EF Benson - Queen Lucia

This is an unabridged version, 117MB, running for 8.6 hours.

Encoded as 32kbps 22050Hz MP3 mono - radio quality

Mrs Lucas is Lucia, Queen of the tiny (but culturally important) village of Riseholme. From her villa she dispenses wisdom, dominates the cultural life and makes pronouncements all all things. She has able lieutenants in her almost invisible husband and Georgie. She is truly a Queen and she acts regally, pompously and somewhat ignorantly which is all good fun for us readers.

The novel is told from the shared viewpoints of Lucia, Georgie and Mrs Quantock (Lucia's sometime rival). Their competitiveness and the machinations which go on to dominate the village make hilarious reading - who would think that so much would go on in such a tiny place. First there is the great excitement of the arrival of Daisy Quantock's Guru and Lucia's machiavellian schemes to annex him. Next is the arrival of the singer Olga Bracely - for whom Lucia insists on dispensing good cultural advice - and finally the incident of Russian Princess Popoffski (also spiritualist) who causes competition among the two village rivals.

There is a remarkable likeness in this novel to Jane Austen's village life in 'Emma' - in fact Lucia could very easily be Mrs Elton with her pseudo-Italian, Caro Sposo's and faux-musicality. There is even an unwed Mrs Weston who finds true love in this novel.

The whole novel is set in the small almost clautrophobic village life of Riseholme which provides a marvellous microcosm to display each characters glorious strengths and equally hilarious weaknesses. Benson has such a light touch that it is easy to love Lucia for her arrogance. If you like Austen, Mitford or even Jilly Cooper you will really enjoy Benson. Highly recommended!

Amazon Review

Read by Nadia May


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