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  • Published: 15 November 2015
  • ISBN: 9781101912102
  • Imprint: Knopf US
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 576
  • RRP: $39.99

Queen Lucia & Miss Mapp

The Mapp & Lucia Novels




The first two of E. F. Benson's beloved Mapp and Lucia novels--sparkling, classic comedies of manners set against the petty snobberies and competitive maneuverings of English village society in the 1920s and 1930s.

E. F. Benson’s beloved Mapp and Lucia novels are sparkling, classic comedies of manners set against the petty snobberies and competitive maneuverings of English village society in the 1920s and 1930s.

Benson’s series revolves around two unforgettable characters, both forceful and irrepressible women who dominate their respective villages in southern England and who will eventually end up hilariously at war with each other. Lucia is the more deadly of the two, with her pretentious tastes, treacherous charm, and lust for power. Miss Elizabeth Mapp, on the other hand, is younger and more forceful and able to terrify her opponents into submission. Benson introduces these splendid comic creations in the first two novels of the series, Queen Lucia (1920) and Miss Mapp (1922).

  • Published: 15 November 2015
  • ISBN: 9781101912102
  • Imprint: Knopf US
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 576
  • RRP: $39.99

About the author

E. F. Benson

Edward Frederic Benson was born on July 24, 1867 in Berkshire, the son of a future Archbishop of Canterbury, and one of six children. He studied at Kings College, Cambridge and at the British School of Archaeology in Athens. Benson's first book, Dodo, was published to popular acclaim in 1893 and was followed by over a hundred books, including novels, histories, biographies and ghost stories. In 1920 Benson became a full-time tenant of Lamb House in Rye, which had once been home to the novelist Henry James. Rye provided the setting for the Mapp and Lucia stories and their author served three terms as mayor of Rye in the late 1930s. E.F. Benson died on February 29, 1940.

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Praise for Queen Lucia & Miss Mapp

Praise for the BBC Miniseries:

"A truly delightful piece of television." --The Gaurdian

"Chancellor's sub-zero smile would have repelled a hungry puma. Richardson's gritted teeth took on a life of their own as she suffered slight after slight at the hands of her crimson-lipped assassin. Think Die Hard 5 but with more vicious one-upmanship and better scarves." --The Telegraph

"An hour of unadulterated joy." --Daily Mail

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