Miss Mapp, a small-minded, small-town heiress of "a certain age," leads a full life . . . of spying on (and attempting to best) her neighbors. A classic comic novel from the author of "Queen Lucia."

"This latest book is clever, as all that [Benson] does is clever, light, amusing, satirical, written in the smooth and easy style his earlier books have made familiar to us. Its people are real: one acknowledges their verisimilitude, and is deeply, humbly grateful to that beneficent fortune which was so kind as to cast one's lot elsewhere than in Tilling, the home of Miss Mapp." -- The New...

Miss Mapp's eye, as she took her seat in her window on this sunny July morning, lingered for a moment on the Major's house, before she proceeded to give a disgusted glance at the pictures on the back page of her morning illustrated paper, which chiefly represented young women dancing in rings in the surf, or lying on the beach in attitudes which Miss Mapp would have scorned to adjust herself to. Neither the Major nor Captain Puffin were very early risers, but it was about time that the first signals of animation might be expected. Indeed, at this moment, she quite distinctly heard that...