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.
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Editorial Reviews
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³Acid-tongued...peerless.² -- KIRKUS REVIEWS
From the Publisher
In a series of hilariously dry fictional sketches, E.F. Benson offers a glimpse of the most exclusive of societies ‹ Edwardian Mayfair. It was a world that he knew intimately, and he presents each of its denizens as a distinct representative of an anthropological ³type.² We meet Sir Louis and Lady Mary Marigold, who practice snobbery as an art form; ³Aunt² Georgie, a cheerful bachelor with a passion for embroidery; Mrs. Weston, a devoted follower of health cults and spiritual fads; Horace Campbell, the poisonous society gossip; Mrs. Sarah Whitehand, the social-climbing wife of an American toilet-bowl magnate; and Mr. Sandow, a socialite vicar who seems interested in everything but spirituality. These and a number of other intriguing specimens, all greedily jockeying for social standing, are impaled, labeled, and preserved for our entertainment on the razor-sharp scalpel of Benson¹s savage wit.
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
for Benson diehards only.,
This review is from: The Freaks of Mayfair (Prion Humour Classics) (Hardcover)
This is a series of short character sketches; social climbers, cats, snobs, faddists. They are very well-wrought. There is information on "grizzly kittens" --those that keep on acting like young things--frolicking & using old, out-of-date slang when well past their prime; several chapters on the important differences between vertical and horizontal social climbing, and how it is done; some cold words about gossiping and what an absolute waste it can be...twelve or so outlines of people and who they are and what they do.
There is no plot, no story--just sketches of "types" that you might find in upper-class London at the end of the Edwardian era. Perceptive, thoughtful, intentionally a little cruel; these are certainly good essays and the illustrations by George Plank, which were contemporaneous with the pieces are appropriate, if a little bizarre (take an Aubrey Beardsley drawing and make the figures middle-aged and stocky). These short pieces strike me as a novelist's workbook; he plans to use this character or that one some day in a "real" book--and meantime they were polished up a bit for publication... I certainly enjoyed reading this book; but would not recommend it to someone who's never read this author before. I would tend to say start with "Secret Lives" and the Mapp and Lucia novels; and if you are crazy about them (which I was), then FREAKS OF MAYFAIR will give you some insight into what sort of world Benson pulled the characters in those books from...
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Mayfair Bestiary,
By
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This review is from: The Freaks of Mayfair (Prion Humour Classics) (Hardcover)
Benson fans should rejoice in this release which chronicles the "freaks"--strange fauna--who haunt the fashionable drawing rooms of the Mayfair microcosm of Edwardian Society. As a collection of "entries", the style does not require a sustained plot--so don't expect one. Benson chose a form that allowed for publication in the satirical magazines of the day and each entry has its share of droll wit.
I bought the book specifically for the "Aunt Georgie" piece, suspecting that it would prefigure the character who became Georgie Pilson. I had hoped for a really early look at how Georgie hired Foljambe, his peerless parlor maid/caregiver. This is not the case: Aunt Georgie is the wealthy head of a "good" British family with plenty of sisters and so on to support and a large house in the country where he houses his dependent relatives. He has "serious" interests in poetry and music but is not the artist that Benson makes of his "immortal" Georgie. Read the book to learn more...but rejoice also that Benson later developed Georgie Pilson. In other chapters, Benson goes on to lampoon the social fads of his day, familiar to readers of the "Riseholm" period of his Lucia books: Yoga, Spiritualism, Christian Science Healing, Vegan lifestyles and so forth. Of course he chronicles a typology of "climbers", finding room for chapters on "verticle" ones and "horizontal" ones. Not one prefigures the highly developed skills Lucia displays in her social mountaineering but they make for a cozy evening read--perhaps at bedtime, just before dropping off. This book is well worth buying.
1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
[...] and Dated,
By
This review is from: The Freaks Of Mayfair (Paperback)
The best literature is ageless. We still enjoy the period pieces of Jane Austen and Charles Dickens, despite the fact that the worlds they described have vanished into the past, because we empathise with the characters and love the writing.
Unfortunately, "The Freaks of Mayfair" by E F Benson is not in that class. The stories in the book were published in 1916. The "freaks" and their attitudes so cuttingly caricatured by Benson would have been completely understood and enjoyed by British audiences probably up to World War 2, by which time the world encapsulated in the stories had largely been swept away. Today it all seems so dated, with many of the detailed allusions and asides completely lost to modern readers, except, perhaps to British readers who may still be familiar with the Mayfair world of long ago. Of course, many of the stories can still be enjoyed, because the attitudes Benson pokes fun at still exist and we can make the mental leap from a vanished world to the world of today. Everyone can enjoy taking down a snob, or a social climber, or a worldly cleric, or an elderly person decrying the lamentable standards of modern youth, or parasites who batten (and fatten) on the hospitality of others. Less acceptable today is making fun of the gay. All such stories are in the book. My main gripe is that Benson works his material too hard. His stories are generally too [...], and, by overdoing it, he alienates the reader (at least this one). Sometimes less is more. Understatement can be just as effective as a megaphone. There are a few wonderful patches of writing in the book, but the reader has to plough through much dross before uncovering the gems.
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