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The Uncommon Reader (Hardcover)

4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)

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Product Details

Hardcover: 128 pages
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0374280967
ISBN-13: 978-0374280963
Product Dimensions: 19.3 x 13.2 x 1.8 cm
Shipping Weight: 205 g

Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)

Amazon.ca Sales Rank: #268,685 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

From Publishers Weekly

Briskly original and subversively funny, this novella from popular British writer Bennett (Untold Stories; Tony-winning play The History Boys) sends Queen Elizabeth II into a mobile library van in pursuit of her runaway corgis and into the reflective, observant life of an avid reader. Guided by Norman, a former kitchen boy and enthusiast of gay authors, the queen gradually loses interest in her endless succession of official duties and learns the pleasure of such a common activity. With the dawn of her sensibility... mistaken for the onset of senility, plots are hatched by the prime minister and the queen's staff to dispatch Norman and discourage the queen's preoccupation with books. Ultimately, it is her own growing self-awareness that leads her away from reading and toward writing, with astonishing results. Bennett has fun with the proper behavior and protocol at the palace, and the few instances of mild coarseness seem almost scandalous. There are lessons packed in here, but Bennett doesn't wallop readers with them. It's a fun little book. (Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Who would guess that reading books could prompt a constitutional crisis? In Britain this strange and unusual scenario does indeed play out, at least in this delightful political-social comedy by a celebrated British writer. One day the queen takes inadvertent advantage of a bookmobile that happens to arrive at a Buckingham Palace back door; she rather accidentally borrows a book. She'd never taken much interest in reading. She read, of course, as one did, but liking books was something she left to other people. As surprising to herself as to those who know her, the queen develops into a dedicated, avid reader of serious literature, and the court and her government are sent reeling by this new royal practice—as well as by her newfound knowledge about all kinds of things. When she turns from the joy of reading to a desire to write, the consequences are jolting. In the wake of the popularity of the movie The Queen, this crafy work of satire should find an appreciative American audience. Hooper, Brad

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Customer Reviews

4 Reviews

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4.0 out of 5 stars (4 customer reviews)

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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "One reads for pleasure, It's not a public duty.", Dec 3 2007

By	Michael Leonard "MikeonAlpha" (Silver Lake, Los Angeles, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Uncommon Reader (Hardcover)

Her Royal Highness Queen Elizabeth II is now 81 years of age and is in her 55th year on the throne. She remains one of the world's longest-serving heads of state, including the Head of the Commonwealth of Nations and Supreme Governor of the Church of England. Today she is one of the world's most photographed women and is often seen at home, living a quiet life with her prized pet Corgis. Certainly it is this blend of her sense of regal duty with a love of simple pleasures that have come so uniquely to characterize the style of her reign.

Elizabeth II has rarely made her political views public, but is believed to be moderately liberal in her outlooks and views. Imagined then a work of fiction that reads like an autobiography, which can somehow vivaciously bring her prophetic words and her innermost thoughts to life and delicately portray this exclusive and isolated world in which she inhabits. Author Alan Bennett certainly succeeds at this with his novella An Uncommon Reader giving us a deliciously funny and rather wicked birds-eye-view of the Queen and the way that she, and the Monarchy, would ever be transformed if she became hooked on reading.

It all starts when Elizabeth decides to take her beloved dogs for a walk in the palace gardens where she happens upon the City of Westminster traveling library, which looks to be in the shape of a large removal-like van parked next to the bins outside of one of the kitchen doors. This isn't a part of the palace that the Queen sees much of, and determined to apologize for the din that her dogs are currently causing she goes up to the van where she meets Mr. Hutchings, the traveling library's caretaker.

The Queen of course, has never taken much of an interest in reading, her feeling that liking books is "something that should be left to other people." After all, reading is a merely hobby and it is the nature of her job that she doesn't have hobbies. But with her sense of duty flourishing, she decides to so the right thing and actually borrow a book. Mr. Hutchings, encouraged by the young Norman Seakins, a young kitchen hand, ends up giving The Queen a copy of an Ivy-Compton-Burnett title even as he reflects, while shutting up the van and driving away, that a novel by "Dame Ivy is going to take quite a bit of reading."

Thus begins Elizabeth's journey into the world of reading. The Queen, is of course, assisted by the young Norman who she suddenly promotes to the status of literary advisor, mainly because he behaves uninhibited around her and seemed incapable of being anything else but himself. As her reading grows, she becomes familiar with the lives of famous writers such as E M Forster, but what she mostly finds is how one book leads to another and that doors keep opening wherever she turns. The days just aren't long enough for the reading that she wants to do.

Her private secretary Sir Kevin Scatchard, an over-conscientious New Zealander of whom great things were expected, becomes rather concerned with Her Majesty's newfound propensity, especially when she starts to recommend good reads to her at their weekly meetings. For her books just a reflection of the world, or a version of it. But poor Sir Kevin views books as merely about passing the time. Having discovered the delights of reading for herself, The Queen is keen to pass it on, particularly to her chauffeur, Summers and to all of the members of her extended family.

Soon the Queen is abandoning her long lines of inquiry of her subjects and embarking on a new conversational gambit about books to which very few of Her Majesty's loyal subjects had an answer. She reads more and more, beginning to draw her books from various other libraries including some of her own. Sir Ken feels the pursuit is selfish and solipsistic, even as he tries to harness her reading to some larger purpose. The Queen however, will not be swayed: "one reads for pleasure, It's not a public duty."

Although The Uncommon Reader is only one hundred and twenty pages and sometimes stretching the realms of credibility, the book still offers up a fascinating portrait of a wry, intelligent and funny woman who has a wicked sense of humor and who doesn't suffer fools gladly. Unquestionably this novel is as much about the Queen's personal growth as a woman and as an intellect than anything else, as books enable her to gain in an understanding of both literature and human nature. Mike Leonard December 07.

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Delightful read, Oct 16 2008

By	Scooter Girl (Victoria, BC CANADA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Uncommon Reader (Paperback)

This is a wonderful book, full of humour, about the love of reading. Allan Bennett has the Queen herself become born again with the greatest literature of the ages. Behind the story is the message that books and reading are one of life's greatest, simplest pleasures especially in this technological age and that all of us, common and uncommon, can enjoy it.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Just Buy the Book, Oct 18 2008

By	Shaggy Dog Pix - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Uncommon Reader (Paperback)

If you're already a reader, buy the book (Or - heaven forfend! - get it from the library. After all, the Queen did). If you're not a reader, do the same. Either way, you'll be treated to a short, entertaining, invaluable discourse on why reading matters.

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2.0 out of 5 stars The Uncommon Reader
I completed this book weeks before I wrote the review. Perusing other people's reviews I found that most people loved this book and rewarded it four or more stars, and I kept... Read more

Published 12 months ago by Pauline