1902 portrait of E.F. Benson by W.J. Hurlbut.
Edward Frederic Benson OBE (July 24, 1867-February 29, 1940) was a prolific British author whose works include novels, short stories, plays, memoirs, biographies and other works of non-fiction. His best-known work is the short supernatural horror story "The Room in the Tower".
Fiction works[]
Novels[]
Dodo trilogy:
- Dodo: A Detail of the Day (1893)
- Dodo's Daughter (1913; also published as Dodo the Second)
- Dodo Wonders (1921)
David Blaize series:
- David Blaize (1916)
- David Blaize and the Blue Door (1918)
- David of King's (1924; published as David Blaize of King's in the United States)
Mapp and Lucia series:
- Queen Lucia (1920)
- Miss Mapp (1923)
- Lucia in London (1927)
- Mapp and Lucia (1931)
- Lucia's Progress (1935; published as The Worshipful Lucia in the United States)
- Trouble for Lucia (1939)
Colin series:
- Colin: A Novel (1923)
- Colin II (1925)
Stand-alone novels:
- The Rubicon (1894)
- The Judgement Books (novella, 1895)
- Limitations (1896)
- The Babe, B.A. (1897)
- The Money Market (1898)
- The Vintage (1898)
- The Capsina (1899)
- Mammon and Co. (1899)
- The Princess Sophia (1900)
- The Luck of the Vails (1901)
- Scarlet and Hyssop (1902)
- An Act in a Backwater (1903)
- The Book of Months (1903)
- The Relentless City (1903)
- The Valkyries (1903)
- The Challoners (1904)
- The Angel of Pain (1905)
- The Image in the Sand (1905)
- The House of Defence (1906)
- Paul (1906)
- Sheaves (1907)
- The Blotting Book (1908)
- The Climber 1908)
- A Reaping (1909)
- Daisy's Aunt (1910; published as The Fascinating Mrs. Halton in the United States)
- Margery (1910; also published as Juggernaut)
- The Osbornes (1910)
- Account Rendered (1911)
- Mrs. Ames (1912)
- Thorley Weir (1913)
- The Weaker Vessel (1913)
- Arundel (1914)
- The Oakleyites (1915)
- Mike (1916; published as Michael in the United States)
- An Autumn Sowing (1917)
- Mr. Teddy (1917; published as The Tortoise in the United States)
- Up and Down (1918)
- Across the Stream (1919)
- Robin Linnet (1919)
- Lovers and Friends (1921)
- Peter (1922)
- Alan (1924)
- Rex (1925)
- Mezzanine (1926)
- Pharisees and Publicans (1926)
- Paying Guests (1929)
- The Inheritor (1930)
- Secret Lives (1932)
- As We Are, A Modern Revue (1932)
- Travail of Gold (1933)
- Ravens' Brood (1934)
Short story collections published during Benson's lifetime[]
- Six Common Things (1893; published as A Double Overture in the United States), collection of 16 short stories:
- "Once", "Autumn and Love", "Two Days After", "Carrington", "Jack and Poll", "At King's Cross Station", "The Sound of the Grinding", "Blue Stripe", "A Winter Morning", "The Zoo", "The Three Old Ladies", "Like a Grammarian", "Poor Miss Huntingford", "The Defeat of Lady Grantham.", "The Tragedy of a Green Totem", "The Death Warrant"
- The Room in the Tower, and Other Stories (1912), collection of 16 short stories and 1 novelette:
- "The Room in the Tower", "The Dust-Cloud", "Gavon's Eve", "The Confession of Charles Linkworth", "At Abdul Ali's Grave", "The Shootings of Achnaleish", "How Fear Departed from the Long Gallery", "Caterpillars", "The Cat", "The Bus-Conductor", "The Man Who Went Too Far" (novelette), "Between the Lights", "Outside the Door", "The Terror by Night", "The Other Bed", "The Thing in the Hall", "The House with the Brick-Kiln"
- The Countess of Lowndes Square, and Other Stories (1920), collection of 14 short stories:
- "The Countess of Lowndes Square", "The Blackmailer of Park Lane", "The Dance on the Beefsteak", "The Oriolists", "In the Dark", "The False Step", "The Case of Frank Hampden", "Mrs. Andrews's Control", "The Ape", "Through", "Puss-Cat", "There Arose a King", "Tragedy of Oliver Bowman", "Philip's Safety Razor"
- "And the Dead Spake—", and The Horror Horn (1923), collection of 2 short stories:
- "The Horror-Horn", "And the Dead Spake..."
- Visible and Invisible (1923), collection of 12 short stories:
- "And the Dead Spake...", "The Outcast", "The Horror-Horn", "Machaon", "Negotium Perambulans", "At the Farmhouse", "Inscrutable Decrees", "The Gardener", "Mr. Tilly's Séance", "Mrs. Amworth", "In the Tube", "Roderick's Story"
- Spook Stories (1928), collection of 12 short stories:
- "Reconciliation", "The Face", "Spinach", "Bagnell Terrace", "A Tale of an Empty House", "Naboth's Vineyard", "Expiation", "Home, Sweet Home", "And No Bird Sings", "The Corner House", "Corstophine", "The Temple"
- More Spook Stories (1934), collection of 13 short stories:
- "The Step", "The Bed by the Window", "James Lamp", "The Dance", "The Hanging of Alfred Wadham", "Pirates", "The Wishing-Well", "The Bath-Chair", "Monkeys", "Christopher Comes Back", "The Sanctuary", "Thursday Evenings", "The Psychical Mallards"
- Old London (1937), collection of 4 novellas:
- "Portrait of an English Nobleman", "Janet", "Friend of the Rich", "The Unwanted"
Plays[]
- Aunt Jeannie (1902)
- Dodo (1905)
- The Friend in the Garden (1906)
- Dinner for Eight (1915)
- The Luck of the Vails (1928)