Rating: 
Summary: Cheerful Malice
Review: "Mapp & Lucia" is like reading Trollope's "Barchester Towers" with the gloves off. The teacup may be small, but the battles rumble like thunder on the bay. Lucia is incredible. She combines absolute self-absorption with ironclad charming resolve to succeed in her every endeavor. She really is wasted being queen of Society in a small English village when fulfilling the duties of Lord High Admiral would not cause her so much as a tiny frown.Lucia is a newly minted widow in this hilarious outing. Her fires have been banked, and she is anxious to get back in the swing and show her mettle. She rents a house for the summer from the formidable Miss Elizabeth Mapp of Tilling. Miss Mapp is clearly the leader of society in Tilling and revels in her role. Lucia eyes the situation, and the lines are drawn in the most charming but resolute way possible Lucia is the richer of the two and possibly more clever, but Miss Mapp has some powerful advantages of her own. She has pride of place, a town full of quaking allies, and indomnable perseverance. When these two square off, the fun begins and doesn't let up. This is a delightful read, a mood lifter of the first magnitude. "Mapp & Lucia" is my introduction to Lucia, and I cannot wait to further my acquaintance with this fascinating lady.
-sweetmolly-Amazon Reviewer
Rating:
Summary: Cheerful Malice
Review: "Mapp & Lucia" is like reading Trollope's "Barchester Towers" with the gloves off. The teacup may be small, but the battles rumble like thunder on the bay. Lucia is incredible. She combines absolute self-absorption with ironclad charming resolve to succeed in her every endeavor. She really is wasted being queen of Society in a small English village when fulfilling the duties of Lord High Admiral would not cause her so much as a tiny frown. Lucia is a newly minted widow in this hilarious outing. Her fires have been banked, and she is anxious to get back in the swing and show her mettle. She rents a house for the summer from the formidable Miss Elizabeth Mapp of Tilling. Miss Mapp is clearly the leader of society in Tilling and revels in her role. Lucia eyes the situation, and the lines are drawn in the most charming but resolute way possible Lucia is the richer of the two and possibly more clever, but Miss Mapp has some powerful advantages of her own. She has pride of place, a town full of quaking allies, and indomnable perseverance. When these two square off, the fun begins and doesn't let up. This is a delightful read, a mood lifter of the first magnitude. "Mapp & Lucia" is my introduction to Lucia, and I cannot wait to further my acquaintance with this fascinating lady.
-sweetmolly-Amazon Reviewer
Rating:
Summary: A Little Misleading
Review: Don't get me wrong, this is an excellent book. But Nancy Mitford, while a big fan of the Mapp and Lucia series, had no part in writing it whatsoever. She did offer her opinion of the book, however, pronouncing it "fresh, fascination, real and timeless." (Miss Mitford always had a slight problem with punctuation.) This opinion appears on the front cover, the only place in the book that Miss Mitford makes an appearance in any way. I bought this book under the mistaken assumption that Nancy Mitford had a hand in the writing. Although she did not, I thoroughly enjoyed the book anyway, and have since purchased more. I heartily recommend it to lovers of subtle English comedy.
Rating:
Summary: Too too thrill making
Review: Enough cannot be said about the merit of this and all other Lucia novels. They are the very apotheosis of English humorous writing. The machinations by which Lucia inevitably achieves her ends make vastly amusing reading. You will reach the end of this novel having learned nothing. It will not improve you. The characters will not grow into better, more mature, more enlightened beings than they were at the start of this all too short gem of a book. Despite these facts (all "serious" readers will deride and condemn) there has been nothing like these exemplary novels for pure entertainment, and I, for one, still believe this is an admirable reason for opening a book at any time. Do try it.
Rating:
Summary: Too too thrill making
Review: Enough cannot be said about the merit of this and all other Lucia novels. They are the very apotheosis of English humorous writing. The machinations by which Lucia inevitably achieves her ends make vastly amusing reading. You will reach the end of this novel having learned nothing. It will not improve you. The characters will not grow into better, more mature, more enlightened beings than they were at the start of this all too short gem of a book. Despite these facts (all "serious" readers will deride and condemn) there has been nothing like these exemplary novels for pure entertainment, and I, for one, still believe this is an admirable reason for opening a book at any time. Do try it.
Rating:
Summary: A hilarious society war of ladies
Review: I cannot say enough about this adaptation. Prunella Scales produces the voices excellently. For those who do not know Lucia and Mapp - They are Elizabeth mapp and Emmeline Lucas - two ladies whom both consider themselves social queens of the village of Tilling. The ensuing war includes Fete's garden parties dinner parties and climaxes with the crafty Miss mapp attempting to steal the recipe for Lobster ala Reisholme and being caught by Lucia, they are then caught in a flood and whisked out to sea on a kitchen table - it's hilarious when listened to. The conflicts between these two are scarier than Snipes and Stallone in full flow.
Rating:
Summary: Real and Really Funny
Review: I dare you: read one of the 'Lucia' books and try - just try - not to read it again and again and again and again ...
Rating:
Summary: Real and Really Funny
Review: I dare you: read one of the 'Lucia' books and try - just try - not to read it again and again and again and again ...
Rating:
Summary: Delicious!
Review: If ever 21st Century life gets a little 'tarsome' (as Lucia's stalwart escort, 'Georgie', would put it), I turn time and time again to the little village of Tilling, East Sussex, where E.F Benson has created his 'world' of tea shops, dinner parties, amateur art societies and, most importantly, PEOPLE - for it is within the realms of PEOPLE and their most hateful foibles that Benson's genius lay. The autocratic 'Lucia' and her arch rival, the dastardly 'Miss Mapp', battle it out over a series of rich and wonderful books, and there is not a page which does not have me crying tears of laughter into my cucumber sandwhiches and India tea! Marvellous escapism and unbelievably suspensful (WHAT'S going to happen when Georgie and Mr Wyse BOTH wear their new velvet suits to Lucia's dinner party! ), Benson turns his caustic, playful eye on British society of the 1920s with such pure delight that there is only one word for these books; DELICIOUS!
Rating:
Summary: Heaven help my credit card...
Review: Oover the last fifteen years I have been meaning to read certain authors. H.E. Bates, Anthony Trollope, P.G. Wodehouse, E.F. Benson and the like. Last week I succumbed to a nasty bout of influenza and E.F. Benson. I had grabbed the slender volume of "Mapp & Lucia" from the library shelf and it had rested in my bookcase for almost a week. Not wanting to dull my brain with endless hours of television, I cracked open "Mapp & Lucia". Ten pages into the book and I was hooked. Lucia, her period of mourning almost over is looking to regain her iron control on her hometown. First action, regain her star role as Queen Elizabeth in the village fete. As I read Lucia's plots and plans, a strange thought hit me. Lucia is the creature Hyacinth Bucket (the main character of the BBC's Keeping Up Appearances) secretly dreams of being. Having taken over the fete from her dazed and confused friend, Lucia goes onto greater pastures, the hometown of Miss Elizabeth Mapp, reigning social goddesss. Miss Elizabeth Mapp (known as Mapp) plots with her friends to rent out their respective homes a profit. Lucia and her best friend (a gentleman who brings to mind a cross between KUA's Richard and AYBS Mr Humphries) move and slowly begin to take over the town. Mapp is not pleased and a genteel war of one-upsmanship begins between the two ladies. Drawings are rejected from the art exhibit, parties given, ownership of produce and fruit desputed with the poor town in the middle. Matters come to a head on Boxing Day (December 26) when Mapp decides to steal a longed for recipe that Lucia refuses to give to her. Lucia stumbles on her rival in the kitchen and both women are swept out to sea on Lucia's kitchen table (yes, Lucia's kitchen table, this is a not a mis-type). The town mourns the two ladies as lost and the Great War of Mapp-Lucia as over. Okay, enough said. You'll have to succumb to the collective charms of the ladies Mapp and Lucia yourself and find out all the bits I've left out. Now, I'm off hunt down and read the rest of E.F. Benson's wonderful books.
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