The GR description of this book is incorrect -- this is NOT the stage adaptation but is an omnibus edition of the complete 6 novels in the Lucia series as written by E.F. Benson.

"Georgie held her hand a moment longer than was usual, and gave it a little extra pressure for the conveyance of sympathy. Lucia, to acknowledge that, pressed a little more, and Georgie tightened his grip again to show that he understood, until their respective fingernails grew white with the conveyance and reception of sympathy. It was rather agonizing, because a bit of skin on his little finger had got caught between two of the rings on his third finger, and he was glad when they quite underst...

I've read it, and read it again, and again, and again. Now I'm reading it again. This is likely the only book I have read as many times. I can predict the dialogue and narrative as it happens. And yet I keep wanting to read it again. Can you tell I love all of the Lucia and Mapp books? One of the things that happens every time for me is that my opinion of Lucia changes from bad to good every time as I meet Miss Mapp. Benson does a fine job of creating a society where the main characters have not...

My life would have been much sadder had this book (these books, really) not have been in it. Went so far as to go on a pilgrimage to Tilling itself, where I learnt exactly how Mapp was able to spy on Lucia from the church steeple ....

I have just finished rereading the complete Mapp and Lucia series and, though I would have thought it beyond the bounds of possibility, I enjoyed it even more second-time around. There are six books in the series (seven counting the included short story). Whilst each is stand-alone, they are best read in sequence and what pure delight there is in store for those at the start of this hilarious immersion into middle-class, small-town England. Though the Great War is only just behind them, the peop...

E. F. Benson apparently had two obsessions: ghost stories, and high society, with an unrelenting hatred of social climbers. The distant rumbles of Bolshevism and the nearer-at-home threat of Black Shirts and incipient Nazis don't stir him to the heat of indignation that he reserves for middle class people pretending to a rank to which they are not entitled; a great many of his short stories are savage satires of bumptious mushrooms trying to shoulder their way into society, to the extent of cert...

These books present a quintessential fishbowl view of early 20th century priveleged English village life. The characters are so well-drawn that they're almost caricatures. They become family; they make you crazy sometimes, but just when you're ready to kick them out, they endear themselves in a way that makes you want to hug them to your chest instead. These are literally (ha! that sounds like a pun) some of my favorite books. I would take them to that proverbial desert island with me.

My mom lent me this book last Christmas. It's one of her favorites -- she'd been talking it up to me for a long time. It's a collection of seven novels about a character named Lucia, the town she lives in, and all her wacky friends. Takes place in England in the 1930s (or is it 1940s?). I've read the first two novels, and just started the third. It's a fun read. The characters are vivid and memorable, and their exploits are funny -- very entertaining.

I'm adding this book years after I read it, but certain cherished passages inevitably recur in my fading memory, especially as I'm now reading Saki and Sōseki's I Am A Cat.For years I sniffed at Benson's Lucia novels, somehow imagining that I was above them, that they were the sort of thing old queens who loved Ronald Firbank would read. Well, maybe they are – but I was wrong about myself. When I pick up this doorstop of a book, I can only echo the Foreword by Anne Parrish: "although my copies a...

This book forever to read, but was worth it. I enjoyed the humour, and it's a very different type of read for me.

I absolutely love this book. It is actually a compilation of 7 stories about Lucia and Miss Mapp. The first two stories are about Lucia which I didn't get too much out of. But when Miss Mapp enters the story in book three, it becomes the most hilarious book I've ever read. It takes place in a small British hamlet and covers the lives of certain individuals who live in the town. The busybody Miss Mapp is the center of the story and I have never laughed so much as when I read about her adventures....

I've read this one several times--whenever I need something to cheer me up it's this or Agatha Christie. Not that they're remotely the same. The Benson books are hilarious, witty and nasty. Perfect.

Mapp and Lucia: The Complete Series contains all six of the Lucia novels, which are also compiled under the title Make Way for Lucia. The novels, needless to say, are excellent -- particularly the first four. You'll laugh out loud.This Kindle anthology contains no table of contents and is otherwise quite difficult to navigate. The font, very difficult to read, is one I haven't seen since the days of IBM Selectric typewriters. Considering Mapp and Lucia: The Complete Series cost a mere 99 cents,

I first found out about these characters in a 2014 miniseries. When I mentioned it to some friends they told me they had all 6 books in one volume. Wonderful!!! loved it....sorry there is not more.

Had to read in few-chapter bits, because scary in an everyday way. The main women are mean, funny until the reader imagines being victim to their bullying. Lucia rules her small village into submission with pretensions to culture and Italian, until opera singer Olga, fluent, humble, kind, falls as a shining star. Elsewhere, Miss Elizabeth Mapp, jolly smiles outside, vengeful mean anger inside, bullies her village with demonic sweetness.1 Queen Lucia2 Miss Mapp3 The Male Impersonator4 Lucia in Lo...

This is the all-time sure-fire depression cure! Whenever I have the blues, I dip into this book. The War of the Chintz Roses; Mapp's underhanded efforts to steal the recipe for Lobster a la Riseholme, Georgie's beard, and Diva striving to keep her place as Queen of the Fete...A hysterical comedy of manners, set in Britain between the wars.

I've never seen either a TV mini-series or a play of "Lucia," but for some reason when I saw this I realized it was something I should pick up. What I ended up reading was Part One ("Make Way For Lucia") of "Queen Lucia" - and what a delight it was.Not knowing what to expect, I had trouble getting into the story, but once opera singer Olga Bracely arrived in Riseholme, the book was absolutely charming. Olga, with her generous nature; Lucia, with her pretentious ways and endless need for adoratio...

"Scrumptious" is a word I've probably never used in my life, but it seems rather apt for this series. E.F. Benson's delectable light comedy is a cross between Austen and Wodehouse, somehow more savage than either and yet more fond of the characters at the same time. Queen Lucia introduces us to the immortal Emmeline Lucas, renowned for her dinner parties in which she will play the First Movement of the Moonlight Sonata, but will then beg off playing the second and third movements on the grounds

I read these stories many years ago when I found the books at some sort of sale. I found them quite entertaining and decided I needed a little light-hearted reading and wanted to read them again. So I am.I had to take a break. I can only take so much cleverness and snark before I needed a rest from it. I did read seven of the stories and got partway through the last before I stopped. Lucia is the "Queen" of Riseholme. She and her husband are undisputed leaders of the society in Riseholme. There

Somewhat of a guilty pleasure. Should we delight in a male author making fun of the pretentions and machinations of upper middle class women, circa 1920-1939. Edward Frederic Benson creates an isolated world: no mention of shell shock, strikes, depressions here. Virtually no mention of children, except in groups upon whom the ladies bestow charitable outings. While the tale is of the property owners in two small English towns: Riselholme and Tilling (the later based on Rye, where Benson lived at...