''Trouble for Lucia'' is a 1939

comic novel A comic novel is a Novel, novel-length work of humorous fiction. Many well-known authors have written comic novels, including P. G. Wodehouse, Henry Fielding, Mark Twain, and John Kennedy Toole. Comic novels are often defined by the author's liter ...

written by

E. F. Benson Edward Frederic Benson (24 July 1867 – 29 February 1940) was an English novelist, biographer, memoirist, historian and short story writer. Early life E. F. Benson was born at Wellington College (Berkshire), Wellington College in Berkshire, ...

. It is the sixth and final novel in the popular

Mapp and Lucia ''Mapp and Lucia'' is a 1931 comic novel written by E. F. Benson. It is the fourth of six novels in the popular Mapp and Lucia (novel series), Mapp and Lucia series, about idle women in the 1920s and their struggle for social dominance over the ...

series, about idle women in the 1920s and their struggle for social dominance over their small communities. In this novel, Emmeline "Lucia" Lucas is named Mayor of Tilling, an appointment that inflates her already elevated sense of self-importance. She appoints her rival Elizabeth Mapp as her mayoress, in the vain hope that this would blunt Mapp's constant schemes to undermine Lucia. Lucia makes a social blunder when she announces that as the Mayor, she will no longer play cards for money, and she is challenged when Mapp introduces a female novelist into their circle. Irene paints an unflattering portrait of Mapp and her husband, and the painting is chosen as Picture of the Year by the Royal Academy. Other incidents include Major Benjy losing his riding crop under mysterious circumstances, Lucia and Georgie taking up bicycling, and Lucia being criticized after boasting to her friends about a passing acquaintance with Poppy, duchess of Sheffield.

Inspiration

Benson was elected Mayor of

Rye Rye (''Secale cereale'') is a grass grown extensively as a grain, a cover crop and a forage crop. It is grown principally in an area from Eastern and Northern Europe into Russia. It is much more tolerant of cold weather and poor soil than o ...

in 1934, an honour that's reflected in ''Trouble for Lucia''. Cynthia and Tony Reavell in ''E. F. Benson Remembered'' say that this is "an astonishing coincidence, because Lucia was about to become Mayor of Tilling in a new novel he had written but which hadn't yet been published."

Reception

The '' Saturday Review'' gave the book a glowing review: "Mr. Benson's comic invention seemed to be wearing a little thin in ''The Worshipful Lucia'', the previous and fifth link in the Lucia-Mapp saga, but he is at the top of his form in this one, turning off some uncommonly deft, gay, and full-bodied farcical writing." In ''Frivolity Unbound'', Robert F. Kiernan expresses concern that Lucia is not as powerful a figure as she is in the previous novels. He writes, "Benson... apparently did not foresee that ''Trouble for Lucia'' would be the last volume of the sequence — the last novel, in fact, that he would write. Yet it is difficult to imagine what he might further have done with Lucia."{{cite book , last1=Kiernan , first1=Robert F. , title=Frivolity Unbound: Six Masters of the Camp Novel , date=1990 , publisher=Continuum Publishing , isbn=978-0826404657 , page=91 , url=https://archive.org/details/frivolityunbound00kier/page/90/mode/2up , access-date=15 January 2024

Adaptation

In the 1985 television adaptation ''

'', '' Lucia's Progress'' is used as the basis for the first three episodes of the second series; the final two episodes of the series are based on ''Trouble for Lucia''.

References

Novels by E. F. Benson Mapp and Lucia 1939 British novels British comedy novels Novels set in England Hodder & Stoughton books