Customer Reviews

Secret Lives

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Here, in a light, case-of-mistaken-identity variation-on-theme, E.F. Benson equals the heights of his excellent Mapp and Lucia novels.

What he does is take a conservative upper crust mini-society "Durham Square" in London, and populates it with a set of characters that are more-or-less at equilibrium (friends/neighbors feud, they make up, they feud again); then he throws an element of difference into it.

The element of difference is Susan Leg, whose middle class mannerisms & misuse of honorifics marks her as 'not-quite-the-thing' after a dog-meets-dog style sniffing out luncheon...

But Susan Leg has a secret; she's a best-selling romance writer, whom several of the citizens of the square secretly admire very much (can't admire her openly, because her work is not serious and uplifting). And then Susan Leg, under her own name, suddenly seems to be succeeding socially in a way that her neighbors have always longed to do. First name terms with a couple of duchesses; her name in society papers coupled with that glamorous and mysterious Rudolph da Vinci (who is herself); the marvelous fork luncheons that she throws in her elegantly decorated home...

The novel is about people's secrets...and about hypocrisy and Society with a capital 'S'

Some of the storyline elements, the time-period, the socio-economics and characterizations are reminiscent of P.G. Wodehouse; but where Wodehouse never hurt a fly, Benson has teeth and is perfectly willing to rip-to-shreds some of the more unpleasant characters that he has created (there is a pompous literary critic/book reviewer who gets absolutely delightfully slammed, for example)

This novel is a quietly seething terrarium of social-climbing cranks, snubbers, snobs and walking talking ambitions...it was an absolute pleasure to read and I recommend it wholeheartedly.