The Freaks of Mayfair

by E.F. Benson, George Plank (Illustrator)

The creator of Mapp and Lucia introduces us to some of the more bizarre inhabitants of Edwardian high society.

Genres: Fiction, Humor, Classics, Short Stories, London, British Literature, Satire

181 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1916

About the author

Edward Frederic "E. F." Benson was an English novelist, biographer, memoirist, archaeologist and short story writer.

E. F. Benson was the younger brother of A.C. Benson, who wrote the words to "Land of Hope and Glory", Robert Hugh Benson, author of several novels and Roman Catholic apologetic works, and Margaret Benson, an author and amateur Egyptologist.

Benson died during 1940 of throat cancer at the University College Hospital, London. He is buried in the cemetery at Rye, East Sussex.

Last paragraph from Wikipedia

Reviews

[Lady Clementina ffinch-ffarowmore · Rating 4 out of 5]

This 1916 volume is a collection of mostly funny portraits of some curious characters or rather class of characters in London Society (with a “big S”) of the day―the snob, the faddist, the sponger, the scandal-monger, the silly young lady who longs to be the subject of scandal, the social climber, those that refuse to age, and those who dwell on virtues of the past. Of course when the subject of Benson’s pen, the appellations that describe them aren’t always so commonplace (in fact as “colourful” as our characters themselves), our scandalmongers are quite rightly “asps”, our faddist “quack quack” practicing quackery of her own, we have “bullfinches” who “sing for their supper”, “grizzly kittens” who continue to prance no matter how old they get, and our silly young lady remains “eternally uncompromised”. Benson’s sketches are funny no doubt, my own two favourites were “Quack Quack” and “Climbers: The Perpendicular”, both of which were delightful. But not all his sketches are that, some, the “grizzly kittens” and the “bullfinch” for instance, are poignant and leave the reader feeling a touch despondent―for the characters may well be curiosities of society but that doesn’t stop them from being people who one tends to feel rather sorry for. Overall, I quite enjoyed reading these sketches and loved the illustrations that accompanied them. Fans of the Mapp and Lucia books will find my “prototypes” in these too, Aunt Georgie definitely went on to be Georgie Pillson, Mrs Weston the faddist had touches of Daisy Quantock, and her “experiments” very much what Lucia and her minions go on to conduct in future, and the “Sea-Green Incorruptible” reminded me of Lady Ambermere (in fact, her companion is called (or perhaps, is) Miss Lyall in this one too).

[Tania · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a series of character sketches of the various social types living in mayfair. We have the snobs, the social climbers, the faddists, the conformists, and one character who imagines herself the heroine of sensational novels. Although it was written in 1916, this could easily have been written today, Eddie and Patsy (of Ab Fab fame) seem to have taken it as their manual on how to behave. A lot of the characters here seem to be forerunners of the characters from 'Mapp and Lucia, humanist famous creations. Amusing, but not as laugh out loud funny as those later books.

[Barbara · Rating 5 out of 5]

So, this book. I wasn’t sure what it was going to be like when I decided to read it. I was familiar with Mapp and Lucia and The Luck of the Vails is on my DNF stack. I was curious about it and figured it would be worth a shot. I liked it a lot.

His premise is a bunch of character sketches, like people who are stuck in their second childhood, women who are involved in spiritualism, bland pastors who write inoffensive, but bland books and so many other Freaks of Mayfair. It is fairly short and it is just character sketches which you’re either going to be on board for or not. It is very droll and very learned. If you’re not okayish with books that use the word esurient (greedy) or adumbrate (okay, I didn’t look that one up), maybe this is not the book for you. It’s written in 1916, so think droll Edwardian humor. Probably, more satire than humor. Hildegard of Bingen, who I studied you know back in grad. school, did character sketches based on the different humours a person had and how their makeup affected their personality and whether they would be good married or not. If anybody is interested in that subject, let me know.

A pretty good, sarcastic, very droll book. One of the reviewers called it mean-spirited and that he was nicer when he got to Mapp and Lucia. Maybe, but I enjoyed its snarkiness.

[Theodora · Rating 5 out of 5]

E. F. Benson is a master of humour combined with extravagance, intellect and bizarreness. The Freaks of Mayfair is not a novel - it is a portrait of the so-called "Freaks" of Society. The strange creatures, the rich creatures, the in-betweeners, the bizarre, the spiritual, the snobby; but what do they all have in common? They are endlessly fascinating.
Benson perfectly illustrates how some freaks might just be your average neighbour (literally, if you live in the neighbourhood of Mayfair), how they might be an old man, a young woman, a no-nothing, a smart person. And he also proves right, that though "freak" is often used derogatory way, there is also a higher meaning and understand behind calling someone freak. We, as humans, are often wildly fascinated by the freaks, the outsiders, the strange characters we meet in Society. Which of us have never seen a person so different in appearance, manners, or views than ourselves and really wondered deep down "What do they think about? What is going on in their minds?" .
I, for one, have.
And this is exactly what E. F. Benson succeeds in presenting: not just one (for it is not a novel), not two, but several characters of interest, and a total of 12 chapters. In addition to this, being as nosy a person as me, it fulfills a considerable amount of wishes from me, as a reader.
It presents an endless gallery of portraits, every chapter is filled to the brim with eccentric and extravagant creatures, who each plays their role in this great play of Mayfair, and though all may seem different they have but one in common: the freakiness of nature.
Whether, it be the hunt for religion, for class, for money, pleasure, or comfort, each character sees their goal and want to fulfill it.
This is a study of character, of human nature and as icing on the cake - it is filled with humour.
The novel (though it should rather be called a collection of stories, or portraits, thereby a gallery) consists of 12 chapters, the eighth and ninth being to sides of the same coins, names VIII. Climbers: 1. The Horizontal and IX. Climbers: 2. The Perpendicular.
Presentation of the chapters
1. The Compleat Snobs
The first chapter is a great start to the study of character - a chapter about snobs, snobs who are so snobby, that they are, in fact, completely so. Sir Louis Marigold, Bart, M.P., and Lady Mary Marigold, a very happy couple. But also a very snobbish one. This story is a terrific example of how money and class can obsess human beings and how when in truth "happy" we are still waiting for something even better.
2. Aunt Georgie
Aunt Georgie presents one of the most eccentric characters of the novel - especially considering the collection was published in 1916. It concerns character George, who has always been like quite a little girl, though his name wasn't Georgiana, and enjoyed embroidering, fine things, and all such which can be called "womanly". Even when sent to boarding school to become a "real boy", who merely forms an attatchment with another boy, but as he grows older, he desperately tries to hide his identity, always in his mind, hoping someone would call him Aunt Georgie instead of Uncle Georgie.
3. Quack-Quack
Mrs Weston loves everything spiritual and has tried nearly everything which can be tried. Even though her ways might be quite bizarre, she is indeed a very happy woman and whatever she tries, she finds that it benefits her body and mind exceedingly well. Yet, it is not always that her husband is as enthusiastic as herself.
4. The Poison of Asps
Ever met the sort of person who, in the lack of a better group of acquaintances, slander about everything and everyone who either might have more money, more friends, more popularity, or in general more happiness than themselves? The Poison of Asps tells of these people. The people who could in fact have better friends and greater happiness, if they would just stop speaking ill of others and be more welcoming to the world.
5. The Sea-Green Incorruptible
Snobbishness if often present in the mind of the snob - how else should they be a snob? However, in the case of Constance Lady Whittlemere, she knows she has everything: money, class, and comfort. Therefore she wishes for nothing else. But her life is an endless loop of routines - nothing new happens: She must do the duty to the House of Whittlemere and nothing new might ever happen.
6. The Eternally Uncompromised
Some people can never get slandered about - no matter how hard or amiable they try. They are simply to kind, so who on earth would think they could do something of ill-will? Winifred Ames has always been a dreamer, a romantic dreamer. And when she marries a baronet her heart is fulfilled, but not for long: new, exciting dreams begin. Having affairs with one, or several, getting talked about, being unhappily in love - but can she truly manage to be the talk of the town?
7. The Grizzly Kittens
Babs and Charlie are grizzly kittens - older people who feel young and always try to stay young - but how will they remain eternally young without the actual youngsters frowning on them?
8. Climbers 1. The Horizontal
Climbers in Society are compared with those of a tree, and like the tree consists of two sort of branches, so do the climbers. Some are lucky, some are unlucky. The first story tells of the unsuccessful climber...
9. Climbers 2. The Perpendicular
...The second of the successful.
10. The Spiritual Pastor
This portrait happily reminds me of all Jane Austen's priest characters: Mr Collins, Mr Elton etc., and what makes this pastor even greater is that he (unlike many of Austen's) isn't a tad eccentric - he's merely a happy pastor (however, nowadays being happy might be seen as a curiosity)
11. 'Sing For Your Dinner'
In this story, another simile is presented: that of a bird and a young man. The young man who runs from palace to palace, plate to plate, seeking only comfort on the expense of others, but tragically not realising that he is, like every other human being, growing older as time passes, just like the grizzly kittens, who seek to stay young forevermore.
12. The Praisers of Past Time
The last chapter in the book concerns the ever-lasting complaint of elderly adults "it was better in the old days" and "young people are preposterous nowadays".
Unlike the first eleven chapters, which begin with an introduction and then introduces a distinct character, this last chapter is more of a general one, than one concerning a certain freak. Its style is more loose than the previous, more "the old who does this", "the old who does that", therefore, it is personally my least favourite of the portraits - because it isn't really a portrait. The previous being filled with extravagance, this is more of a loose, quiet ending, and does not give as much insight as the others. Social climbers, young woman with romantic dreams, spiritualists, bizarre similes - all of these extravagant portraits in E. F. Benson have been presented, yet the last story is lacking the enchantment and magic of the rest. It is a truth universally known that the previous generation will always (without exception) criticise the younger - even Aristotle did it. Nothing particular is wrong with this chapter - it is not bad, but it is not good either. It has just lost the magic spell, which has so enchanted the others.

[Lane Stone · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you love P.G. Wodehouse, you'll love E.F. Benson.

[Jim Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

Amusing short pieces about the oddballs of central London, probably most interesting today for "Aunt Georgie" in which gender dysphoria is seen as nothing more than an amusing eccentricity.

[Cera · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought this book for a friend who turned out to already own it -- luckily for me, because it was a great read, quick and funny and socially insightful. It's a series of individual sketches of 'freaks' described by a detached narrator who serves as tour guide to the oddities of upper-class London society circa 1916. Each sketch investigates a particular societal type, from social climbers (both the horizontal, who never get anywhere, and the perpendicular, who are wildly successful), and "grizzly kittens" who act like adolescents well into middle-age, to the "sea-green incorruptible" who have lost their personalities in their pursuit of conformity. The humour here comes from the fact that these are the people whom society takes for granted -- the snobs, the social climbers, the gossips, the bores, the bachelors who "sing for their supper" and the women who imagine themselves as heroines of third-rate novels. Benson's book is thus both entertaining light reading and social commentary, and in the last of his sketches it is the latter which comes to the fore, as he condemns those who live in the past by reminding them of how many men of the present generation have lost their lives in Europe. I now very much want to read his "As We Were" and "As We Are," which seem natural companions despite being written much later.

[Nora · Rating 4 out of 5]

E.F. Benson is one of the most reliable writers. He always serves up something tasty. Freaks of Mayfair is not a novel but a series of comic sketches of the kinds of “freaks” who lived in Mayfair, an area of London that I know mainly as one of the properties on the Monopoly board; I believe it is dark blue.

This book made me kind of cross with E.F. Benson but then I love E.F. Benson so I felt bad about that. In the end I wound up feeling sympathetic to him as well as sorry for him.

I thought the highlight of this book would be his sketch of Aunt Georgie, who will reappear later as Georgie Pillson in the wonderful Lucia books. In the Lucia books, Georgie lives in the fictional town of Tilling, doing his needlepoint and playing cards with Lucia and Miss Mapp and all the other colorful town characters. Eventually Georgie and the title character Lucia make their platonic relationship official by embarking on a marriage in name only.

Unfortunately, the “Aunt Georgie” sketch was the lowlight. While I don’t think E.F. Benson would have self-identified as gay (anyway, how could he, having died in 1940?), he is famous for his romantic friendships with other men, etc, so I felt let down to see his portrayal of Georgie was on the vicious side. The last thing anyone needs to read is a humorous skewering of someone who was born “an infant of the male sex according to physical equipment, but it became perfectly obvious even when he was quite a little boy that he was quite a little girl.” In a way it gives a little frisson of “I am seen, I exist” to see an Edwardian character who “formed a violent attachment to another young lady, on whom Nature had bestowed the frame of a male, and they gave each other pieces of their hair... and they probably would have kissed each other if they had dared.” But I hate that Georgie has to be a figure of fun.

“Public-school life checked the outward manifestation of girlhood, but Georgie’s essential nature continued to develop in secret. Publicly he became more or less a male boy, but this was not because he was really growing into a male boy, but because through ridicule, contempt, and example he found it more convenient to behave like one.” Depressing. But I think I’m starting to understand the enduring nature of the confusion between gender identity and sexual orientation (for example, when people get transgender people and gay people mixed up.) The original reason for this confusion is purposeful: sexual orientation could not be named at this time but it was okay to say Georgie was a woman. The “problem” is not really who you like, it’s who you are, hence all this tedious focus there still is on “same sex relationships” which throws everything back on yourself when you thought it was about how you felt about other people. Alternately, perhaps E.F. Benson really did conceive of Aunt Georgie as a (transgender) woman: because of the customs of the age, it’s *impossible to tell.*

“[Although] he did not care for girls in any proper manly way, he liked, when he was sleepy in the morning to hear the rustle of skirts.” “[H]is guests were chiefly young men with rather waggly walks and little jerky movements of their hands and old ladies with whom he was always a great success, for he understood them so well.” “Occasionally, for no reason, he roused violent antagonism in the breasts of rude brainless men, and after he had left the smoking-room in the evening, one would sometimes say to another, ‘Good God! What is it?’”

On the plus side, Georgie leads a happy life, drawing pictures and being arty and visiting with his friends. We should all be so lucky. At the end of the sketch, Benson points out that Georgie has never hurt anyone and that it would cruel to send him to hell, but it would be “very odd” for him to be an angel in heaven. The whole book has a light satirical tone, but it was meaner in the Georgie sketch than all the others. But clearly, as with all hating people, E.F. Benson hates himself (again, back to self, who you are is the problem.) Before reading this book I always thought that Georgie was Benson. Fred is trying to draw some kind of line in the sand between himself and Georgie. Oh, Fred is not like Georgie because Fred is quite butch! That’s where I started feeling so sad for Fred Benson and why did he have such terrible misfortune to be born in Victorian England to pious parents instead of (for example) in New York in the 1970s to atheists? And wouldn’t E.F. Benson be fun to have around if he were alive today?

Moving on to the more entertaining parts of the book, it was much more amusing to see Benson hating on his brother, who is skewered in “The Spiritual Pastor.” I mean, I don’t even know that much about the Benson family but even I could see it has to be his brother. All the other freaks of Mayfair have something unusual and undesirable about them, except for this vicar, whose undesirable quality is that he’s too good looking, too good at sports, too well-liked, too upbeat, too humble. What really makes writer Benson gnash his teeth is how successful the vicar is with his writing career, publishing commonplace religious essays. The examples of the kinds of things the vicar writes were fun, because they were exactly the same as some uplifting self-help type stuff you might read today (eg don’t be so upset about being late for the train, pay attention to the fluffy clouds in the sky!) But honestly not even bad enough to make fun of. Pure sibling rivalry!

There were other examples of things the freaks did that Benson thought were totally ridiculous which today are commonly accepted, such as practicing yoga and having a vegetarian diet. But yoga practitioners are not members of a persecuted minority, so it didn’t make me get all up on my high horse to read the “Quack quack” sketch. The chapter where I actually felt personally most skewered, and found most hilarious, was “The Eternally Uncompromised” about a person with too much imagination, just like me. Winifred Ames’ particular problem was always imagining that men were looking at her with eyes of silent longing. (She read too much sentimental trashy literature from the circulating library, same as Miriam in Backwater.) But Winny-Pinny’s greatest dream, of being talked about as being in a compromising situation with a man who’s not her husband, recedes from her as fast as she chases it. “Indeed, it is receding faster than she pursues now, for her hair is getting to be a dimmer gold, and the skin at the outer corner of those poor eyes, ever looking out for unreal lovers, is beginning to faintly suggest the aspect of a muddy lane, when a flock of sheep have walked over it, leaving it trodden and dinted.”

Other quite funny sketches are about snobs, social climbers, and older people who cling to their lost youth (“grizzly kittens.”) Just once Benson alludes to the war, saying “the myriad graves in France and Flanders bear a testimony [to the manliness of the British, maybe the war is why he has this topic on the brain] that is the more eloquent for it being unspoken.”

I noticed how often in my book reviews I start out by saying, “I expected x, y, and z to happen, but...” or “I thought it would be the same as n, but...” (In this case, expecting the sketch of Aunt Georgie to be the best part.) Or occasionally I say, “Just like I expected, such-and-such happened!” If this habit is tedious for me, it must be tedious for you. Is there any way I could stop having expectations about novels, and stop making up a projected plot the instant I lay eyes on it? I would really like it if that could happen.

[Susan in NC · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5-4 stars, rounded up because I adore the author’s biting wit, displayed to perfection in his later Lucia series.

This short book has no plot, per se, but is rather a collection of “types” on display in Society (with a capital S). Each is described with slashing swipes of his catty, almost vicious pen, (I thought “Grizzly Kittens” about those clinging desperately to perpetual youth especially harsh, but timeless! He was a bit kinder about the effeminate Uncle Georgie type). There are several obvious nods to types fans will recognize in the later Lucia novels - the ruthless social climber, the follower of fads from spiritualism to diets, the very effeminate “Uncle Georgie” that feels inside they are truly an “Aunt Georgie”.

Luciaphiles will recognize characters and mannerisms, but also social situations and plot lines from that later brilliant satirical series of books about the plots and machinations among the denizens of two villages of interwar Britain (first book, Queen Lucia, highly recommended if you have a brain and sense of humor and like to laugh!).

This series of sketches is set in London, and I recognized several plot ideas (especially in the two chapters on the social climbers, vertical and horizontal) that came to hilarious fruition in Lucia in London. Overall, an enjoyable short humorous novel that read more like a series of essays. Now I want to reread the other two non-Lucia humorous novels in my personal library, Paying Guests and Secret Lives.

[Kate · Rating 2 out of 5]

"Here, in a fictional extravaganza, are the bizarre, the great and the greedy of high society -- inveterate snobs and vicious gossips rolling up to receptions in Belgravia; elegant young men with a taste for embroidery; health-cult devotees playing badminton on the parquet floors of abandoned ballrooms; fossilised dowagers off to seances in Chesterfield Square -- prime specimens of the Edwardian belle-monde impaled on the pin of E.F. Benson's genius.

"These hilarious vignettes, illustrated with the original line drawings, from a gallery of all the colourful characters from the glittering world which E.F. Benson knew so well and which he displays so brilliantly for our entertainment."
~~back cover

Obviously I'm not well enough immersed in the Edwardian era to truly appreciate these character sketches. I appreciate the satire but it seems to be couched in old fashioned language and mores, which I'm at a loss to be captivated by. Obviously I'm in the minority.

[Deborah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoy E F Benson's writing. He is a British writer and, unfortunately, died too young. He did the fabulous Mapp & Lucia series about 2 women wanting to be queen bee in a small British village in
probably the 30's. I think I've read it twice. This book was about the types of personalities one would find in Mayfair in London - the snobs, the idiots, the social climbers. You would recognize the personalities today. Nothing ever changes in that regard!

[Oliver · Rating 2 out of 5]

A collection of character sketches associated with the upper social class of London around the 1910s. The humour is droll and very dry, to the extent of being dull. The author’s intention might be didactic, with most characters seemingly having the wrong priorities in life. However, the book comprises a list of eccentrics whose vices mostly boil down to social (status) anxiety, naïveté or hypochondria.

[Lucy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Somewhere between writing this and his masterpieces, the Mapp and Lucia books, Benson found his gentle kind voice. That's the real interest of this work - the characters are all there, but with a thoroughly nasty overtone and a streak of cruelty which he later dropped. I love Mapp and Lucia to the point of idolatry, but this wasn't nice at all.

[Karl Kraus · Rating 2 out of 5]

Of some interest to Bensonites for its early sketch of the Georgie character, but instead of handling his collection of "freaks" with wit and irony, Benson opts for sarcasm delivered with all the subtlety of a tire iron. This makes his accomplishment in the Lucia novels all the more striking, I suppose, but I could've done without this one.

[Paul Barnes · Rating 3 out of 5]

[The Hogarth Press] (1986). SB. 235 Pages.

An array of grotesques; deftly sketching societal architypes with studied, sneering derision.

These comically foul vignettes chime with the scrag end of Britain’s Royal Family and, in particular, some of its more conspicuous barnacles.

Incudes marvellous illustrations from George Plank.

[Carole · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting to see the origins of characters like Lucia and Georgie in this book. It’s a collection of the articles (character sketches) he wrote for a newspaper in 1916. Amusing and I dipped in and out of it but has none of the warmth of the Mapp & Lucia books with the subsidiary characters and plot.

[Bruce · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a complete delight this is. Sarcastic and snarky, poking fun at the various social climbers and bright young things of the early 20th century in London. But recognize going in that his times are not ours, and he is not politically correct in his attitudes.

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

Silly, but not completely unenjoyable.

[Gilbert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Frightfully clever and very witty look at societal types in early 20th century England.

[Boweavil · Rating 2 out of 5]

Terribly dated, even for an Anglophile like me. Also a bit small-minded and judgmental. Writing style just so-so but illustrations marvelous.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this immensely. People really haven’t changed and Benson is perfect at painting a picture of the people in his Society.

[Side Real Press · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this book up on a trip to London and it became my holiday reading. By co-incidence my 'home reading' I had left behind was Jean Lorrans 'Fards and Poisons' (Snuggly Books) which also looks at 'high society' but oh golly, they are quite different. You can read my review of the latter on this site.

Benson is probably best known for the 'Mapp and Lucia' novels and his ghost stories. I saw aspects of both in this book. 'Freaks...' predates Mapp and Lucia and some of the characters seem almost like trial runs for protagonists in the latter books. But, as others have pointed out 'Freaks...' seems a little nastier/less affectionate and it is that element that runs through his ghost stories. He is no-where near as bitter as Lorrain though, Benson's social climbers move by throwing a good dinner party and hiring a box at the opera (Lorrain's would drop their underwear or take up blackmail) so it is certainly quite polite. Benson gives us a few hints and tips so that we can do it ourselves - should we wish to. Its all written in a beautiful Edwardian style that adds to the societal distance between the 'thems' and us (ok, myself at least).

Of course all his 'types' are still to be found and not just in Mayfair. I am off to the pub for some Christmas drinks with pals. Those 'Grizzly Kittens' will be out in force...

[Spencer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Certainly not written to the same level as the Mapp and Lucia series, it is nevertheless a delightful romp through the environs of Mayfair's elite society. Benson provides clever and insightful character studies in 12 expertly crafted stories of these freaks that struggle, deceive, and climb in order to survive in the tony society that is Mayfair.

[Jane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite funny!!

[Pip Jennings · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book. It is a forerunner of the Mapp & Lucia books - very funny & entertaining. This was a reread to get a 'fix' of E.F. Benson.