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The Uncommon Reader (Thorndike Press Large Print Core Series) | 
 enlarge | Author: Alan Bennett
Publisher: Thorndike Press
Category: Book
Buy New: $28.50
New (14) Used (3) from $28.50
Avg. Customer Rating:  75 reviews
Sales Rank: 2157059
Format: Large Print
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 197
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.6 x 5.7 x 0.8
ISBN: 1410406717
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
EAN: 9781410406712
ASIN: 1410406717
Publication Date: May 2, 2008
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
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 70 more reviews...
 Sheer delight for bibliomaniacs October 5, 2008
A slim volume, this book has lingered in my memory since I first devoured it in London this spring. The subversive power of the written word has rarely been as fancifully and effectively communicated as in this tale of Queen Elizabeth stumbling across a portable library in the grounds of Buckingham Palace while in pursuit of an errant corgi. The monarch is transformed into an avid reader, flummoxing her subjects, her government ministers, her family and her courtiers. Bennett captures the "voice" of the queen herself, even as he deftly outlines the odd position of the constitutional monarchy in today's Britain. Just imagine what could happen if a symbolic head of state, condemned to an eternity of ribbon-cuttings and delivering ceremonial speeches scripted by others discovers literature and a life of ideas? Bennett does -- with aplomb. And his closing paragraphs will leave you gasping and laughing at once -- an admirable twist to this tale.
Recommended for all readers -- common and uncommon -- who believe in the importance of books. Click that "buy" button or head for the bookstore, pronto!
Short & sweet... oh, and really funny too!! My MUST read book of the year. September 20, 2008
If you need some brightening up at the end of a dull day, then this is the book to pick up. It's deliciously entertaining and great fun and will take you no more than a couple of hours to read.
'It was the dogs' fault.' The Queen's corgis, sensing an imposter in their garden, go racing around the terrace barking away at what turns out to be the City of Westminster mobile library. The Queen feels compelled to take out a book, choosing an Ivy Compton-Burnett novel, and from here the Queen's interest in literature begins. Her appetite for books becomes insatiable as she works through many different authors, and as her public duties begin to suffer (in the eyes of her private secretary, Sir Kevin), her equerries, under the instruction of Sir Kevin, conspire to bring her literary quest to an end.
Pure unadulterated delight - the perfect booklovers' bedtime companion.
 The ruling passion September 9, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
In its own little way Alan Bennett's novella about what might happen if Queen Elizabeth II were to become an avid reader is almost a perfect entertainment. Not much happens in it until the very end, but the pleasure of the work is in how Bennett takes us to his comic denouement very cleverly and unobtrusively. This is really a book meant as a bonbon for people who are themselves great readers, and (particularly) readers of very intelligent (mostly British) novels (the queen's first escapade as a reader is by picking up a copy of an Ivy Compton-Burnett novel, and her new avocation receives impetus when she reads THE PURSUIT OF LOVE and LOVE IN A COLD CLIMATE; she continues through Anita Brookner and Henry James and Vikram Seth, with Proust an interesting sidebar for her along the way). There are real lines to treasure, such as the queen's reactions when her subjects tell her about their fondness for Harry Potter (Bennett's imagined queen, we learn, does not care much for fantasy). After the Helen Mirren film THE QUEEN it might seem there is not much left for a writer to do with the figure of Her Majesty, but Bennett very cleverly creates a scenario by which a monarch might capitalize on her very special status among her people to imagine doing something which is both precedented (as she is quick to tell others) but which is still very surprising.
uncommonly good August 3, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
One of the best books I've read in a long time. The only negative is that it's too short. I wanted it never to end. It was a treat.
 Cute July 15, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Short novella about how the Queen of England becomes sensitive and human after she unexpectedly becomes an avid reader. This has her staff scrambling to find a way to stop her new obsession so she can get back to her normal duties. Cute story, though the writing is a bit dry and repetitive, with hardly any dialogue. Would have been better served as a short story.
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