Author | E. F. Benson |
---|---|
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Genre | Comic novel |
Publisher | Hutchinson |
Publication date | July 1920 |
Followed by | Miss Mapp |
Queen Lucia is a 1920 comic novel written by E. F. Benson. It is the first of six novels in the popular Mapp and Lucia series, about idle women in the 1920s and their struggle for social dominance over their small communities. This book introduces Emmeline Lucas, known as Lucia to her friends, the social queen of the fictional Elizabethan village of Riseholme, as well as her husband Philip ("Peppino") Lucas, her best friend Georgie Pillson and her friendly rival, Daisy Quantock. [1]
The book was a success for Benson, his greatest since writing Dodo in 1893. [2] Benson biographer Brian Masters writes, " The Athenaeum cleverly pointed out that Mr. Benson's humour had gone, not to the dogs, but to the cats." [3] Geoffrey Palmer and Lloyd Noel write, "With Queen Lucia, Fred [Benson] successfully entered into a new realm of social satire mixed with comedy and tinged with farce... With penetrating ruthlessness, he speared his characters' pretensions and held them up for ridicule, though he always tempered his attack with affectionate understanding." [4]
Emmeline Lucas is the social queen of Riseholme, presiding over her community and directing their interests in art and culture. A pretentious show-off, La Lucia drops random Italian phrases into her speech, gives concerts to her friends of the first movement of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata , dabbles in art, and plants Shakespeare-themed flower arrangements in her garden. Her neighbor, devoted faddist Daisy Quantock, has given up her uric-acid-free diet and Christian Science to focus on Indian mysticism, thanks to a mysterious guru who shows up at her door and offers to show her the Way. Lucia must decide how to annex the guru, and turn this into a social success for herself. Daisy then brings in a Russian medium, Princess Popoffski. Lucia has a harder time when opera diva Olga Bracely arrives in Riseholme for a visit, luring away Lucia's devoted friend Georgie Pillson.
Benson based the character of Lucia on his sometime-friend Marie Corelli, a best-selling novelist. Corelli pretended to speak Italian, talked baby-talk with men, held piano concerts, and upheld the values and reputation of Shakespeare. Masters writes, "Marie Corelli was a monster of pretension who would have ruled the lives and manners of Stratford people given half a chance, and Fred [Benson] pounced upon her every weakness with victorious glee, distilling them all into the awesome Lucia." [3]
Benson's 1916 book of short stories, The Freaks of Mayfair, informed his characters in Queen Lucia. "These include the effeminate bachelor, Aunt Georgie, who, with his music, embroidery, and hair dye, is clearly the ancestor of the much more sympathetically rendered Georgie Pillson, and Mrs. Weston, whose dabblings in yoga, Christian Science, spiritualism, and health food anticipate Daisy Quantock's obsession with fads." [2]
A contemporary review in The Bookman says, "This is decidedly one of the most amazing and clever stories that Mr. Benson has written. It is a kind of cleverness which is familiar in fiction as well as in social intercourse, an unfeeling smartness which is satirical and sarcastic. Modern society, especially in the case of idle rich people, must be a constant temptation to the clever novelist, and Mr. Benson has alreaady shot his arrows at the crazes of society women in particular. But in this novel he is genial and delightful. There is no acid touch of superiority." [5]
Another contemporary review in The Literary Digest says, "The book is lacking in what we are constantly told is necessary for a good novel. There is not much plot; there is no love interest; there is no climax — the book just stops (much to our regret) after chronicling one more Riseholme failure in the line of spirit manifestation. But it is long since once has seen such a masterly bit of satire, such a piece of character-study as Lucia." [6]
Robert Kiernan writes that the Lucia novels "constitute a high point of camp... Queen Lucia is a comedy of village manners, with a line clearly drawn between insiders and outsiders. References to Bolshevism and revolutionary outrages may seem to suggest that Riseholme is something more than a village — a microcosm, even, of beleaguered monarchies the world over — but one is never permitted to take that seriously that analogy. Indeed, Riseholme is a stage set, not a sociopolitical entity." [1]
Benson wrote another book about a socially-striving heroine, Miss Mapp , in 1922. His second Lucia novel, Lucia in London , was published in 1927. He combined the two characters in Mapp and Lucia (1931), as Lucia and Georgie leave Riseholme to take up lodgings in Mapp's fictional seaside town, Tilling. She remains there for another two books, Lucia's Progress (1935, published in the US as The Worshipful Lucia), and Trouble for Lucia (1939). [1]
The Mapp and Lucia series has been adapted for television twice, in a 1985 series originally aired on Channel 4, and a 2014 series on BBC One. While both adaptations begin with Lucia visiting Tilling (the beginning of the fourth book), the 2014 series adapted the Indian guru sequence from Queen Lucia, transposing the guru's host from Daisy Quantock to Diva Plaistow.
Edward Frederic Benson was an English novelist, biographer, memoirist, archaeologist and short story writer.
Mary Mackay, known by her pseudonym Marie Corelli, was an English novelist.
The Diary of a Nobody is an English comic novel written by the brothers George and Weedon Grossmith, with illustrations by the latter. It originated as an intermittent serial in Punch magazine in 1888–89 and first appeared in book form, with extended text and added illustrations, in 1892. The Diary records the daily events in the lives of a London clerk, Charles Pooter, his wife Carrie, his son William Lupin, and numerous friends and acquaintances over a period of 15 months.
Captain Corelli's Mandolin, released simultaneously in the United States as Corelli's Mandolin, is a 1994 novel by the British writer Louis de Bernières, set on the Greek island of Cephalonia during the Italian and German occupation of the Second World War.
Arthur Christopher Benson, was an English essayist, poet and academic, and the 28th Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge. He wrote the lyrics of Edward Elgar’s Coronation Ode, including the words of the patriotic song "Land of Hope and Glory" (1902). His literary criticism, poems, and volumes of essays were highly regarded. He was also noted as an author of ghost stories.
Mapp and Lucia is a collective name for a series of novels by E. F. Benson and also the name of two British television adaptations based on those novels.
Steven James Pemberton is an English actor, comedian, director and writer. He is best known as a member of The League of Gentlemen with Reece Shearsmith, Mark Gatiss, and Jeremy Dyson. Pemberton and Shearsmith also co-wrote and starred in the black comedy Psychoville and the anthology series Inside No. 9. His other television credits include Doctor Who, Benidorm, Blackpool, Shameless, Whitechapel,Happy Valley and Mapp and Lucia.
Tilling is a fictional coastal town, based on Rye, East Sussex, in the Mapp and Lucia novels of Edward Frederic Benson (1867–1940).
Riseholme is a fictional Elizabethan village in the Cotswolds in the "Lucia" novels of Edward Frederic Benson (1867–1940). It is thought to have been based on Broadway, Worcestershire.
Overture to Death is a detective novel by Ngaio Marsh; it is the eighth novel to feature Roderick Alleyn, and was first published in 1939. The plot concerns a murder during an amateur theatrical performance in a Dorset village, which Alleyn and his colleague Fox are dispatched from Scotland Yard to investigate and duly solve.
Emmeline is a female given name. The medieval name, a short form of Germanic names beginning with the element amal meaning "work". It was introduced to England by the Normans. It also means gentle and brave.
Lucinda Gane was a British actress, known for her role as the absent-minded science teacher Miss Terri Mooney in the children's television serial Grange Hill; a role she played from 1980 to 1983. In 1985–1986 she played Georgie Pillson's trusty housemaid Foljambe in two series of Mapp and Lucia, adapted by London Weekend Television from the novels of E. F. Benson. She also appeared in Thomas and Sarah, a spin-off from Upstairs, Downstairs, playing Emily Rudge.
Mary Benson was an English hostess of the Victorian era. She was the wife of Revd. Edward Benson, who during their marriage became Archbishop of Canterbury. Their children included several prolific authors and contributors to cultural life. During her marriage, she was involved with Lucy Tait, daughter of the previous Archbishop of Canterbury. She was described by Gladstone, the British Prime Minister, as the 'cleverest woman in Europe'.
Mapp and Lucia is a British drama television series that was first broadcast on BBC One from 29 to 31 December 2014. The three-part series, adapted by Steve Pemberton and directed by Diarmuid Lawrence, is based on E. F. Benson's Mapp and Lucia collection of novels. The series features an ensemble cast, with British actresses Miranda Richardson and Anna Chancellor playing the eponymous characters Elizabeth Mapp and Emmeline 'Lucia' Lucas. It is set in the Sussex coastal town of Tilling, based very closely on Rye, East Sussex, where it was filmed and where Benson lived. Although attracting modest viewing figures, the series received positive reviews from critics.
Mapp and Lucia is a British television series, set in the fictional Sussex coastal town of Tilling and based on three 1930s novels by E. F. Benson, beginning with Mapp and Lucia. It was produced by London Weekend Television, filmed in Rye and neighbouring Winchelsea in the 1980s, and starred Prunella Scales as Mapp, Geraldine McEwan as Lucia, Nigel Hawthorne as Georgie, and Denis Lill as Major Benjy. The script was by Gerald Savory. There were ten episodes, broadcast on Channel 4 in 1985 and 1986. These have been repeated over the years, and a new BBC adaptation, Mapp and Lucia, aired in 2014.
Clock golf is a game based on golf, originating in the mid 19th century. Players putt a golf ball from each in turn of 12 numbered points arranged in a circle as in a clock face, to a single hole placed within the circle. Alternative names include Clock-Golf, Round the Clock Golf, and Golf Around the Clock.
Miss Mapp is a 1922 comic novel written by E. F. Benson. It is the second of six novels in the popular Mapp and Lucia series, about idle women in the 1920s and their struggle for social dominance over their small communities. This book introduces Miss Mapp, the social tyrant of the fictional coastal town of Tilling, and the cast of Tillingites, including Diva Plaistow, Major Benji Flint, Mr. and Mrs. Wyse, and Quaint Irene. Tilling was inspired by the town of Rye, where Benson lived at Lamb House, with his own commanding view of the High Street inspiring Mapp's domain, Mallards.
Lucia in London is a 1927 comic novel written by E. F. Benson. It is the third of six novels in the popular Mapp and Lucia series, about idle women in the 1920s and their struggle for social dominance over their small communities. The second Lucia novel, it is a sequel to 1920's Queen Lucia. In this novel, Lucia leaves her small town of Riseholme and moves to London, where she attacks the city's social life with the same eager ferocity.
Mapp and Lucia is a 1931 comic novel written by E. F. Benson. It is the fourth of six novels in the popular Mapp and Lucia series, about idle women in the 1920s and their struggle for social dominance over their small communities. It brings together two sets of characters from three previous Benson novels: "Lucia" Lucas, Georgie Pillson and Daisy Quantock from Queen Lucia (1920) and Lucia in London (1927), and Miss Elizabeth Mapp and her neighbours from Miss Mapp (1922).
Secret Lives is a 1932 comedy novel by the British writer E. F. Benson, best known as the author of the Mapp and Lucia series. The structure is broadly similar to that series, featuring two strong-willed women battling for social supremacy in the fictitious Durham Square in Edwardian London.