+ Springf’d Republican p11a Ag 1 ’20 100w
BENSON, EDWARD FREDERIC. “Queen Lucia.” *$2 (1½c) Doran
20–15389
Riseholme was a strictly Elizabethan village, and “The Hurst,” the Lucas’s house, more Elizabethan than all the rest, was its social centre. Here Queen Lucia reigned. For ten years she had been the undisputed ruler when the smoldering rivalry between herself and her neighbor, Mrs Quantock, threatened open eruption. Not content with having set the town’s pace with her classic taste, Queen Lucia must also make herself the leader in each new fad discovered and introduced by Mrs Quantock. With the coming of the famous singer, Olga Bracely, as a resident of the town, all social observances, rules and precedents are knocked into a cocked hat and one by one the bubbles, in which Mrs Lucas saw her own greatness reflected, are pricked. She no longer rules and social oblivion threatens to engulf her when Olga, in large-hearted pity, executes a series of maneuvers which reinstate a humbler and wiser queen in something of her former position.
“The dismallest feature of all is that Mr Benson’s humour should have gone—not to the dogs, but to the cats.” K. M.
− Ath p241 Ag 20 ’20 700w + Booklist 17:30 O ’20
“Fantastic in the extreme, Mr Benson’s latest novel may be accepted more as a light and airy fantasy than as a contribution to the study of English social manners. It is, in fact, a merry farce transferred from the lights of the stage to the printed pages of fiction and it bears further tribute to the ingenious qualities of Mr Benson’s humor.” E. F. E.
+ Boston Transcript p6 Jl 28 ’20 1150w
“A clever and amusing satire.”