Overview

Benson (1867-1940) was an English novelist, biographer and short story writer best known for his Mapp and Lucia series, social satires written relatively late in his career which are set in the fictional town of Tilling based on Rye in East Sussex where Benson lived for many years and served as mayor from 1934. The novels recount humorous incidents in the lives of upper middle-class characters who vie for social prestige and one-upmanship in an atmosphere of extreme cultural snobbery. He started his novel writing career with the (then) fashionably controversial Dodo (1893) which was an instant success and featured a scathing description of composer and militant suffragette Ethel Smyth. The same cast of characters reappeared in Dodo the Second (1914; Dodo's Daughter in the US, 1913) and then Dodo Wonders (1921). Colin, first published in 1923, is a gothic tale of a cursed aristocratic family with twin brothers Raymond and Colin vying to claim its dark legacy. Back in the time of Elizabeth I Colin Stanier made a Faustian pact with the Devil to win success in all of life's endeavours, a bargain that would be kept in the family down the generations through the eldest sons so long as they maintain the Satanic covenant. Moving forward to the beginning of the 20th century, Raymond, the older of the twin brothers, is the rightful inheritor of the family mansion and fortune but his brother Colin, who bears a remarkable resemblance to the portrait of his namesake, is willing to lie, seduce, and perhaps even kill, to secure the family seat for himself. This saga of ruthlessly evil ambition, sibling rivalry, and simmering passions moves between generations with the action set against the backdrop of Rye in Sussex, London, Naples, and Capri. The sequel Colin II was published in 1925.

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