Luciaphilia

 

  

    For pure delight it is hard to beat E. F. Benson's Mapp and Lucia novels, and I've just been re-reading the second in the series, Lucia in London.

Her husband's aged aunt has died, leaving him her London house, and the prospect of queening it in the cosmopolitan capital is too delicious for Lucia to resist. She leaves her beloved Riseholme to its own devices and installs herself in Brompton Square, embarking on a hectic round of social climbing, all chronicled - to the chagrin of her erstwhile friends and neighbours - in the pages of the Evening Gazette by the pseudonymous 'Hermione'. 

Lucia is rightly described by her dear friend Georgie Pillson as "...a hypocrite....a poseuse, a sham and a snob....but she prevented your being dull", and when inevitably she returns to the simple life of her country home ("a centre of culture and art"), leaving behind her smart set with their Stravinski, their Auction Bridge and their too amusing surrealism, it is to galvanise the village community again, not least in deliverance from the commanding Lady Ambermere "whose wish was everybody else's pleasure".

    The books are comedies of manners, beautifully satirical, cleverly observed, but above all witty and fun. If you don't already know them I recommend you make their acquaintance without delay as they are such an amusement. I have the old Black Swan editions, but Penguin have collected them in two volumes and the first three in the series appear as Lucia Rising .

    "As fresh as paint," said Nancy Mitford of the books, "the characters are real and therefore timeless".

She was quite right. Au reservoir!

Comments

[Elaine]

Speaking as a reader who only discovered these books last year and who immediately became a Huge Fan, may I endorse everything written here? If you have not read these books yet then you can do no better in 2009 than to go and purchase them now. Quite quite wonderful.

Au reservoir!

[Margaret Powling]

... and when you've read the books invest in the DVDs/videos of the two series which were on Channel 4 in the 1980s, with Geraldine McEwan as Lucia, Prunella Scales as Elizabeth Mapp, and Nigel Hawthorne as Georgie Pilson. They are a joy and much of them are set in Rye (aka Tilling) where Benson lived. The Black Swan paperbacks which Cornflower has shown here are a most attractive imprint, too.

[Natalie]

I love the Lucia books. Celestial Bensontino!

Au reservoir!

[Livvey]

I do love Mapp and Lucia I must say. Well mannered frivolity at its best I think, and who could possibly forget the famous, or I should perhaps say infamous, Lobster a la Risholme?

[Nancy]

I think this set has the most wonderful covers - and am sorry I don't have a complete set of them - maybe only two titles. I do have a number of copies of the M&L books - mostly those '70s ones (Harper?) that have pages that turned brown (the ones I have marked freely in) - and two pristine sets (for the future, y'know) of the Moyer-Bell editions. These were finally all collected individually, mostly on eBay (there are a couple of book warehouses that buy up remaindered stuff - & sell cheap). I also have the huuuuge one-volume thing - hardcover _&_ softcover (willing to part with those) - and the two 3-title books you mentioned, Lucia Rising & Lucia Vicatrix (?? - they're not at hand right now).

[Donnafugata]

Wonderful books - I re-read them at least once a year and always find them a delight. I can also recommend the unabridged audio versions read by Prunella Scales - Miss Mapp, Mapp and Lucia, and Lucia's Progress. Un po' di musica, anyone?

[Simon T]

Hello Karen - I've been without laptop for a while and so a very belated house-warming!

As you know, I love these books, and will read and re-read them for years to come, I'm sure. I have the Black Swan paperbacks, but also my delicious Folio edition. Haven't read the Holts yet - keeping something in reserve!