- Paperback: 80 pages
- Publisher: Samuel French Ltd (Feb 1999)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0573018200
- ISBN-13: 978-0573018206
- Product Dimensions: 21 x 13.6 x 0.6 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 688,567 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Product Description
A stage adaptation of the novels of E.F. Benson, and the war for social supremacy between Lucia and Miss Mapp in the small coastal town of Tilling. Hitherto, Tilling's doyenne has been Miss Mapp; so when Lucia rents Miss Mapp's house for the summer, the battle lines are drawn.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I am reviewing this edition which is the only complete single volume edition of the novels of E F Benson regarding Elizabeth Mapp and Emmaline Lucas. These stories concern two Edwardian ladies of leasure who dominate their respective towns until in the fourth novel they clash when Lucia moves to Miss Mapp's Tilling. The TV and radio adaptations focussed on this clash, and the less well known earlier stories of their separate empires are equally amusing. At slightly over 900 pages this is a serious volume and readers of less muscular forearms may find the Penguin two volume edition more to their liking. I struggle to describe these books to anyone who has not read them and "a camp P G Wodehouse" is the best I can manage. Like Wodehouse he was much admired by other writers, such as Nancy Mitford and Noel Coward and Miss Mitford captures something in her short preface in which she says of the characters "none of them could be described as estimable, and they are certainly not very interesting, yet they are fascinated by each other and we are fascinated by them." Their obsession with one another's status and doings do ensare us, just as much as Wodehouse's characters attempts to secure and avoid matrimony. They are dated and of their time, with their servants and "listening in" of the radio, but that is part of their charm.
New to lovers of the TV series will be the narratorial voice, with which Benson describes how the new additions to the Lucas house can be distinguished by the way that they look so much older than the Elizabethan stem onto whuch they have been grafted; exactly what fussy little Georgie Pillson does when he is "busy indoors" and the way that "anger and the gravest suspicions about everybody" had kept Miss Mapp "young and on the boil".
My one quibble is with the cover illustration which isn't the way I imagine these three characters at all.
Oh and don't confuse this with the play of the same title please.
New to lovers of the TV series will be the narratorial voice, with which Benson describes how the new additions to the Lucas house can be distinguished by the way that they look so much older than the Elizabethan stem onto whuch they have been grafted; exactly what fussy little Georgie Pillson does when he is "busy indoors" and the way that "anger and the gravest suspicions about everybody" had kept Miss Mapp "young and on the boil".
My one quibble is with the cover illustration which isn't the way I imagine these three characters at all.
Oh and don't confuse this with the play of the same title please.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Hooray! Now I have them all in one place. The summary of the books (above) sums them up perfectly - they have a charm about them that is certainly partly to do with the era in which they were set, and partly to do with the characters that inhabit them. Mapp and Lucia are not at all likeable characters taken out of context. In context they are extraordinary women who clash like the titans of small town provincial England that they are. Each one gains ascendancy time and again, dashing the other under foot, only to be ousted in her turn.
I can entirely recommend these books, but find it hard to sum up why - read and decide for yourself is what I would say.
I can entirely recommend these books, but find it hard to sum up why - read and decide for yourself is what I would say.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
14 reviews
36 of 36 people found the following review helpful
IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO DO JUSTICE TO THIS BOOK
2 July 2001
Format:Hardcover
I have waited a very, very long time to review this complete set of E.F. Benson's "Lucia" novels, as I knew I would not be able to do justice to this masterpiece. The characters, whom you must meet for yourself, are the marvelously portrayed gentry of quiet, presumably peaceful hamlets just a short train ride away from London. There they attempt to scratch and claw their way to the top of the limited society in which they live. There is no violence or evil here, just hilarious fun as one tries to outdo the other in becoming the reigning monarch of the town's "royal family". Nobody, but nobody, does this better than Lucia. Whether she is stealing Daisy's Guru or attempting to take credit for introducing "spiritualism" to her subjects, she does it unashamedly and with aplomb! Whether she is reigning in Riseholme, unabashedly social climbing in London, or beseiging the Town of Tilling, she does it with a sense of purpose. Her life is a contest, one she refuses to lose. Winner take all, and woe to those who would oppose her! She is musical, she is magical, she is marvelous, she is LUCIA! I own several copies of this book, lest one is ever lost. I cannot imagine life without a copy nearby. There are some books from which the characters leap from the pages. This is one of those books, with a difference. This is a book into which you will want to leap! Make no mistake, once you have read "Lucia" you will be as much her prisoner as the citizenry of the towns in which she lives and rules. You will become a true "Luciaphile" and will search for others who are also so afflicted. Lucia's world is my safe haven; my escape from the mundane, the frightening and the stress of the world in which I live. It can become the same for you. This is a book you may well bequeath in your will as a cherished family heirloom. I told you I could not do it justice and I have not. Read "Lucia". You will thank E.F. Benson for his malicious, wicked, marvelous wit and the talent to share it through his novels for the rest of your life.
15 of 15 people found the following review helpful
A treasured friend
11 Jun 1999
Format:Hardcover
This book has a permanent home with me wherever I go because I return to it whenever I am at a loss for something to read. I have only to pick it up and I am quickly transported to the world of Tilling and all the hilarious escapades of its residents. I love these characters!
15 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Luciaphiles, don't leave home without this book!
16 Jun 1997
Format:Paperback
If you're a Luciaphile already, this is the ultimate "must-have." If you aren't, read the first few pages, and you'll be hooked, too. E. F. Benson's series of five novels and one short story, combined here in one delightful volume, is set pre-WWI and, variously, in the small English towns of Riseholme and Tilling, with a season in London thrown in for good measure. The heroine, Mrs. Emmeline Lucas, is nicknamed Lucia, which sums up her professed love for the Italian language and for classical music very nicely, and the fact that she is much less of an expert at either than she would have us believe makes for some of the enticing complications throughout. Lucia is the ultimate snob, the ultimate social climber, and she is so good at being Lucia that, soon after you begin reading, you'll join the throngs of her admirers as she rules each respective venue with an iron will, dictating the social lives of those fortunate enough to be among her circle. While capturing our admiration for his resourceful heroine, the author shows a fine sense of balance by making sure that, whenever social success goes to Lucia's head, she is provided with a setback -- sufficient both in making her more human, and in allowing her to rise even more splendidly to the next pinnacle of her achievements. My copy of this book is well-worn from reading and re-reading, and I recommend that each newly converted Luciaphile keep the tome close at hand, so that within moments you can escape to the settings so richly and colorfully described by Benson that you end up feeling you were in fact there
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