Mapp and Lucia

by E. F. Benson

Overview

Mrs. Emmeline Lucas (Lucia to her friends) is the recently-widowed newcomer to the village of Tilling, eager to wrest the reins of social supremacy from the incumbent Miss Elizabeth Mapp and to install herself as its benevolent dictator. In their polite acts of sabotage, as they ruthlessly jockey for the position of cultural arbiter, Mapp and Lucia tear up the conventions of drawing-room diplomacy and enter a protracted conflict using fêtes, garden parties, musical soirées, and bridge evenings as their deadly weapons. Things finally come to a head with Miss Mapp's audacious attempt to steal her rival's celebrated recipe for Lobster à la Riseholme. With a charming satirical bent, E.F. Benson turns the pretensions and snobberies of English village life into a deliciously wicked comedy. E.F. Benson (1867­1940) was the son of the Archbishop of Canterbury and a member of a distinguished and eccentric family. He wrote more than 100 books but is best remembered for his Lucia novels, written between 1920 and 1939.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781473372870
Publisher:	Read Books Ltd.
Publication date:	04/23/2015
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	448
File size:	457 KB

About the Author

E. F. Benson (1867-1940) was a prolific novelist, dramatist, short story writer, and biographer. He wrote biographies of Sir Francis Drake, Alcibiades, Ferdinand Magellan, Queen Victoria, and Charlotte Bronte. The son of the Archbishop of Canterbury, and a bit eccentric, he studied archaeology at Kings College, Cambridge, and served as Mayor of Rye near the end of his life.

Editorial Reviews

Debuting in 1931, this was part of Benson's series on the humorous adventures of Mrs. Emmeline Lucas, a.k.a. Lucia. In this installation, Lucia sets her sights on dethroning Elizabeth Mapp as the social dictator of the small town of Tilling. Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

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