Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

Preview

£0.00 for first 30 days

Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Mapp and Lucia

By: E. F. Benson
Narrated by: Miriam Margolyes
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £7.99

Buy Now for £7.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Summary

Mapp and Lucia is the centrepiece of E. F. Benson's series of Lucia novels - bringing together for the first time the eponymous middle-aged doyennes of polite 1930s society Miss Elizabeth Mapp and Emmeline Luca (Lucia to her friends).

Lucia, recently widowed, is the newcomer to the village of Tilling and eager to wrest the reins of social supremacy from the incumbant 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.

©1931 E. F. Benson (P)2010 Hachette Digital
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Listeners also enjoyed...

The Complete Mapp and Lucia, Volume 1 cover art
Miss Mapp cover art
Queen Lucia cover art
E.F. Benson's Ghost Stories cover art
Queen Lucia: The BBC Radio 4 dramatisation cover art
Dickens' Women cover art
Bel Lamington cover art
4.50 from Paddington (Dramatised) cover art
The Diary of a Provincial Lady cover art
Lord Peter Wimsey: BBC Radio Drama Collection Volume 1 cover art
Barbara Pym: A BBC Radio Drama Collection cover art
The Mysterious Affair at Styles cover art
High Rising cover art
A Third Class Murder cover art
Katherine Wentworth cover art
Mrs. Tim of the Regiment cover art

What listeners say about Mapp and Lucia

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    88
  • 4 Stars
    31
  • 3 Stars
    17
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    2
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    84
  • 4 Stars
    20
  • 3 Stars
    7
  • 2 Stars
    2
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    74
  • 4 Stars
    27
  • 3 Stars
    7
  • 2 Stars
    3
  • 1 Stars
    1

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Mapp & Lucia

A well told story of competition between the two and life of the gentile in the 1930s.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

great fun

a very funny book and an excellent narrator, only slight negative is that it is very much abridged.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Perfectamundo!

It's impossible to not be drawn into the world of Mapp and Lucia, as well as the superb Georgie. The struggles for power, the subtle ploys and the overt manipulation. Politicians could take lessons from the ladies of Riseholme and Tilling. The stories are read with verve and a full appreciation of Benson's style. My only complaint is that this is an abridged version, there's just not enough!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Beautifully read

Brilliantly read, entertaining and fun. Thoroughly enjoyed listening to this story of privileged, upper class busy bodies from a time gone by.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Enjoyable.

Sadly this is an abridged version of the book, but still hugely enjoyable when read by the brilliant Miriam Margolyes!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

MAPP versus Lucia

Really enjoyed the 1930s very well mannered social rivals and the stories. Well read. Excellent.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Superb

I have seen the TV play of this title and loved it so much I just had to listen to it, so wonderfully read. This is such a perfect listen. I highly recommend.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Mannered and funny, wonderfully read

Would you listen to Mapp and Lucia again? Why?

E.F Benson's books are favourites. I will definitely listen to this again.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Mapp and Lucia?

Shopping baskets on the Green; Susan's Royce and OBE; scheming by the two social lionesses of am English village, fighting for preeminence..

Have you listened to any of Miriam Margolyes’s other performances? How does this one compare?

Miriam Margolyes is a joy. I will listen to anything she reads. Her reading of this and of Dickens and Thackeray are pitch perfect. She lets the humour come from the characters and situation, I have downloaded all the EF Benson Mapp and Lucia books ready by MM>.

Any additional comments?

Well worth a listen, and abridgement is fine. My only question is why abridge it at all? It is all worth listening to.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great fun but why abridge a short book?

I love these books but wish they hadn’t been abridged - and although Miriam Margolyes is great, I miss the wonderful Prunella Scales version. There seem to be so many great book recordings that have not been converted to MP3 digital form...

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Dissapointing

Why was it necessary to abridge what is anyway a short novel? And why was it not made plain in the description at the point of purchase?
Margolise lacks the lightness of touch of Nadia May

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful