1920s: In the coastal English village of Tilling, Miss Elizabeth Mapp sits like a watchful bird of prey at the bow window of her garden-room: perfectly situated to give an uninterrupted view of the main street. For her main occupation is observing and guiding the local inhabitants - from Irene Coles, the town bohemian who strides about the place in gentleman's clothing; to Isabel Poppit, who dares to infringe upon Miss Mapp's own patented recipe for iced red-currant fool - besides attempti...

E.F. Benson (1867-1940) is probably best known today for his sparkling, comic “Lucia”novels. In his own day it was his ghost stories which were his most popular works. This collection of ten stories exemplifies Benson's fine literary style and his ability to create the most frightening of ghostly and macabre tales. They are:Mrs AmworthNaboth's VineyardAt the FarmhouseNegotium PerambulansThe Wishing WellThe Terror by NightThe Thing in the HallThe CatThe Sanctuary

Soon to be revived in a new BBC series, Mapp and Lucia is a poisonous witty, comic tale of two upper-class women battling for social supremacy in the most underhand ways possible. Meet Mapp and Lucia - two of the most unpleasant, disgraceful women you're ever likely to encounter, in E.F. Bensons carefully observed tale of 1930s village life and social ranking. Emmeline Lucas (known as Lucia to her friends) is emerging from mourning following the death of her husband. Pretentious, snobbish ...

„Lucia’s Progress”, previously published in the U.S. as „The Worshipful Lucia” is the fifth of E. F. Benson’s famous series, opening about a year after the previous story ended. In this volume both Lucia and Mapp stand for election to the Town Council, and Lucia speculates in gold shares. While re-decorating Miss Mapp’s house, Lucia discovers and hide the remains of a Roman Villa. Excitements ensue!

A vicar’s stepdaughter escapes a stifling country parsonage to become a governess in London, where her latent gifts for acting ignite a consuming passion for the stage. When she marries a brilliant but dissolute young playwright, she discovers that love alone cannot shield her from betrayal—his drinking fuels his genius, while another woman exploits his weakness with calculated charm.With extraordinary patience and unflinching clarity, she refuses to judge, scheme, or surrender. As...

E. F. Benson’s subject is always the petty concerns of petty people, but his talent is to make those concerns nearly as important to us as they are to his characters. For us, what happens to Benson’s people is also much funnier than it is to them. This is another of Benson’s social comedies with women battling it out for social supremacy in the village. „Mrs. Ames”, first published in 1912, has been described as a forerunner to the author’s Mapp and Lucia novels

In the glittering world of early twentieth-century society, new money and old aristocracy collide as American millionaire Lewis S. Palmer and his flamboyant wife take London by storm. When the impoverished but titled Bertie Keynes seeks a wealthy American bride to restore his family fortune, he finds himself caught between genuine affection for Palmer's daughter Amelie and the painful memory of an earlier passion. Against the backdrop of transatlantic social ambition, Bertie and Amelie mus...

‘His body was pressed against the wall at the head of the bed, and the face was a mask of agonised horror and fruitless entreaty. But the eyes were already glazed in death, and before Francis could reach the bed the body had toppled over and lay inert and lifeless. Even as he looked, he heard a limping step go down the passage outside.’E. F. Benson was a master of the ghost story and now all his rich, imaginative, spine-tingling and beautifully written tales are presented together ...

The Second E.F. Benson Megapack collects 11 more short stories and 11 novels by E.F. Benson, spanning horror, mystery, suspense, and historical subjects, including such classics as Miss Mapp and Queen Lucia.Included are:THE OUTCASTTHE COUNTESS OF LOWNDES SQUARETHE BLACKMAILER OF PARK LANETHE DANCE ON THE BEEFSTEAKTHE ORIOLISTSIN THE DARKTHE FALSE STEP"PUSS-CAT"THERE AROSE A KINGTHE TRAGEDY OF OLIVER BOWMAN...

Lucia is one of the great comic characters in English literature. Outrageously pretentious, hypocritical and snobbish, Queen Lucia, ‘as by right divine’ rules over the toy kingdom of ‘Riseholme’ based on the Cotswold village of Broadway. Her long-suffering husband Pepino is ‘her prince-consort’, the outrageously camp Georgie is her ‘gentleman-in-waiting’, the village green is her ‘parliament’, and her subjects, such as Daisy Quantock, are hapless would-be ‘Bolsheviks’. In Lucia in London, ...

With an Introduction and Notes by Dr Keith Carabine, University of Kent at Canterbury.These three wonderful comic novels drolly record the battle between Lucia and Elisabeth Mapp for social and cultural supremacy in the village of Tilling (based on Rye). Their constant skirmishes ensure that every game of bridge, tea or dinner-party, church service, council meeting or art–exhibition are thrilling encounters that ensure Tilling is always on ‘a very agreeable rack of...

"The E.F. Benson Megapack" collects 36 of Benson's horror stories, including such classics as "The Bus-Conductor," "The Room in the Tower," and "The Thing in the Hall." Included are:AT ABDUL ALI’S GRAVETHE MAN WHO WENT TOO FARTHE CATGAVON’S EVETHE DUST-CLOUDTHE SHOOTINGS AT ACHNALEISHTHE BUS-CONDUCTORTHE HOUSE WITH THE BRICK-KILNOUTSIDE THE DOORHOW FEAR DEPARTED FROM THE LONG GALLERYTHE CONFESSION OF CHARLES LINK...