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The Uncommon Reader: A Novella | 
| Author: Alan Bennett
Publisher: Picador
Category: Book
List Price: $12.00
Buy New: $9.60
You Save: $2.40 (20%)
Rating:  95 reviews
Sales Rank: 3234
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 128
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7 x 4.6 x 0.6
ISBN: 0312427646
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780312427641
Publication Date: September 30, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Product Description
From one of England's most celebrated writers, the author of the award-winning The History Boys, a funny and superbly observed novella about the Queen of England and the subversive power of reading
When her corgis stray into a mobile library parked near Buckingham Palace, the Queen feels duty-bound to borrow a book. Discovering the joy of reading widely (from J. R. Ackerley, Jean Genet, and Ivy Compton-Burnett to the classics) and intelligently, she finds that her view of the world changes dramatically. Abetted in her newfound obsession by Norman, a young man from the royal kitchens, the Queen comes to question the prescribed order of the world and loses patience with the routines of her role as monarch. Her new passion for reading initially alarms the palace staff and soon leads to surprising and very funny consequences for the country at large.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 90 more reviews...
 "Books, bread and butter, mashed potato--one finishes what's on one's plate." September 3, 2007
67 out of 72 found this review helpful
In chasing after her rowdy dog-pack one day, the Queen discovers them barking at a bookmobile, parked outside the kitchen at Windsor. Entering to apologize for the din, the Queen meets Norman Seakins, a young man from the kitchen whose primary interest is in gay books and photography. Feeling obligated to borrow a book, the Queen selects a novel, intending to return it the following week. Almost immediately, palace life changes. That night, with the president of France seated beside her at dinner, the Queen abandons her usual safe conversation and remarks, "I've been longing to ask you about Jean Genet...Homosexual and jailbird, was he nevertheless, as bad as he was painted?"
As the Queen expands her reading under the direction of Norman, she becomes less interested in day-to-day activities, even arriving late to the opening of Parliament because she forgot her book for the coach ride and had to have it brought to her. She no longer keeps to tried and true conversational subjects (the traffic on the road to the palace), as she converses with the public and meets honored guests, and she finds people becoming confused and tongue-tied. Dinner conversations no longer have the pleasant, easy-going atmosphere that once made invitations to the palace so memorable. When these issues continue for over a year, the Prime Minister determines to take action.
In this delightful novella, Alan Bennett (Beyond the Fringe, Talking Heads, and most recently, The History Boys), explores reading, writing, and their effects on our lives as he develops this imaginative and warmly humorous scenario. Though the eponymous "uncommon reader" is the Queen, her reactions to her reading (and other people's responses to her as a result of her reading) are so true-to-life and so plausible that Bennett accomplishes a feat rarely even attempted--he makes the reader identify with the Queen and root for her success as a bibliophile.
Bennett's humor depends on the fine line he creates between reality and absurdity, and his explorations into the absurd are so close to reality, or what we might wish reality to be, that the reader sees, ironically, the absurdity of reality itself. As he posits an alternative "reading lifestyle" for the Queen, he makes the Queen seem human--and connected with her (reading) public in new ways. Bennett keeps the humor low-key, evoking images which allow the reader to discover, unassisted, the ironies which are so hilarious throughout the novella. And just at the point at which the reader might wonder how Bennett will ever end this wonderful romp, he surprises us with an absolutely perfect ending, which takes place on the Queen's eightieth birthday. Like the dramatist that he is, Bennett knows exactly when to stop. And does. Mary Whipple
 "One had always read. Only these days one is reading more." April 6, 2008
32 out of 34 found this review helpful
It's good to be Queen, but it does have its drawbacks -- long periods of tedium in slow-moving vehicles, a relentless round of ceremonial duties, and a bird's eye view of everyday life. What better solution to these drawbacks than the pages of a good book?
The Uncommon Reader: A Novella is a quirky little book about Queen Elizabeth II and her discovery of the joys of reading. Pursuing her yapping corgis through the grounds of Windsor Castle, she ends up in the library bookmobile and checks out a book to be polite. From this beginning, guided by kitchen hand-turned-equerry Norman Seakins, she is soon deep in the world of books.
This new habit of hers is unpopular with the people around her. She's becoming too "remote," they say; Alzheimer's is suggested. Her punctuality and attention to formal routine are slipping. Norman is spirited away from her staff but she keeps reading.
Author Alan Bennett packs a lot into this compact book. Through all the palace intrigue, Mad Hatter's tea parties, and hilarious references to writers old and new, the queen keeps reading. Her point of view widens exponentially and she begins making notes -- and then writing more seriously.
There's a little treasure around every corner in this wry book. The final scene is pure theater of the absurd, and the final paragraph will probably make you laugh out loud. Highly recommended.
Linda Bulger, 2008
A charming, entertaining, and thought-provoking reader October 21, 2007
19 out of 22 found this review helpful
For such a slim novella, "The Uncommon Reader" operates on many levels. Most obviously, it is a charming, comedic story. But it's also a meditation on the merits ... and the limits ... of books and reading as a means of opening one's eyes (as the book's subject might say) and softening one's sensibilities. It's about what an awakening familiarity with literature can do to a person, and also the havoc it can create for people who expect life to be led in certain familiar pattern. That's a lot to fit into a hundred-and-some pages, but Alan Bennett does it extremely well. Though I'd been somewhat familiar with him for some time, this is the first time I've really explored his writing. No wonder he's thought of so highly.
One of the things that most pleased me about this book was the sympathetic and affectionate portrayal of Her Majesty. With so many people evidently taking it for granted that the Windsors are all a bunch of cold-hearted nitwits, Bennett's Queen is -- if admittedly somewhat limited in the breadth of her education -- thoughtful, self-aware, eager to learn, and on the whole a most memorable personality.
I think anyone who enjoys reading and appreciates the power of books will enjoy watching The Queen's royal progress in these pages. But beware: the realization she eventually reaches (about writing as well as reading) is one I believe Bennett wants to lead every reader to, common or otherwise.
An Uncommon Book November 2, 2007
16 out of 19 found this review helpful
Blame it on the corgis. They discover a bookmobile parked near Buckingham Palace and get the Queen's attention when they start yapping. Since she is every inch a queen, HRH borrows a book, a novel by Ivy Compton-Burnett even though she has previously left liking books to other people. Although she finds Compton-Burnett rather dry with the characters all sounding like each other, the fire has been lit. The Queen becomes hooked on reading; neither she nor eventually England will ever be quite the same in Alan Bennett's quietly humorous short novel THE UNCOMMON READER. The Queen discovers Jean Genet, Nancy Mitford, E. M. Forster, Emily Dickinson, Alice Munro, Proust, Charles Dickens, Dostoevsky. She has difficulty with Jane Austin because that writer is so concerned with social distinctions. She at first is put off by the verbosity of Henry James, something she has in common with any reader I have ever known ("'Am I alone,' she wrote, 'in wanting to give Henry James a good talking to?'" Later, however, James' "divagations she now took in her stride," opining that "'novels are not necessarily written as the crow flies.'" She even reads the memoirs of Lauren Bacall and is envious of her. In the beginning the Queen reads indiscriminately as one book leads to another, but she eventually becomes a very discerning reader.
Reading this little book as delicious as an English trifle, I was reminded of how gentle Mr. Bennett is with his velvety barbs and so different, for instance, from American writers like Molly Ivins or Calvin Trillin when they harpoon the current resident of the White House. There is much here to make you smile. The dogs, for example, destroy an Ian McEwan novel, "the James Tait Black Memorial Prize notwithstanding." Also in the past when the Queen is out in her kingdom meeting her subjects, before her obsession with reading, she would have asked them questions perhaps about what mode of transportation they used to get to their meeting with her. Now she asks what is the latest book they have read. Since they invariably answer that they have read nothing-- although one did say the Bible-- she produces a book from that handbag that is always on her arm-- now we know what she carries it it-- and gives to the surprised nonreader who later sells it on eBay.
THE UNCOMMON READER is quite a joy to read, from start to its surprising ending. Emulate HRH and purchase this British treasure or check it out from your local library.
A perfect LITTLE jewel! September 29, 2007
8 out of 10 found this review helpful
... as well as the perfect antidote to my last few weeks of reading: Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Graham Greene. After finally digesting those two huge "meals", this was like finding the perfect chocolate when one is feeling just a little peckish.
If you're an avid reader, you will empathize with the Queen as she embarks on her literary voyage, remembering how you, too, loved discovering "new" authors. (I'm even eager to tackle Proust once again!) And let's be honest; isn't it great to laugh now and again? You not only get all the above, but there's a suprise ending that speaks to the enormous inventiveness and talent of Mr. Bennett.
Beg, borrow, steal or buy -- but don't miss this!
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