Miss Mapp and Lucia return in the fifth instalment of E. F. Benson's classic series. Here we find Lucia battling here way to the top of the social ladder in the small village of Tilling, Miss Mapp here nemesis will not let that happen with out a very polite and gentile fight. This novel, originally published in 1935, is being republished here together with a new introductory biography of the author.

Lucia's Progress and Trouble for Lucia are the fifth and sixth novels in E. F. Benson's Mapp and Lucia series. They chronicle the ongoing battles of his most famous and irrepressible characters - Mrs. Lucia Lucas and Miss Elizabeth Mapp. Both women have been used to dominating their social circles; the idyllic seaside village of Tilling proves too small for both of them. Lucia is the more deadly of the two, with lofty morals, pretentious tastes, and a lust for power, while Mapp is younger, more forceful, and able to terrify her opponents into submission. While both are hypocritical snobs, Lucia is animated by splendid delusions of grandeur and Mapp by insatiable curiosity and chronic rage; their epic collisions rock their small society and provide the narrative engines for Benson's farcical masterpieces.

The final instalment in the wonderful Lucia series. Lucia must yet again lie, trick and deceive to maintain social position as the queen of Tilling. Lucia is probably the greatest creation of E. F. Benson, a social climbing socialite from the small village of Riseholme. A beautifully written and sharply observed comedy, exploring the social life of Edwardian high society This novel, originally published in 1939, is being republished here together with a new introductory biography of the author.

Lucia is the uncrowned queen of 1920s provincial society, the Everest of social climbers and the most delicious of snobs. In the pastoral serenity of the village of Riseholme, Lucia and her unforgettable cronies face up to an Indian guru, spiritualism and a cultural usurper.

Make Way For Lucia, also known as Mapp and Lucia, is a collective name for a series of novels by E. F. Benson about Emmeline "Lucia" Lucas and Elizabeth Mapp. The novels feature humorous incidents in the lives of (mainly) upper-middle-class British people in the 1920s and 1930s, vying for social prestige and one-upmanship in an atmosphere of extreme cultural snobbery. Several of them are set in the small seaside town of Tilling, closely based on Rye, East Sussex, where Benson lived for a number of years and served as mayor. Contents: Queen Lucia Miss Mapp Lucia in London Mapp and Lucia Lucia's Progress or The Worshipful Lucia Trouble for Lucia The Male Impersonator Desirable Residences Edward Frederic Benson (1867-1940) was an English novelist, biographer, memoirist, archaeologist and short story writer, known professionally as E.F. Benson. He started his novel writing career in 1893 with the fashionably controversial Dodo, which was an instant success, and followed it with a variety of satire and romantic and supernatural melodrama. He repeated the success of Dodo, with sequels to this novel, but the greatest success came relatively late in his career with The Mapp and Lucia series consisting of six novels and two short stories. Benson was also known as a writer of atmospheric, oblique, and at times humorous or satirical ghost stories.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “This heartwarming tale is full of lessons about taking risks in life and love.”—Cosmopolitan “Funny, visual, and moving . . . A vibrant, loving, wistful portrait of a lost time and place.”—Richmond Times-Dispatch It is 1950 in glittering, vibrant New York City, and Lucia Sartori is the beautiful twenty-five-year-old daughter of a prosperous Italian grocer in Greenwich Village. The postwar boom is rife with opportunities for talented girls with ambition, and Lucia becomes an apprentice to an up-and-coming designer at chic B. Altman department store on Fifth Avenue. Engaged to her childhood sweetheart, the steadfast Dante DeMartino, Lucia is torn when she meets a handsome stranger who promises a life of uptown luxury that career girls like her only read about in the society pages. Forced to choose between duty to her family and her own dreams, Lucia finds herself in the midst of a sizzling scandal in which secrets are revealed, her beloved career is jeopardized, and the Sartoris’ honor is tested.

In this delightful social comedy, the ever-ambitious Lucia moves to London to climb the social ladder after inheriting her late aunt's fortune. With her wit and unrelenting drive, she navigates high society, making new acquaintances while charming and baffling old friends from Riseholme. Through parties, gossip, and schemes, Lucia tries to maintain her status, yet faces humorous obstacles that test her charm and cunning. Benson crafts a sharp and witty exploration of class, ambition, and the absurdity of social pretensions.