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 ...

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...

"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...

Meet Emmeline Lucas, known to her friends as Lucia, the undisputed social leader of the town of Riseholme, and her husband Phillip, writer of prose poems. Risholme is also home to Georgie Pillson, who plays duets with Lucia and collects bibelots, Daisy Quantock, who has discovered an Indian Guru who will teach her meditation, Olga Bracely, the operatic soprano, and Signor Cortese composer of operas.Edward Frederic Benson (1867-1940) was an English writer and novelist. Benson's lite...

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...

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...

The story is set around the Wentworth mention, a small boarding house in Bolton Spa and its owners and lodgers. They are quite unlikable, mainly upper-middle-class English people who came to the Spa to cure their body illnesses, but also to fill the time and escape boredom despite having no passions, interests and work. A delightful book for anybody familiar with Benson’s work, full of all the usual light, wit and satirical caricatures that Benson does so well.

„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!

The fourth installment of the popular series-a hilarious study of 1930s manner and pecking order-begins when Lucia Lucas rents a summer place-the home of Elizabeth Mapp-in the English village of Tilling. So begins a battle of one-upmanship, peppered with queenly airs, ghastly tea parties, and unnerving bridge evenings as the two combatants attempt to out-do each other to win social supremacy. The pompous Lucia and malignant Mapp are characters you will love to hate, wonderfully penned by E...

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, ...

The village of Rieseholm worships Queen Lucia. She completely commands the village, the ever-benevolent dictator of all things that really matter. However, someone had the pleasure of overthrowing a queen so great. And it was Olga Braisley, an opera singer from London. She is a real celebrity, not at all like that queen. Can she do it?

What if a single room could remember every death, every secret-and refused to stay silent?E.F. Benson, best known for his elegant prose and refined horror, delivers a haunting masterwork in The Room, a psychological ghost story where the setting itself becomes the antagonist.When a man inherits an old house, he is warned of one locked room-unassuming, unused, and curiously avoided by all who once lived there. Intrigued and skeptical, he enters... and awakens some...