.jpg) First edition (US) | |
| Author | E.F. Benson |
|---|---|
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Comedy |
| Publisher | Hodder and Stoughton (London) Doubleday Doran (New York) |
Publication date | 1932 |
| Media type | |
Secret Lives is a 1932 comedy novel by the British writer E. F. Benson, best known as the author of the Mapp and Lucia series.[1][2] The structure is broadly similar to that series, featuring two strong-willed women battling for social supremacy in the fictitious Durham Square in Edwardian London.
Margaret Mantrip is the queen bee of a garden square in London, reigning over the various inhabitants. When Susan Leg, a mysterious new resident arrives, it threatens to upset her carefully-ordered world. Little known to her is the fact that the newcomer is secretly the author of a series of trashy but bestselling novels under the pen name Rudolph Da Vinci.