Introduction by Stephen Pile (1 results)

Hardcover. Condition: Near Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine. First published in 1931, and as a new edition in 2000, this is a second impression of the new edition of 2001. Some slight edge wear to top and bottom of jacket and spine, corners slightly rubbed, very slight lean, not price clipped (£9.99), no inscriptions, internally clean tight and almost square, overall a vg+ copy. 322pp. The centrepiece of E.F. Benson's (1867-1940), series of Mapp & Lucia novels, bringing together for the first time the eponymous middle aged doyennes of polite 1930s society Miss Elizabeth Mapp and Emmeline Luca (Lucas to her friends). Lucia, recently widowed, is the newcomer to the village of Tilling and eager to wrest the reins of social supremacy from Miss Mapp and install herself as its benevolent dictator. In their polite acts of sabotage and ruthless jockeying for the position of cultural arbiter Mapp and Lucia tear up the conventions of drawing-room bridge evenings as their deadly weapons. Things finally come to a head with Miss Mapp's audacious attempt to steal her rival's celebrated Lobster a la Riseholme. E.F. Benson's charming satrical bent turns the pretensions and snobberies of English village life into a vicious comedy.Quite scarce, even in this later edition. Jacket by David Hitch (illustrator).…