Customer Reviews

Lucia Triumphant: a novel

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Those of us who are Lucia fans (of the origianl E.F. Benson six books) can never get enough of her upper middle class, early 20th century English scheming. The original novels are some of the funniest ever written--perhaps more-so because we cannot help but see a little bit of ourselves and our friends through our laughter.

Holt's Lucia Triumphant is not a send up, but one of two lovingly crafted continuations of the series. In the originals nothing ever happens of much import except in that it sets up comedic bits that one can read and read over again a laugh everytime. In Holt's novels, the situations are just a little more ridiculous, and the characters drawn with just a little more characature. That is my only complaint, this is not quite up to E.F. Benson's writing in the--one might say--subtlety of the broadness. Otherwise, this is a fine comedic novel, indeed. If you are a Luciafile, or you like Evelyn Waugh and that ilk, you will enjoy this book immensely.

It is an enjoyable homage to Benson's characters well worth your time.

Lucia Triumphant is the one where Lucia and Georgie decide to corral the other Tillinghites into knitting a vast tapestry of Tilling history, told in one hundred panels designed by artistic and clever Georgie. At first the villagers are all excited by it, but by the time they get around to working on the second panel, "a battle scene of great complexity, illustrating a rather obscure tale from the pages of Geoffrey of Monmouth," they are in open rebellion against Mayor Lucia's autocratic ways, for she is a demon when she gets going.

The other part of the book is about Mapp pretending she knows more about motorcars than she does, and trying to practice her driving in secret.

It's great fun, but perhaps one of the lesser books in the Lucia saga, since both tapestry and motorcar story die out before long, and get replaced by other ludicrous schemes that aren't, however, even as amusing as the first. Benson also constructed his novels in this modular manner, but he had the sense to save the best stories for the end, otherwise the reader's attention starts to flag. And the pretending to know how to drive, is a little bit too much like pretending to know Italian for my taste. One thinks of the original with a pang of loss.

Well, now I'm off to order a copy of the "new" Lucia book MAJOR BENJY, Wish me luck, and äs always, -- "au reservoir."

Despite some others' mild complaints about Tom Holt's books, I find them refreshing - especially as I did not want to see Mapp & Lucia end (the original Benson series). This story is an easy read and quite funny. It is so comical to see life along the English coast with some of the most incredible characters vying for top position and to see who can out-do one another with the most sophistication. One of my favourite books to really have a good laugh at! I wish I was independantly wealthy enough to spend my days at the market, doing watercolours, gardening, and playing the piano! Ah, the good life! :)

Of the three homage books to Mapp & Lucia, this one is tied with "MaJor Benji" by Sampson. It is behind "Lucia in Wartime" by Holt, the best of the homage books. By homage, I mean these are writers who are NOT E.F. Benson, author of the original six Mapp and Lucia novels, all of which are absolute classics. Both Holt and Sampson, however, need to be thanked for returning these characters to us if not in absolute classic form, then in very good imitation of the originals.

This book contains all the original characters, Mapp, Lucia, Georgie, Major Benjie, the Wyses, Diva, etc., It is entirely set in Tilling, England, a small, on the marshes but near the sea town. Daily life is punctuated by the rivalry of two women, Mapp and Lucia. This time. as usual, they follow their own interests and, as one begins to outdo the other, the other takes up the same interest to do battle. One of those things this time is the game of Monopoly. Mapp finds a game and busts up Lucia's tapestry circle by bringing the game to be played at break. Everyone adjourns to play monopoly and that halts work forever on Lucia's town tapestry project. What to do? Well, Lucia takes up Monopoly too, soon taking on Mapp as an opponent.

There is also Mapp as a new driver and she may be the worst driver in all of England. Then there is Mapp's lineage, i.e. her attempt to show she is a descendant of the noble de Map (a complete fabrication). The Queen also visits Tilling and everyone is in rivalry to meet, greet and impress the Queen.

Great fun. I only wish Holt had written more of these.

Mr Holt did a fair job at crafting this book. At least he got the basics right, but He didn't quite capture the whole spirit of the lucia series. With the original series, Benson managed to tell the story that was going on "on stage" but there was a great deal more that was going on behind the scenes that you would only pick up on by reading between the lines. There were lots of little things that didn't quite ring true, and it felt a little hollow. It was just a little too over the top at times. One of the things I noticed right away was the fact that Mr Wyse never seemed to take any of his usually to frequent bows.

Still, it was a pleasant enough read, and I doubt anyone could ever really hold a candle to benson