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The Mapp and Lucia series of novels penned by author E.F. Benson is a study in opposites. The vengeful and calculating Miss Mapp, whom many readers love to hate, is balanced out by the social graces of Lucia, who, though good-hearted and well-meaning, often finds herself mired in seemingly intractable snafus. Queen Lucia is the first novel in the series and an engrossing introduction to these two protagonists' shared social milieu.Tags
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noveltea Lucia reminds me of a self-deluded version of Lucilla Marjoribanks
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In the quiet village of Riseholme, the genteel neighbours' lives revolve around gossip, peering out of windows and regular get togethers, presided over by Emmeline Lucas aka 'Lucia'. Charming (mostly) when she reigns as Queen Bee, there are, nonetheless, undercurrents of irritation from the others, especially when she lures away the interesting Indian guru from the woman who 'discovered' him, and when her disciple Georgie starts to relish being first with a piece of news, eclipsing Lucia...
This has moments of absolute hilarity. I loved deaf Mrs Antrobus "presenting her (ear) trumpet to him in the manner in which an elephant presents its trunk to receive a bun".
Lucia is a total phoney, her 'impromptu' events carefully rehearsed; the show more Italian she affects to speak with her amenable spouse actually just a few trite phrases. And when an opera singer comes to live in the village, it seems she may have been usurped.
Comic novels are a bit like fruit cake- enjoyable now and then. So I shan't be going straight off to read the sequels...I need a bit of seriousness first. But very enjoyable.
Read for Stuck in a Book's 1920 Club. show less
This has moments of absolute hilarity. I loved deaf Mrs Antrobus "presenting her (ear) trumpet to him in the manner in which an elephant presents its trunk to receive a bun".
Lucia is a total phoney, her 'impromptu' events carefully rehearsed; the show more Italian she affects to speak with her amenable spouse actually just a few trite phrases. And when an opera singer comes to live in the village, it seems she may have been usurped.
Comic novels are a bit like fruit cake- enjoyable now and then. So I shan't be going straight off to read the sequels...I need a bit of seriousness first. But very enjoyable.
Read for Stuck in a Book's 1920 Club. show less
So Lucia is just awful in this social comedy, exerting her social dominance with fake Italian, insufferable baby talk, the Moonlight Sonata, and gossip. But after the arrival of an actual opera star knocks her off her pedestal, I ended up kind of admiring her persistence. I'd rather not attend one of her little soirees, but I wouldn't mind reading more about her.
Queen Lucia by E.F. Benson is a tongue in cheek satire aimed at the pretensions of the not quite ‘top-drawer” class. He sets his story in the fictional English village of Riseholm where society and etiquette are dictated by one woman, Emmeline Lucas, better known as Queen Lucia.
This book is light and amusing, but subtle it isn’t. The author misses no opportunity to mercilessly poke fun at these people and their desires to an upper class life of wit and elegance. It is when a rival to her throne moves into the village that the story takes off and each page of this character driven comedy will have the reader smiling, giggling or even snorting in delight.
I think the essence of this book rings a bell with people as these broadly show more drawn characters can be found amongst one’s social circle today. Every society must have its’ queen, and every queen must struggle to retain her throne. Queen Lucia is the first in a series of books, and judging by this first one, the rest of the series should prove delightful. show less
This book is light and amusing, but subtle it isn’t. The author misses no opportunity to mercilessly poke fun at these people and their desires to an upper class life of wit and elegance. It is when a rival to her throne moves into the village that the story takes off and each page of this character driven comedy will have the reader smiling, giggling or even snorting in delight.
I think the essence of this book rings a bell with people as these broadly show more drawn characters can be found amongst one’s social circle today. Every society must have its’ queen, and every queen must struggle to retain her throne. Queen Lucia is the first in a series of books, and judging by this first one, the rest of the series should prove delightful. show less
Queen Lucia is the first in a series of six novels satirizing a slice of 1920s English society (which Simon at Stuck-in-a-Book recently christened, "Bright Middle-Aged Things"). Mrs Lucas is the self-appointed "queen" of Riseholme, a sleepy village somewhere near London. Her speech is littered with Italian phrases, inspiring the nickname Lucia. She prides herself on staying au courant with all the local gossip, cementing her dominant social position in Riseholme. Lucia is an amusing character in her own right, and Benson populates Riseholme with an extensive supporting cast. Mrs Quantock gets caught up in every cultural fad (first yoga, and later spiritualism). Olga Bracely, an opera singer, takes up residence in Riseholme and threatens show more to disturb the social order. Lucia's dear friend Georgie simultaneously worships Lucia and works to subvert her power. And there are many more ...
In lieu of a complete story arc, the novel meanders through a series of vignettes intended to both define the social order and amuse the reader. Each one is a comedy of manners where situations and people are not as they seem, misunderstandings abound, and someone gets their comeuppance. Benson's Riseholme came to life, and Reading Queen Lucia I was transported to a time when people communicated by letter several times each day, servants were largely invisible until they decided to (shock!) marry one another, and formal dinner parties with music and tableaux were routine entertainment. It was all quite cozy and fun.
Some readers criticize these books, and the characters, for being shallow and mean-spirited. But it's satire -- it's meant to be biting, and the humor makes you stop and think about how ridiculous and self-important people can be. If you're looking for light amusement, this is just the ticket. show less
In lieu of a complete story arc, the novel meanders through a series of vignettes intended to both define the social order and amuse the reader. Each one is a comedy of manners where situations and people are not as they seem, misunderstandings abound, and someone gets their comeuppance. Benson's Riseholme came to life, and Reading Queen Lucia I was transported to a time when people communicated by letter several times each day, servants were largely invisible until they decided to (shock!) marry one another, and formal dinner parties with music and tableaux were routine entertainment. It was all quite cozy and fun.
Some readers criticize these books, and the characters, for being shallow and mean-spirited. But it's satire -- it's meant to be biting, and the humor makes you stop and think about how ridiculous and self-important people can be. If you're looking for light amusement, this is just the ticket. show less
Queen Lucia is the comic period novel for those who shy away from the genre. It's perfect for anyone who's cynically observed Queen Bees at work in any era.
Queen Lucia operates as a delicious satire on two levels: Yes, the novel paints a particularly stinging picture of the social climbing of the British upper middle classes in the period between the World Wars. Our protagonist, E.F. Benson's Emmeline Lucas -- referred to as Queen Lucia behind her back -- considers herself "high-priestess at every altar of Art" and the small village of Riseholme's premiere social arbiter, imposing her iron will on all her neighbors. That Mrs. Lucas, whose Italian is virtually non-existent, insists that all of her friends and acquaintances refer to her show more as "Lucia," with the Italian pronunciation, gives the reader an early indication of just how pretentious Emmeline Lucas is.
That Lucia sees herself as the pinnacle of refinement and exalted sensibility and her hamlet as the pre-eminent bastion of high art in England is part of the delicious joke. Like Lucifer in Paradise Lost, the competitive Lucia would rather rule in a Cotswold backwater than serve in London, which she constantly disparages. Will Lucia be able to prevail when a nationally renowned opera singer moves into Riseholme? If she doesn't, it won't be for lack of trying, by fair means or foul!
While Queen Lucia ruthlessly ridicules the genteel social climbers of the 1920s, the novel also provides a scathing satire of Queen Bees of any period. Throughout the novel, you can see the beginnings of the current trend of suburbanites descending on idyllic rural parts and then transforming them into twee, Disneyfied versions of the original with no consideration for the locals. (Don't miss the send-up of Lucia's rarefied version of an Elizabethan cottage.) And Lucia's maneuvering to maintain her position as the arbiter of style and taste for Riseholme is hilarious. Scenes of the various residents of Riseholme kowtowing to those above them on the social hierarchy while condescending to those below could, with slight modifications, take place today in the Home Counties in England or the suburbs of Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Illinois or California.
Every upper-middle-class suburb, whether in the UK or America, contains social climbers who will boast about "traveling in the best society" and will try to dominate their social circles and one-up everyone else. Any woman who has ever served on a committee or sent their child to a private school will recognize modern-day Emmeline Lucases who have proved as competitive and infuriating as Lucia.
Yet, however infuriating, pompous, domineering, and pretentious Lucia might be, her antics will keep you riveted to the last page. Nor will you be able to wait for the next novel, Lucia in London. show less
Queen Lucia operates as a delicious satire on two levels: Yes, the novel paints a particularly stinging picture of the social climbing of the British upper middle classes in the period between the World Wars. Our protagonist, E.F. Benson's Emmeline Lucas -- referred to as Queen Lucia behind her back -- considers herself "high-priestess at every altar of Art" and the small village of Riseholme's premiere social arbiter, imposing her iron will on all her neighbors. That Mrs. Lucas, whose Italian is virtually non-existent, insists that all of her friends and acquaintances refer to her show more as "Lucia," with the Italian pronunciation, gives the reader an early indication of just how pretentious Emmeline Lucas is.
That Lucia sees herself as the pinnacle of refinement and exalted sensibility and her hamlet as the pre-eminent bastion of high art in England is part of the delicious joke. Like Lucifer in Paradise Lost, the competitive Lucia would rather rule in a Cotswold backwater than serve in London, which she constantly disparages. Will Lucia be able to prevail when a nationally renowned opera singer moves into Riseholme? If she doesn't, it won't be for lack of trying, by fair means or foul!
While Queen Lucia ruthlessly ridicules the genteel social climbers of the 1920s, the novel also provides a scathing satire of Queen Bees of any period. Throughout the novel, you can see the beginnings of the current trend of suburbanites descending on idyllic rural parts and then transforming them into twee, Disneyfied versions of the original with no consideration for the locals. (Don't miss the send-up of Lucia's rarefied version of an Elizabethan cottage.) And Lucia's maneuvering to maintain her position as the arbiter of style and taste for Riseholme is hilarious. Scenes of the various residents of Riseholme kowtowing to those above them on the social hierarchy while condescending to those below could, with slight modifications, take place today in the Home Counties in England or the suburbs of Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Illinois or California.
Every upper-middle-class suburb, whether in the UK or America, contains social climbers who will boast about "traveling in the best society" and will try to dominate their social circles and one-up everyone else. Any woman who has ever served on a committee or sent their child to a private school will recognize modern-day Emmeline Lucases who have proved as competitive and infuriating as Lucia.
Yet, however infuriating, pompous, domineering, and pretentious Lucia might be, her antics will keep you riveted to the last page. Nor will you be able to wait for the next novel, Lucia in London. show less
Mrs. Emmeline Lucas, self-renamed Lucia, together with her husband, Philip, whom she calls Peppino, has used his wealth to buy and refurbish three adjoining cottages in the sleepy village of Riseholme. Lucia christens the resulting villa The Hurst, whose rooms all bear names of characters in Shakespeare’s plays. She plants the front garden with all the flowers mentioned by the Bard. Located not far from Stratford, The Hurst serves as a setting for her to create an ideal world, far removed from the banality of modern industrialization. A world in which she is the undisputed queen.
A queen needs a court. In addition to her consort, Peppino, with whom she shares their few phrases of Italian, there is Georgie Pillson, her Georgino, an show more effete middle-aged dabbler who seems not quite to have grown up, who serves as her lord-in-waiting.
A queen must take care; there may be a pretender to the throne. In this case, it is Daisy Quantock, as short and round as Lucia is tall and imperious. Daisy’s interest in a succession of fads — Christian Science, yoga, spiritualism — poses a sometime threat to Lucia’s dominance whenever other villagers enthusiastically take one of them up. Lucia deals with each in turn, at times with haughty dismissal, although she is also not above co-opting the fad as her own.
The more severe threat to her sovereignty arrives not in the form of a quack or a charlatan, but in the energetic presence of Olga Bracely, an opera diva, whose humble origins have left her as fresh and spontaneous as Lucia is pretentious and calculated. Worse, her genuine cultural accomplishments can’t help but make Lucia’s deficits in the area of her greatest pride all too evident. Olga unwittingly destabilizes the ideal world Lucia has painstakingly created for herself.
Will Lucia recover her eminence? Can she regather her court and have them once again emit a sigh as she finishes her rendition of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata (solely the first movement, of course, the other two being too formless and too fast to truly edify)?
This book is an entertaining read, well-suited for commuting, or just before bedtime. Yet beneath the laughs, there is the disquieting feeling that Benson, the author, is a perceptive observer of human nature. show less
A queen needs a court. In addition to her consort, Peppino, with whom she shares their few phrases of Italian, there is Georgie Pillson, her Georgino, an show more effete middle-aged dabbler who seems not quite to have grown up, who serves as her lord-in-waiting.
A queen must take care; there may be a pretender to the throne. In this case, it is Daisy Quantock, as short and round as Lucia is tall and imperious. Daisy’s interest in a succession of fads — Christian Science, yoga, spiritualism — poses a sometime threat to Lucia’s dominance whenever other villagers enthusiastically take one of them up. Lucia deals with each in turn, at times with haughty dismissal, although she is also not above co-opting the fad as her own.
The more severe threat to her sovereignty arrives not in the form of a quack or a charlatan, but in the energetic presence of Olga Bracely, an opera diva, whose humble origins have left her as fresh and spontaneous as Lucia is pretentious and calculated. Worse, her genuine cultural accomplishments can’t help but make Lucia’s deficits in the area of her greatest pride all too evident. Olga unwittingly destabilizes the ideal world Lucia has painstakingly created for herself.
Will Lucia recover her eminence? Can she regather her court and have them once again emit a sigh as she finishes her rendition of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata (solely the first movement, of course, the other two being too formless and too fast to truly edify)?
This book is an entertaining read, well-suited for commuting, or just before bedtime. Yet beneath the laughs, there is the disquieting feeling that Benson, the author, is a perceptive observer of human nature. 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
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
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- Canonical title
- Queen Lucia
- Original title
- Queen Lucia
- Original publication date
- 1920
- People/Characters
- Emmeline Lucas (Lucia); Georgie Pillson; Philip Lucas (Pepino); Daisy Quantock; Lady Ambermere; Olga Bracely (show all 16); George Shuttleworth; Foljambe; Hermy; Ursy; Robert Quantock; The Guru; Mrs Weston; Colonel Boucher; Mrs. Antrobus; Princess Popoffski
- Important places
- Riseholme, Worcestershire, England, UK; The Hurst, Riseholme, Worcestershire, England, UK
- First words
- Though the sun was hot on this July morning Mrs. Lucas preferred to cover the half-mile that lay between the station and her house on her own feet, and sent on her maid and her luggage in the fly that her husband had ordered ... (show all)to meet her.
- Quotations
- A couple of volumes of these prose poems had been published ... at "Ye Signe of Ye Daffodile", on the village green, where type was set up by hand, and very little, but that of the best, was printed.... [His poems] were print... (show all)ed in blunt type on thick yellowish paper, the edges of which seemed as if they had been cut by the forefinger of an impatient reader, so ragged and irregular were they, and they were bound in vellum.
Anyhow he would not tell her that Olga and her husband were dining at The Hall tonight; he would not even tell her that her husband's name was Shuttleworth, and Lucia might make a dreadful mistake, and ask Mr and Mrs Bracely.... (show all) That would be jam for Georgie, and he could easily imagine himself saying to Lucia, "My dear, I thought you must have known that she had married Mr Shuttleworth and kept her maiden name! How tarsome for you! They are so touchy about that sort of thing."
"How kind of you to come and see us," she said. "Georgie, this is Mr Pillson. My husband."
"How do you do, Mr Shuttleworth," said Georgie to shew he knew, though his own Christian name had given him quite a start. For the ... (show all)moment he had almost thought she was speaking to him....
"Done!" she said. "Now don't you try to get out of it, because my husband is a witness. Georgie, give me a cigarette."
In a moment Riseholme-Georgie had his cigarette-case open.
"Do take one of mine," he said, "I'm Georgie too."
"You don't say so! Let's send it to the Psychical Research, or whoever those people are who collect coincidences and say it's spooks. And a match please, one of you Georgies." - Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)It tasted rather bitter, but not unpleasantly so...
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