Cliche though it may be, it is always a joy to revisit the pretentious, social-climbing, class-obsessed, bitingly funny world of the towns of Riseholme and Tilling. Queen Lucia, the first book in Benson's series, introduces us to part of this world - although the full glory of the series would not become apparent until the fourth novel, when Emmeline "Lucia" Lucas, demented heroine of this one, finally comes face to face with Elizabeth Mapp, determined heroine of the next.

For lovers of classic British comedies of manners, especially if you're seeking someone as laughter-inducing as Wodehouse yet more savage to the characters than he, and as carefully studied as Austen yet far less serious.

The 2014 TV adaptation, with Miranda Richardson, was pleasant enough although - to my mind - overdone. The 1980s adaptation with Geraldine McEwan and Prunella Scales is languid at times, but well worth seeking out for its picture-perfect portrayal of the novels. ( )

4.5 stars

Nadia May does a marvelous narration of this satire of the social maneuvers in English village life during the 1920s. If you like Gaskell's Cranford, you will probably enjoy this. ( )

Reina Lucía nos presenta a la inimitable Emmeline Lucas (Lucía para los amigos), árbitro social y reina del pintoresco villorrio de Riseholme, que ve su trono peligrar con la aparición de Olga Bracely, una cantante de ópera sin escrúpulos. Para hacerle frente, contará 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 macarrónico; o con su molesta vecina, Daisy Quantock, que revoluciona al pueblo entero cuando adquiere un «gurú» nativo de la India aficionado a las bebidas espirituosas de alta graduación, que introduce en la comarca la fiebre por el Yoga.

NOTE: This review applies to the entire Mapp and Lucia series.

This appears to be one of those series that people either love or hate. Set in the early decades of the 20th century, E.F. Benson skewers the frivolous lives of the elite in rural English villages. The heroine is Mrs. Emmeline Lucas, known to all as Lucia (the Italian pronunciation, if you please). Lucia rules the village of Riseholme with an iron fist in a velvet glove, ruthlessly running the social lives of the others in her social class. Despite their occasional resentment and attempts to break free of Lucia's influence, the village invariably finds life gray and boring without their benevolent dictator in residence.

The second book in the series, Miss Mapp, at first appears to be a completely unrelated book, as Lucia does not appear and instead the main character is Elizabeth Mapp, a never-married woman "of a certain age" in the village of Tilling. Like Lucia, she rules her social class with a strong will, although with somewhat less grace than her counterpart in Riseholme. The third book, Lucia in London, leaves Mapp and Tilling behind and returns to focus on Lucia, this time on her adventures during the social season in London.

Finally, in Book Four (Mapp and Lucia), the irresistible force (Lucia) meets the immovable object (Mapp) when Lucia decides to move to Tilling. This town is not big enough for both of them to rule, and the schemes and shenanigans that ensue are delightfully sharp and witty. Their tussles continue in the final two books in the series, Lucia's Progress and Trouble for Lucia.

The lives of the people spotlighted in Riseholme and in Tilling are spectacularly shallow. The biggest intrigues involve who is paired with who at the evening bridge games, and gossip is traded freely during the morning marketing, when anyone who is anyone gathers on the High Street with their baskets and their cutting observations. Scarcely a reference is ever made to world wars or depressions, even though both raged throughout the time period of these books. To read such accounts written in a serious manner would be intolerably smug, but Benson's writing is slyly cutting, as he appears to take all of the plotting with the utmost sincerity even while winking at the reader with his asides.

Readers who prefer their heroes and heroines to be a bit less shallow and a bit more kind will find the Lucia series less than enjoyable, as will those readers neither old enough to remember the early 20th century nor with any interest in life among the middle class (being, in those days and in that country, truly in the middle between the poor and working classes on one end and the aristocracy on the other). Those who, like me, enjoy a sharp bite to their fiction will find themselves alternately rooting for the downfall of Mapp and Lucia and cheering their subsequent rise back to prominence. ( )

I'm putting this one aside for now. I'm sure at some point I'll be in the mood for a story about snobs who run around trying to outdo each other. I can see the humor in it. I'm just not in the mindset for it right now. ( )