Queen Lucia

Queen Lucia




By E.F. Benson





 This  is delicious satire of the pretensions and foibles of provincial middle-class life in Britain in the 1920s and '30s. Still, given Benson's droll send-ups of the bitter battles waged by matrons desperate to live out their fantastical versions of upper-class elegance and wit, and Benson's shrewd readings of the ways in which our longings can make us both bizarre and sometimes appealing. ( From Kirkus reviews) . I could not put it in better words.


Mrs. Emmeline Lucas of Riseholm loves her little town, and revels in her role as the Queen Bee in all matters of culture, entertaining and of appropriate behavior. Lucia life is full of little oddities as she pretends to speak Italian by sprinkling here everyday speech with caros, arrivederci's and calling her husband Peppino. She talks of trips to the Riviera as if she was actually going there.


What a shock it is to Lucia when a truly cultured woman, an opera singer of renown moves to her town and slowly Lucia is being exposed in a humorous fashion and with plenty of spite.


What makes Lucia a queen if that she is like a weeble who wobbles but does not fall down. You must admire her even though you may not like her.



The series contains:
Queen Lucia
Lucia in London
Miss Mapp
Mapp and Lucia
Lucia's Progress/The Worshipful Lucia
Trouble for Lucia