"[3] Geoffrey Palmer and Lloyd Noel write, "With Queen Lucia, Fred [Benson] successfully entered into a new realm of social satire mixed with comedy and tinged with farce... With penetrating ruthlessness, he speared his characters' pretensions and held them up for ridicule, though he always tempered his attack with affectionate understanding.
A pretentious show-off, La Lucia drops random Italian phrases into her speech, gives concerts to her friends of the first movement of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, dabbles in art, and plants Shakespeare-themed flower arrangements in her garden.
Corelli pretended to speak Italian, talked baby-talk with men, held piano concerts, and upheld the values and reputation of Shakespeare.
Masters writes, "Marie Corelli was a monster of pretension who would have ruled the lives and manners of Stratford people given half a chance, and Fred [Benson] pounced upon her every weakness with victorious glee, distilling them all into the awesome Lucia.
There is not much plot; there is no love interest; there is no climax — the book just stops (much to our regret) after chronicling one more Riseholme failure in the line of spirit manifestation.
References to Bolshevism and revolutionary outrages may seem to suggest that Riseholme is something more than a village — a microcosm, even, of beleaguered monarchies the world over — but one is never permitted to take that seriously that analogy.