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Mapp and Lucia

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Mapp and Lucia

By: E. F. Benson
Narrated by: Miriam Margolyes
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About this listen

Mapp and Lucia is the centrepiece of E. F. Benson's series of Lucia novels - bringing together for the first time the eponymous middle-aged doyennes of polite 1930s society Miss Elizabeth Mapp and Emmeline Luca (Lucia to her friends).

Lucia, recently widowed, is the newcomer to the village of Tilling and eager to wrest the reins of social supremacy from the incumbant Miss Mapp and install herself as its benevolent dictator. In their polite acts of sabotage and ruthless jockeying for the position of cultural arbiter Mapp and Lucia tear up the conventions of drawing-room bridge evenings as their deadly weapons.

Things finally come to a head with Miss Mapp's audacious attempt to steal her rival's celebrated Lobster a la Riseholme. E.F. Benson's charming satrical bent turns the pretensions and snobberies of English village life into a vicious comedy.

©1931 E. F. Benson (P)2010 Hachette Digital Classics Literature & Fiction Comedy Funny Witty Village

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All stars
Most relevant
A well told story of competition between the two and life of the gentile in the 1930s.

Mapp & Lucia

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a very funny book and an excellent narrator, only slight negative is that it is very much abridged.

great fun

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Sadly this is an abridged version of the book, but still hugely enjoyable when read by the brilliant Miriam Margolyes!

Enjoyable.

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I am very fond of E.F. Benson's Mapp and/or Lucia books, and I think this one is the best. It is also easy to pick up on who everyone is, even though this is fourth series. The story itself is fun but simple and quite predictable, but that isn't the point of it - it's the accurately observed absurdities of characters, alliances and power struggles, and a sprinkling of comic happenings, that makes it a treat to read.

This audiobook is beautifully read, with easily distinguished character voices and great pacing - no surprise from Miriam Margoyles.

A very English comedy of cut-throat social tangles in the 1920s

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It's impossible to not be drawn into the world of Mapp and Lucia, as well as the superb Georgie. The struggles for power, the subtle ploys and the overt manipulation. Politicians could take lessons from the ladies of Riseholme and Tilling. The stories are read with verve and a full appreciation of Benson's style. My only complaint is that this is an abridged version, there's just not enough!

Perfectamundo!

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