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A review by silvej01
Queen Lucia by E.F. Benson
3.0
”Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.”
In the little English village of Riseholme, Emmeline Lukas—Lucia—is the reigning queen. Most of her waking life is spent either in preparation of or actually exercising her regal authority over the rest of the inhabitants of Riseholme. She makes sure it is on display and remains alert to suspected snubs or potential threats to her command over her realm. Interactions with others—be they friend, rival, a real or supposed enemy, or sometimes many of these at once—are handled with hauteur and delicate pomposity. She doesn’t hesitate to overtake the seemingly exciting discoveries of her friends and make them out to be her own, nor hesitate to quickly reverse the process should the discovery turn out to be a dud that might mar the appearance of her grand vision, wisdom, and high artistic sensibility.
This book is much better written than the amount of enjoyment I had reading it. (Actually, I listened to Nadia May’s excellent audiobook version.) That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy it—I did. Benson was clearly a very fine writer but I felt I wasn’t always up to doing him the justice he deserved. Certainly there were many parts that gave me a great deal of pleasure. The book is full of humor and Benson’s knowing wit abounds. There are many wonderful and biting lines that occasionally led me to laugh out loud. Still, the schemes and machinations of Lucia and “her subjects” and rivals, were at times wearisome for me. While some acts of genuine kindness and authenticity do eventually take place, for most of the book I found myself longing for at least some such instances. Also, there are dated and somewhat offensive invocations of British Imperial prejudices and stereotypes that require a forbearance that some might not be willing to allow.
All this is not to say that I would clearly not go on to read other books in the Mapp & Lucia series (if only to find out who Mapp is—he/she is not named a character in this first book), but not right away.
In the little English village of Riseholme, Emmeline Lukas—Lucia—is the reigning queen. Most of her waking life is spent either in preparation of or actually exercising her regal authority over the rest of the inhabitants of Riseholme. She makes sure it is on display and remains alert to suspected snubs or potential threats to her command over her realm. Interactions with others—be they friend, rival, a real or supposed enemy, or sometimes many of these at once—are handled with hauteur and delicate pomposity. She doesn’t hesitate to overtake the seemingly exciting discoveries of her friends and make them out to be her own, nor hesitate to quickly reverse the process should the discovery turn out to be a dud that might mar the appearance of her grand vision, wisdom, and high artistic sensibility.
This book is much better written than the amount of enjoyment I had reading it. (Actually, I listened to Nadia May’s excellent audiobook version.) That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy it—I did. Benson was clearly a very fine writer but I felt I wasn’t always up to doing him the justice he deserved. Certainly there were many parts that gave me a great deal of pleasure. The book is full of humor and Benson’s knowing wit abounds. There are many wonderful and biting lines that occasionally led me to laugh out loud. Still, the schemes and machinations of Lucia and “her subjects” and rivals, were at times wearisome for me. While some acts of genuine kindness and authenticity do eventually take place, for most of the book I found myself longing for at least some such instances. Also, there are dated and somewhat offensive invocations of British Imperial prejudices and stereotypes that require a forbearance that some might not be willing to allow.
All this is not to say that I would clearly not go on to read other books in the Mapp & Lucia series (if only to find out who Mapp is—he/she is not named a character in this first book), but not right away.