The Uncommon Reader
Alan Bennett's classic story about Queen Elizabeth II
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4.0 • 24 Ratings
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
Alan Bennett's classic story about Queen Elizabeth II
What would happen if the Queen became a reader of taste and discernment rather than of Dick Francis? The answer is a perfect story.
The Uncommon Reader is none other than HM the Queen who drifts accidentally into reading when her corgis stray into a mobile library parked at Buckingham Palace. She reads widely ( JR Ackerley, Jean Genet, Ivy Compton Burnett and the classics) and intelligently. Her reading naturally changes her world view and her relationship with people like the oleaginous prime minister and his repellent advisers. She comes to question the prescribed order of the world and loses patience with much that she has to do. In short, her reading is subversive. The consequence is, of course, surprising, mildly shocking and very funny.
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.
Customer Reviews
An absolute delight
4.5 stars
Author
British playwright, author, actor and screen writer. Historian by training (he actually taught at Oxford for several years), Bennett is the only surviving member of the legendary satirical review Beyond The Fringe, which also included Peter Cook, Dudley Moore and Jonathan Miller.
In brief
Satirical fantasy in which Queen Elizabeth II, more than 50 years into her reign, stumbles upon a Westminster Council Mobile Library bus parked out the back of the kitchens at Buckingham Palace and discovers the joys of reading for pleasure. “One reads, of course, but only ever what one must.” As her taste for literature grows increasingly sophisticated, she starts to neglect her regular activities (openings, receiving prominent people etc), much to the chagrin of her staff, who seek to disabuse her. Ultimately, she discovers Proust and is beyond redemption.
Writing
Rich satire packed with literary references and amusing, often snide, asides about multiple authors in the best traditions of Beyond The Fringe and, later, of Monty Python. Several laugh-out-loud moments and plenty of smirks and chuckles in between, although it requires a sound knowledge of 19th and 20th English literature, and some knowledge of Proust, to get the much of it.
Bottom line
I thought it was an absolute delight, but mileage may vary. (See above comments)
Brilliant!
The most charming, funny book I have ever read ... I dare you not to read it in one sitting.