E. F. Benson

Emmeline Lucas, conocida universalmente por sus amigos como Lucía, reina de Riseholme, es una archiesnob del más alto nivel. Cuando en sus vacaciones alquila una casita junto al mar, cree que ya nadie podra hacerle sombra, hasta que se cruza en su camino Miss Elizabeth Mapp, figura central de la vida social del pequeño villorrio de Tilling.De cara al mundo, Lucia y Mapp son las mejores y mas mundanas anfitrionas, pero en secreto no cejaran en su empeño, por muy bajo que puedan caer, por ganar la feroz batalla por la supremacia. Mapp y Lucia, continuacion de las aventuras de la inefable Emmeline Lucas en Reina Lucia, nos presenta toda una panoplia de memorables secundarios: el vicario de Birmingham que habla con acento medieval escoces; la muy riquisima Susan, que no sale de casa sin su Rolls-Royce; Diva, aficionada al cotilleo despiadado; o el ya conocido Georgie Pillson y su tupe, devotos servidores ambos de la reina, que sufre la amenaza de ser destronada.La gran novela sobre el Beau Monde rural ingles.

Emmeline Lucas, más conocida como Lucía, es la más inolvidable, esnob y chismosa de las heroínas de la literatura inglesa del xx. Lucía es la reina del villorrio de Riseholme, que gobierna con mano de hierro y guante de seda con la ayuda de su fiel Georgie Pilson, aficionado al punto de cruz y al cotilleo salvaje. Cuando Pepino, el marido de Lucia, hereda una fortuna y una casa en Londres, todos en Riseholme respiran aliviados, a la vez que empiezan a tramar su venganza tras largos años de opresion. Por desgracia para ellos, Lucia conquista la capital del Imperio sorteando, uno tras otro, todos los obstaculos que se interponen entre ella y la grandeza. Pero ¿puede Lucia aguantarle el paso a la exigente y estirada sociedad londinense? ¿Abandonara su amada Riseholme para siempre?

La señorita Mapp (a la que ya conocimos en la soberbia «Mapp y Lucía») es una de las más excéntricas damas villanas de la comedia British. Reina y señora del pueblecito costero de Tilling, a cuyos ha

Adorada por legiones de fans, inspiradora de una famosa serie de la BBC, Reina Lucía es la primera de la mítica serie de novelas de Mapp y Lucía, deliciosas sátiras sobre la pretenciosa y relamida burguesia rural britanica. Reina Lucia nos presenta a la inimitable Emmeline Lucas (Lucia para los amigos), arbitro social y reina del pintoresco villorrio de Riseholme, que ve su trono peligrar con la aparicion de Olga Braceley, una cantante de opera sin escrupulos. Para hacerle frente, contara con el apoyo de su fiel amigo, Georgie Pillson, un zangolotino de la mejor calaña, aficionado al cotilleo salvaje, al petit point y a las conversaciones en italiano macarronico; o con su molesta vecina, Daisy Quantock, que revoluciona al pueblo entero cuando adquiere un guru nativo de la India aficionado a las bebidas espirituosas de alta graduacion, que introduce en la comarca la fiebre por el Yoga.Reina Lucia es una novela deliciosa, ferozmente british, que incita a la risa desde la primera pagina con un humor que no tiene precio.

Los relatos reunidos invitan a un inquietante recorrido por una extensa galería de espectros. El verdadero aficionado a los exquisitos placeres del miedo, aquel que vendería su alma al diablo por un buen cuento de terror no debe perdérselo.

This is a vintage murder mystery. WH Auden, Nancy Mitford and Noel Coward were among his fans...But have you discovered E. F. Benson yet? Morris Assheton is in love and means to be married. But his happiness is spoilt when he discovers that someone has been whispering poisonous rumours about him to the girl's father. The culprit is Mills, dastardly partner to the Assheton family's trusted lawyer. Morris vows revenge. When Mills' body is discovered, brutally beaten, the ugly quarrel comes to light and suspicion naturally falls on Morris. His innocence is debated in a tense courtroom, as an eager public and press look on. Murder mystery...Courtroom drama. This is a classic whodunnit from the author of Mapp and Lucia. Crime fiction at its best.

Contains: Queen Lucia; Miss Mapp; Lucia in London Lucia is one of the great comic characters in English literature. Outrageously pretentious, hypocritical and snobbish, Queen Luci '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 prudish, manically ambitious Lucia launches herself into the louche world of London society. Her earnest determination to learn all about 'modern movements' makes her the perfect comic vehicle for Benson's free-wheeling satire of salon society, and of the dominant fads and movements of the 1920s, including vegetarianism, yoga, palmistry, Freudianism, seances, Post-Impressionist art and Christian Science. Meanwhile in Tilling, clearly modelled on Benson's home town of Rye, Miss Mapp consume 'chronic rage and curiosity' sits at her window, armed with her light-opera glasses keeping baleful watch on her neighbours. 'Anger and the gravest suspicions about everybody had kept her young and on the boil': and Benson transmutes her boiling into a series of small humiliations in his witty, malicious comedy. In his insightful Introduction Keith Carabine shows that these books are excruciatingly funny because Benson, like Jane Austen, invites the reader to view the world through the self-deluded fabrications and day-dreams of Lucia and the self-deluded chronic anger and jaundiced suspicions of Elisabeth. Carabine also concentrates on the novels' disturbing, bitchy, 'camp' humour whenever 'that horrid thing which Freud calls sex' is raised.

Contains: Mapp and Lucia; Lucia's Progress; Trouble for Lucia 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 suspense'. Both Elisabeth and Lucia are gross hypocrites, snobs and bullies, the huge differences in temperament and style ensure the battle is usually unequal. Elisabeth is incurably mean-spirited and Lucia suffers from splendid delusions of grandeur and personal prestige. Driven by demons of revenge, Elisabeth always acts impulsively, and therefore every revelation of her meanness allows Lucia, the consummate actress, to kill her ally with a sickening kindness. In his insightful Introduction Keith Carabine shows that these books are excruciatingly funny because Benson, like Jane Austen, invites the reader to view the world through the self-deluded chronic anger and jaundiced suspicions of Elisabeth and through the self-deluded fabrications and day-dreams of Lucia. Carabine also concentrates on the novels' disturbing, bitchy 'camp' humour whenever 'that horrid thing which Freud calls sex is raised'.

Soon to be revived in a new BBC series, Mapp and Lucia is a poisonously witty, comic tale of two upper-class women battling for social supremacy in the most underhand ways possible

'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 in this bumper collection. The range and variety of these spooky narratives is far broader and more adventurous than those of any other writer of supernatural fiction. Within the covers of this volume you will encounter revengeful spectres, vampires, homicidal spirits, monstrous spectral worms and slugs and other entities of nameless dread. This is a classic collection that cannot fail to charm and chill.

Junto con M. R. James, E. F. Benson (1867-1940) fue uno de los maestros victorianos de la «ghost story», un territorio del terror cuya exploración inició el gran escritor irlandés Joseph Sheridan Le

E(dward) F(rederick) Benson (1867- 1940), membre d'una singular família literària tant en el vessant inspirador com creatiu, va ser un escriptor d'èxit a la seva època, gràcies a les seves novel·les

E. F. Benson (1867-1940) fue, junto con M.R. James uno de los maestros victorianos de la «ghost story», un territorio del terror cuya exploración inició el gran escritor irlandés Joseph Sheridan Le

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 in this bumper collection. The range and variety of these spooky narratives is far broader and more adventurous than those of any other writer of supernatural fiction. Within the covers of this volume you will encounter revengeful spectres, vampires, homicidal spirits, monstrous spectral worms and slugs and other entities of nameless dread. This is a classic collection that cannot fail to charm and chill.

"Mapp & Lucia" first published in 1935. "Lucias progress" first published 1935. "Trouble for Lucia" first published in 1939.

Subtly brilliant comedy of social rivalry between the wars. Emmeline Lucas (known universally to her friends as Lucia) is an arch-snob of the highest order. In Miss Elizabeth Mapp of Mallards, Lucia meets her match. Ostensibly the most civil and genteel of society ladies, there is no plan too devious, no plot too cunning, no depths to which they would not sink, in order to win the battle for social supremacy. Using as their deadly weapons garden parties, bridge evenings and charming teas, the two combatants strive to outcharm each other - and the whole of Tilling society - as they vie for the position of doyenne of the town.

Queen Lucia E. F. Benson - Mrs. Lucas, Lucia to her intimates, resides in the village of Riseholme, a pretty Elizabethan village in Worcestershire, where she vigorously guards her status as "Queen" despite occasional attempts from her subjects to overthrow her. Lucias dear friend Georgie Pillson both worships Lucia and occasionally works to subvert her power. Everyone must visit Riseholme. Its the most precious English village that you ever could see. Delightful! Decadent! Devious! Demented! Delicious. Riseholme is ruled by its very own doyenne of style and taste and class, one Emmeline Lucia Lucas. She utterly commands the village, an ever-benevolent dictator over all things that truly matter. Her right-hand "man" is Georgie, a bachelor of means and of a certain age, a faithful lieutenant whose extensive time spent in Lucias home creates absolutely no tension whatsoever with Lucias husband. Precious Georgie! With his embroidery and his watercolors and his lovely color-coordinated outfits and his cape - yes darlings, his cape! - and of course his monthly battles with hair-loss and graying. Fortunately he engages the services of hair dye and the comb-over, but shhh! We shall not speak of such things! Let us instead speak of more important matters, in quaint baby-talk or made-up "Italian" - much as Georgie and Lucia and her husband Peppino often converse!

Miss Mapp - E. F. Benson - Lucia returns in the second instalment of E. F. Bensons classic series. Here we find Lucia battling here way to the top of the social ladder in the small village of Tilling, Miss Mapp, Lucias nemesis will not let that happen with out a very polite and cordial fight. This novel, originally published in 1923, is being republished here together with a new introductory biography of the author.