Lucia in London

Emmeline Lucas is a snob of the first order. And so hilariously affected. How affected? She insists that all of her friends and acquaintances call her "Lucia," with the Italian pronunciation, and invariably refers to her husband Philip as "Pepino." (The joke, of course, is that Lucia's Italian is so bad that she doesn't realize that it's spelled Peppino, and that it's a nickname for Giuseppe -- that is, Joseph. Philip would be Filippo, and the nickname would be Pippo.)

At first, I was simply infuriated at her relentless social climbing and affectations, but as the book wore on, I gradually, like so many of the socialites and artistic lions that Lucia so assiduously cultivated during her brief season in London, came to become a Luciaphil show more [sic] myself. (The group formed an admiration society they dubbed the Luciaphil Club where they both laughed at Lucia and admired her determination to force herself into London's highest social circles -- needless to say, without Lucia's knowledge.)

Was I delighted when Lucia's social-climbing antics made her into a fool or when she otherwise got her comeuppances? I would be less than human if I weren't. However, like Georgie Pillson and Mrs. Boucher, her friends from the village of Riseholme, I came to realize that life, whether in London or Riseholme, just wasn't as fun without Lucia. Even if she did steal most of her ideas from others (usually her poor neighbor, the incredibly silly Daisy Quantock), Lucia just did so much more fun things with them than the originator. She was over the top, yes, but she made me laugh out loud with her inexorable attempts to befriend duchesses, genius musicians and other luminaries of London society.

Be sure to read the Lucia books in order, beginning with Queen Lucia. You'll find yourself laughing out loud and, while finding Lucia infuriating, you'll end up becoming a Luciaphil, too. Divertitevi! show less

In the third book in E.F. Benson's Mapp and Lucia series, we return to the town of Riseholme to find Lucia's husband Peppino's aunt has recently passed away, leaving him a lavish London home. Will they leave Riseholme for London? Or sell the property? Lucia quickly decides she wants the best of both worlds, living part of the year in each place. They were off to London in a jiffy, leaving her Riseholme neighbors to find for themselves and establish a new social order. And so they do, while also obsessively monitoring Lucia's new life as reported in the society pages. And Riseholme moves on: a committee establishes a museum, and various members of the gentry take up both golf and psychic sessions with a Ouija board.

Meanwhile Lucia's life show more is indeed a whirlwind. The queen of Riseholme society is undaunted by London's social scene and manages to get herself invited to all manner of engagements. She even sets up a kind of parallel social hierarchy, attaching herself to Stephen, a young society news reporter who fills the role played by Georgie in Riseholme. But her superiority and snobbishness is challenged as well, and let's just say Lucia isn't always quite up to those challenges, and hilarity ensues.

I love these novels for the way they poke fun at English society and, really, at people in general -- it's just these people are more extreme versions of ourselves. show less

In Volume 3 of the Mapp and Lucia series, Lucia and Peppino have inherited a house in London on the death of his Aunt Amy. In true Riseholme fashion, the news travels fast from neighbor to neighbor and everyone is, of course, trying to figure out what Lucia will do---will she go or will she stay. In the end, she and Peppino decide to divide their time between Riseholme and London. They make many new friends, or at least fascinated people who are fairly astounded by the sheer audacity that is Lucia.

And Riseholme adjusts to Lucia's absence and, with the help of Daisy Quantock's Ouija board, the town's people decide to erect a museum and fill it with local antiquities that may interest tourists. There also seems to be renewed interest in show more golf. But after more than a few missteps on Lucia's part, it becomes more apparent that the town needs her as much as she needs it.

It's all told with great humor, just as the first two volumes were. This series just oozes with delightful passages, biting satire, one-upsmanship and intricate plotting by all involved to get the better of the next guy and I can't seem to get enough of it. Absolutely delicious. show less

NOTE: This review applies to the entire Mapp and Lucia series.

This appears to be one of those series that people either love or hate. Set in the early decades of the 20th century, E.F. Benson skewers the frivolous lives of the elite in rural English villages. The heroine is Mrs. Emmeline Lucas, known to all as Lucia (the Italian pronunciation, if you please). Lucia rules the village of Riseholme with an iron fist in a velvet glove, ruthlessly running the social lives of the others in her social class. Despite their occasional resentment and attempts to break free of Lucia's influence, the village invariably finds life gray and boring without their benevolent dictator in residence.

The second book in the series, Miss Mapp, at first show more appears to be a completely unrelated book, as Lucia does not appear and instead the main character is Elizabeth Mapp, a never-married woman "of a certain age" in the village of Tilling. Like Lucia, she rules her social class with a strong will, although with somewhat less grace than her counterpart in Riseholme. The third book, Lucia in London, leaves Mapp and Tilling behind and returns to focus on Lucia, this time on her adventures during the social season in London.

Finally, in Book Four (Mapp and Lucia), the irresistible force (Lucia) meets the immovable object (Mapp) when Lucia decides to move to Tilling. This town is not big enough for both of them to rule, and the schemes and shenanigans that ensue are delightfully sharp and witty. Their tussles continue in the final two books in the series, Lucia's Progress and Trouble for Lucia.

The lives of the people spotlighted in Riseholme and in Tilling are spectacularly shallow. The biggest intrigues involve who is paired with who at the evening bridge games, and gossip is traded freely during the morning marketing, when anyone who is anyone gathers on the High Street with their baskets and their cutting observations. Scarcely a reference is ever made to world wars or depressions, even though both raged throughout the time period of these books. To read such accounts written in a serious manner would be intolerably smug, but Benson's writing is slyly cutting, as he appears to take all of the plotting with the utmost sincerity even while winking at the reader with his asides.

Readers who prefer their heroes and heroines to be a bit less shallow and a bit more kind will find the Lucia series less than enjoyable, as will those readers neither old enough to remember the early 20th century nor with any interest in life among the middle class (being, in those days and in that country, truly in the middle between the poor and working classes on one end and the aristocracy on the other). Those who, like me, enjoy a sharp bite to their fiction will find themselves alternately rooting for the downfall of Mapp and Lucia and cheering their subsequent rise back to prominence. show less

I read this one straight after I finished Queen Lucia. It was rather fun to see the continuance of this determined character to get to the top of London society, after her success in her hometown of Riseholme. Her efforts almost get her ostracized by her Risehomites, but she manages to overcome this with her clever ways. Along the way, she manages to attract followers, Luciaphils as they are called by the author, out of high society. Though I can't say I actually like Lucia, it's like you can't look away. She's almost Machiavellian in her schemes. Quite funny, and I'm sure I'll move on to the rest of the series.

This is the second of six novels in the Mapp and Lucia series, which take place in 1920's England. Lucia is a social climbing snob, whose antics are hilariously funny. Her name is Emmeline Lucas and her husband is Philip. She insists upon her friends calling her Lucia with the Italian pronunciation and she refers to her husband as Peppino, sprinkles her conversation with a few Italian words and makes up the rest, and professes to be a lover of art and music of which she knows very little.

Lucia is the queen bee in the fictional town of Riseholme, as we find out in the first book Queen Lucia. The characters of the town are wonderful. In this book, Lucia's husband inherits a house at 25 Brompton Square in London, after his aunt dies. After show more a short pretense of grief for the aunt who has been in an asylum for the past seven years, Lucia plots to keep the house in London. Of course her neighbors who know everything about everyone in Riseholme want to find out everything about the Lucas' new fortune. Meetings on the green are always started with "Any news?", and of course now there is real news. Everyone leaves it up to George, Lucia's delightful neighbor, to find out what will happen next. Will Lucia move to London? Will they sell the house? How much is the annual income? And what about the aunt's pearls?

Lucia's antics in London are hilarious. She plays the social climbing game expertly, and does not let herself be embarrased when she makes mistakes. She is so good at it, that some of the socialites are delighted, and form an informal group of "Luciaphiles" who help her climb the ladder just to see what will happen. Of course her friends in Riseholme are hurt by Lucia's rejection, and plot to show her that they can get on without her.

Benson has written another delightful story satirizing popular culture of the 1920's. There are several laugh out loud sequences in this silly story filled with great British humor. If you enjoy Wodehouse, I think you would enjoy this series - but start at the beginning with Queen Lucia. show less

Lucia carries on in her unmistakeable manner, but shows a touching concern for Peppino at the end that reveals there is more to her than her socialite sensibilities. Perhaps she's always felt a true affection for the people around her, but now we can see that she is capable of caring.