An omnibus edition of the "Mapp and Lucia" stories of E.F. Benson, published between 1920 and 1939.
Emmeline Lucas, known to her friends as "Lucia", is the acknowledged leader of cultural and social life in her village of Riseholme. Spiteful and vindictive Elizabeth Mapp likewise (although less accurately) regards herself as the leading light in the social world of the small seaside town of Tilling. Both Mapp and Lucia are gross hypocrites, snobs, egotists, and bullies, but carry out their respective schemes in very different ways.
This wonderful series of books, written between 1920 and 1939, is a humorous account of the scheming, back-stabbing social world of "one-upmanship" of the English upper classes in 1920s and 30s England. The first two books are about Lucia and Mapp separately (Benson had no thought of a series at the time), but then things really take off when he brings his two wonderful creations together in the seaside town of Tilling (heavily based on the town of Rye in Sussex, where Benson lived for many years).
The book in this omnibus are:
- Queen Lucia (1920)
- Miss Mapp (1922)
- Lucia in London (1927)
- The Male Impersonator (1929 Short Story)
- Desirable Residences (1929 Short Story)
- Mapp and Lucia (1931)
- Lucia's Progress (1935, also known as Worshipful Lucia)
- Trouble for Lucia (1939)
These are some of my very favourite books. I hope that you enjoy them as much as I do.
EDIT: 10 Nov 07
Extensive reformatting and improved layour. Cover picure added. Uploaded v2.
EDIT: 24 Feb 08
More formatting improvements. Uploaded v3.
EDIT: 27 Mar 08
Replaced "Queen Lucia" with a new version to sort out an issue with incorrect paragraph breaks. Uploaded v4.
EDIT: 21 Feb 10
Sorted out some formatting issues with the book which prevented a clean conversion to ePub format. Replaced the cover image. Uploaded v5.
EDIT: 25 Nov 12
Fully proofed against a printed edition and reformatted. Added the short story, "Desirable Residences". Uploaded v6. I would now regard this as a finished work; if you find even the smallest problem with it, please let me know.
Previous download count: 442