Queen Lucia

Fiction ~ novel
Published 1920
86,300 words
(First read 09/01/1990)

Lucia's Progress

Fiction ~ novel
Published 1935
84,300 words
(First read 19/08/1989) 




THE CRITICS

 

Since 1893, when Dodo agitated the literary communities of Britain, Mr E F Benson's delicate satire has amused and charmed again and again.

His latest novel is as witty and as entertaining as any of the many volumes he has written dealing with the day-to-day lives and ongoings of the irrepressible Emmeline Lucas ('Lucia'), her middle-aged butterfly friend, Georgie Pillson, the professional jeune premier of their select circle, and their coterie of diversified acquaintances in the little seaside town of Tilling.

Lucia's birth certificate demonstrates that she has now reached the half-century mark, but you would never guess. Georgie has adopted a beard, which is viewed with differing feelings by the social set of Tilling.

Perhaps the nastiest bit of criticism emanates from Elizabeth Mapp-Flint, who admires Georgie's beard, “except for that odd sort of sheen on it, like the colours on cold boiled beef!”

Lucia's innumerable lovers will be intensely interested in her matrimonial and municipal progress.

 

~The Courier and Advertiser [Dundee], 02/05/1935

Lady Massington's Resurrection

Volume of short stories

Published (?) 1895

Well, here's a mystery.

In early 1895 the publishers Methuen & Co. announced the appearance of a new work by EFB: Lady Massington's Resurrection, and Other Stories (crown 8vo. 6s.) ~ mentions found in the end papers of a book titled Battles of English History by H. B. George (dated 01/1895), and in the Pall Mall Gazette's 'Literary Notes' of 16/02/1895.

A Mrs Massington appears in one of the novels ~ I don't know which and am too lazy to go hunting for it.

And I've found this mention in the EFB papers held by UCLA:

Box 5, Folder 64

Lady Massington's redemption.

Physical Description: 57pp., 26 cm, typescript, holograph corrections.

Scope and Content Note

Typescript title Lady Massington's resurrection, the last word crossed out and redemtion written by hand.

Text begins, The tide of carriages in St. James' Street had just turned...

But apart from that ~

nothing.

"Books That Have Helped Great Men": E F Benson's Selection

My favourite film Heathcliff (Timothy Dalton)

On 22nd October 1927 The Spectator asked some 'great men' to name the books that had most influenced them:

Mr. E. F. Benson adds a philosophical aside to his selection : "No book that is worth reading ever had anything but a bad influence on any author. What he invariably picks up (if he picks up anything) is its defects. Its merits are always the incommunicable secret of the individual writer. But usually he picks up nothing. The three books that have thus most influenced me are: (1) Le Livre de la pitié et de la mort, by Pierre Loti. I derived from it a poisonous streak of sentimentality. (2) Othmai, by Ouida, from which I caught an adolescent habit of 'rich' description. (3) Wuthering Heights, by Emily Brontë, from which I learned clumsy mechanism."

 Just thought I'd mention it. 

Ouida (Louisa de la Ramée)

The Mapp and Lucia series

Fiction ~ six novels, two short stories
Published 1920-39

Benson's Mapp and Lucia series consists of six novels and two short stories:
(1) Queen Lucia (1920; Lucia only)
(2) Miss Mapp (1922; Mapp only)
(3) Lucia in London (1927; Lucia only)
(4) The Male Impersonator (1929; Mapp only)
(5) Desirable Residences (1929; Mapp only)
(6) Mapp and Lucia (1931; both)
(7) Lucia's Progress (1935; both; known as The Worshipful Lucia in the USA)
(8) Trouble for Lucia (1939; both)

There are, of course, whole herds of proto-Lucias and pseudo-Mapps, not to mention Lucias-in-waiting, Mapps manquées, mini-Georgies, the odd Major Benjy, beefy parlourmaids with their lesbianic mistresses, snobs, cats, bitches, pseuds, prudes ... and umpteen stories (some comic, some spooky) set in Tilling, Tillingham, etc. etc. scattered throughout the works of E. F. Benson from 1893-1940.
I've read the whole lot of them umpteen times and the comedy never palls for me.

Daily Training

Non-fiction ~ sports/health
Published 1902
Benson edited with his friend Eustace H Miles

THE CRITICS

The title of this book, which belongs to the "Imperial Athletic Library," indicates its purpose. It is intended to give rules, rules always founded on principles, not for preparation for feats of strength, but for general well-being of body. It is a treatise on "daily" training, not the special cultivation of an abnormal strength, a cultivation which may be easily overdone and end in collapse, but of the general cultivation of a good physical habit. Diet is, of course, one of the main points. Our authors are strongly disposed to a modified vegetarianism; then there are exercises, for which very detailed instructions are given, and some admirably sound advice on morals. Altogether this is a book which any one may read with profit.

~The Spectator, 22/11/1902

With commendable simplicity and reasonableness, suggestions and directions are here set down concerning such exercises and general regimen as may contribute to the acquisition or preservation of health. Rules are based on the experience and observation of both authors, one of whom is a vegetarian, the other a meat-eater; one takes regular, the other sporadic, outdoor exercise; one a hot, the other a cold, bath; one uses tobacco, the other abjures it. They claim to be in harmony on fundamentals, and their advice is doubtless the more acceptable and effective because of their differences in practice. Argument for physical culture goes deeper than the simple invigoration of the body: "There is no healthful habit of body which does not exercise healthful influence on the soul," say they.

~The Outlook, 21/03/1903

The King and His Reign III: Ireland

Non-fiction ~ article
Published in The Spectator, 8th March 1935

The third of EFB's articles written to commemorate the silver jubilee of King George V isn't available online, for some mysterious reason.