enclave of Risholme. Its inhabitants are a delight of caricature of wealthy England between the wars. The author offers us colourful characters, from Lucia, our social prima donna, to her cohort consisting of her husband Peppino and friend Georgie, ruling over the rest of the village. But of course pretende...

This was a tedious and overly lengthy read. I got annoyed at the shallow and silly characters. At first, I thought it would be funny and entertaining - all about social climbers in an English village. It was okay at first, but then it just got more and more superficial and pointless. It was a waste of time.

I’m not quite sure how I have managed to make it to my advanced age without ever having read any of E F Benson’s Mapp and Lucia books - but there it is. I am now delightedly anticipating the remaining books I have to look forward to. I actually read this first book in Volume one of the Wordsworth classics The Complete Mapp and Lucia – which contains the first three novels. I like to spread out such delicious treats however, so I have decided to read (and review) each book separately – although I...

I don’t write reviews. My word! Did I enjoy this! Mrs. Lucas and her husband are awful cultural poseurs of the first magnitude. They tsk London’s modernity and vulgarity and in their small town, they reign (let’s not withhold Mrs. Lucas her royal honours) SHE reigns, Queen Lucia. She who sets the appropriate tone for those who follow her parties and musical gatherings. She who began their interest in Italian and speaks casual, but never conversational Italian with her adoring husband. The readin...