The Freaks of Mayfair (Prion humour classics) - Hardcover

E. F. Benson

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1853754293 ISBN 13: 9781853754296

Publisher: Prion Books Ltd, 2003

Synopsis

In a series of hilariously dry fictional sketches, E F Benson introduces us to some of the more bizarre inhabitants of Mayfair's Edwardian high society - a world he knew intinately. Each is a distinct representative of an anthropological 'type': Sir Louis and Lady Mary Marigold turn snobbery into an art form; 'Aunt' George is a bachelor with a passion for embroidery; Mrs Weston, a devotee of every new health-cult and spiritual fad; Horace Campbell, the jealous and poisonous society gossip; the socalled 'grizzly kittens' Babs Begum and Charlie Gordon, refuse to grow old gracefully; Mrs Sarah Whitehand is the social-climbing wife of an American toilet-bowl magnate; and Mr Sandow, the socialite vicar who seems interested in everything but real spirituality. These and a number of other intriguing specimens, all greedily jockeying for social standing in this most exclusive of societies, are impaled, Iabelled and preserved for our entertainment on the razor-sharp scalpel of Benson's savage wit.

About this title

Review:

"acid-tongued...peerless" Kirkus Review"

About the Author:

Edward Frederic Benson (1867-1940) was the son of the Archbishop of Canterbury and member of a distinguished and eccentric family. After attending Marlborough and King's College, Cambridge where he studied classics and archaeology, he worked at the British School of Archaeology in Athens. One of our greatest humorists, he achieved great success at an early age with his first novel, Dodo (1893). He was a prolific author writing over a hundred books: serious novels, ghost stories, plays and biographies. But he is best remembered for his Lucia comedies written between 1920 and 1939 and other comic novels such as Paying Guests and Mrs Ames. He became mayor of Rye, the Sussex town that provided the model for his fictional Tilling, from 1934 to 1937.

About this edition

• Publisher: Prion Books Ltd
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 1853754293
• ISBN 13: 9781853754296
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 224
• Illustrator: George Plank