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    The Uncommon Reader: A Novella
    The Uncommon Reader: A Novella
    The Uncommon Reader: A Novella
    Ebook88 pages1 hour

    The Uncommon Reader: A Novella

    By Alan Bennett

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    From one of England's most celebrated writers, 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.

    With the poignant and mischievous wit of The History Boys, England's best loved author Alan Bennett revels in the power of literature to change even the most uncommon reader's life.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Publishers
    Release dateSep 18, 2007
    ISBN9781429934534
    The Uncommon Reader: A Novella
    Author

    Alan Bennett

    Alan Bennett has been one of England's leading dramatists since the success of Beyond the Fringe in the 1960s. His work includes the Talking Heads television series, and the stage plays Forty Years On, The Lady in the Van, A Question of Attribution, and The Madness of King George III. His play, The History Boys (now a major motion picture), won six Tony Awards, including best play, in 2006. In the same year his memoir, Untold Stories, was a number-one bestseller in the United Kingdom.

    Read more from Alan Bennett

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    Reviews for The Uncommon Reader

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    • 4/5
      The queen is dutiful and enjoys her ceremonial tasks until she discovers the bookmobile parked at the palace. She becomes a voracious reader coming to understand other human beings not having first hand experience as queen. Suddenly she realizes that she needs to be a doer instead of simply a reader and she decides to write. A surprise ending has her abdicatingvyhe throne so she can write a book of her choosing, I chose to read this one twice. Very enjoyable.
    • 3/5
      Imagine the following scenario. The Queen of England haphazardly stumbles upon a traveling library at Buckingham Palace and borrows a book simply because she feels it is expected of her to please the librarian. The Queen reads the book, wants to return it and finds herself borrowing more. To her own surprise, she develops a liking for books, although she considers herself a 'doer' and does not see reading as 'doing'. Her new-found habit influences the way the Queen carries out her duties, the way she treats the people around her and the way she sees life. This, roughly, is the outset of The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett, a little novella of less than a hundred pages.First of all, I found the idea quite intriguing. Seeing the impact reading might have on the Queen makes for some interesting reading. Bennett explores this idea in a quite humorous way, although I have to say that all in all I found the book a little boring to read. And that is my major issue here, other than the idea of the book I found there was not much more to it. As the book is rather short it was easy to finish, but I believe that I would have struggled finishing it had it been longer. Reading until the end was, however, worth it, as the ending actually quite surprised me and struck upon an interesting issue to think about. Now spoilers here, though. All in all, 3 stars.
    • 4/5
      This short story was very up-lifting and kept my attention. It follows the Queen of England in her quest of developing her love of reading. Obviously, as the Queen, she has read many books and tutored in various subjects, but was never raised that reading could be enjoyable or for pleasure. After finding that the palace has a traveling library that arrives every Wednesday. Here is where we meet Norman, her soon to be accomplice in her growing addiction.Over time the Queen finds that her love for reading expands beyond the normal interest and becomes an obsession. She is disregarding duties, hiding books in cars, and often finding a way to gain more time to read. This creates an issue with the Prime Minister and other members of the court, who find that her time is not being dedicated appropriately. The plot has a slight twist, with deceitful act by her court and an unpredictable Queen's reaction, leaving you wonder how her passion results in her place in the monarchy. I rate this 4 stars. The writing style is easy to comprehend and written with a modern twist. There is humor threaded throughout the story and the Queen is as entertaining as in real life. I would suggest this for 16 and up, because of some sexual innuendos hidden throughout the story.
    • 5/5
      Love the ending. Charming.
    • 3/5
      This book did not live up to my expectations. After having read Mrs. Queen Takes the Train, this novella came across as quite dry and boring. Thankfully it was a short read.
    • 5/5
      Absolutely delightful!
    • 4/5
      Sometimes "meta" books can get too tiring- you just want to enjoy the book without continually looking up and being mindful of your place in the book and vice versa. This book was not tiring in the least. It was a new genre for me, but I love to read, so I thought I'd give it a try.I enjoyed being privy to the personal routines and aspirations of England's queen, and watching them evolve along with her interests. A wonderful book for a short weekend.I received an advance reader's copy of this book from the LT Early Reviewer program. Tucked inside was a postcard from the publisher to submit comments and also to recommend a friend who would like the book- they'll send a copy to your friend. I don't want to take advantage of the publisher's generous offer, as I know many people who would like the book- I'll just have to lend mine out.
    • 3/5
      Quick, fun read.
    • 2/5
      A silly short book.
    • 4/5
      Delightful...
    • 2/5
      Zeer geestig boekje over de koningin die een leesverslaving opdoet, met verregaande gevolgen. Het slot is wat flauw.
    • 4/5
      Cute book.
    • 4/5
      Light-hearted, playful examination of the joys of reading and the perils of letting it take over one's life. Bennett's touch is, as always, deft and erudite. Definitely the kind of story that leaves you with a list of 'books I must now go and read'.
    • 5/5
      What a treasure.
    • 4/5
      Great story for people who love books. Turning Queen Elizabeth into a bookworm ignoring her other duties makes for a fun short book to read.
    • 4/5
      I enjoyed this book, at only 120 pages it is a fast read. This is a book designed for a book lover. There are so many references to authors and books that you will need to do what the Queen did -start a notebook. (edited, never write in the middle of the night - wait till the next day)

      An enjoyable book that I will be reading again.
    • 5/5
      This book is such a lovely example of why I participate in book challenges. How would I have ever discovered this book if not for hanging out in Book Riot's Read Harder discussion for books written by an author over the age of 65? (Also the topic for one of the squares in my book bingo at work.)

      I chose this book as the first book for the read-a-thon that Jefferson and I participated in, and it was fantastic for that purpose. At 120 pages, it was a good way to feel accomplished early in the day, plus, as a meditation on the transformative powers of reading, the subject matter made it a great kick-off as well.

      In the hands of a lesser author, this easily could have been a fully, cute story, but bennett sneaks in all sorts of challenging thoughts about power, manners, and politics, thoughts that will slide quietly into your brain as you read contentedly away, then wiggle around in the days and weeks to come, raising questions and subtly reorganizing old assumptions.

      Ah, the unexpected consequences of the queen wandering into a book-mobile!
    • 3/5
      This is a novella fantasy of Queen Elizabeth II developing a habit of reading that gradually increases her empathy and makes her restless in her role. Light and fun, probably more of a giggle for Brits than for me. But it does point out that reading, especially reading the classics, is a humanizing and creative act. But we knew that already, didn't we?
    • 5/5
      A marvelous ode to the pleasures of reading. It is both subtly subversive and very funny.
    • 5/5
      In The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett, Queen Eliabeth I chances on a mobile library and, to be polite, takes out a couple of books, thereby starting herself on a literary road that takes unexpected turns, some humorous, some serious. To make such a prominent person (who is still alive and, given the longevitiy of the family, likely to be for another 20 years!) the main character of a work of fiction, takes guts.Alan Bennett writes with wit, intelligence, and a talent for surprise. I’ve experienced this with his other novellas, an unexpected turn not only in plot, but in mood and atmosphere, and just when you think you know where he’s headed, there’s another twist. It’s delightful.Queen Elizabeth’s literary taste and critical powers develop through the novella and this is something that I can relate to. Every time I go through a period when I can’t read because life, inner or outer, interferes with concentration and energy, I begin with short works and quick reads that get my reading muscles going again, leading to a craving for something more substantial (I did write meatier, but I’m a vegetarian you know).I was thinking about this while warming up after ice skating today (indoor rink), and something occurred to me. Commercial fiction tends to be undemanding, pleasantly romantic, pleasantly scary or suspenceful without challenging most readers’ underlying assumptions and stereotypes. And that’s why it’s so successful. It’s fast food for the brain. Tasty but not extremely nutritious.But this is what I wonder: is this taste encouraged because it doesn’t lead to questioning? At the end of The Uncommon Reader, the queen takes an unexpected and, to her elites, shocking step that has grown out of her intellectual and critical development through reading. I don’t mean that there is some secret conspiracy, but rather societies preserve their status quo through institutions and values that support things as they are.If our educational system and media taught and encouraged critical thinking, who knows what could happen and how power might shift. No, it’s safer to feed pap to the masses, whether in books or food, keep them calm and fat. Bread and circuses, folks. Bread and circuses.So keep blogging about books and don’t stop. Keep reading and broadening your horizons. For we are the quiet revolutionaries, the ones that think, listen, speak when our thoughts have germinated. Even when it seems least likely, even when publishers are determined to put out only repeats of books that are gobbled up like big Macs, we are the still, small voice that whispers, change is possible. Read and make up your own mind.
    • 4/5
      cute novella about the Queen. She discovers reading late in life and it completely distracts her from real life. That's the wonderful thing about reading, right? This was an incredibly quick read (about 120 pages), so it's wonderful for a rainy evening or a lazy weekend.
    • 4/5
      This is a light, charming, and amusing little book that I breezed through in about an hour. It was just the thing I needed after having to plow through Paradise Lost for an English class!
    • 4/5
      A delightful bon-bon of a book. I read it during the holidays, and it proved very pleasant without boring me.
    • 3/5
      I didn't realize it was so short. Read it in an afternoon. A quiet little story.
    • 3/5
      The Queen of England discovers reading.
    • 5/5
      This is a short fiction, a fairy tale really, about Queen Elizabeth II becoming a bookworm late in life. As the Queen immerses herself in literature her attitudes to the world around her begin to change, much to the alarm of her advisers and the Prime Minister (who she keeps bombarding with entirely unwanted reading lists).With his usual light touch, Alan Bennett makes a profound statement about the transformative nature of literature. The way that fiction changes the reader and reality; how burying your head in a book can make you more aware of - and dissatisfied with - the world around you, and your own place in it. A funny, subversive and wonderful love letter to the liberating power of reading.
    • 5/5
      Outstanding. Superbly written prose. Perceptive viewpoint that lets you imagine what the Queen’s day might be like and how an introduction to books might stir things up for her and wreak havoc. Additional characters like Norman and Sir Kevin are a delight and the ending is so outrageously brilliant, it knocks the wind right out of you. Alan Bennett is a genius!
    • 4/5
      I love Bennett's prose, its like taking a long soak in a warm bath.
    • 5/5
      This was an absolutely delightful meditation on the value of reading. The idea of the Queen becoming a voracious reader was inspired, as was Bennett's description of how her staff responds to this dismaying development. But how he used the premise to comment on what makes reading worthwhile is the real value of the book. If anything the book has become even more relevant since it was first published, making it a real testament to Bennett's brilliance as a writer and observer of the modern world.
    • 4/5
      a little strange

    Book preview

    The Uncommon Reader - Alan Bennett

    ALSO BY ALAN BENNETT

    PLAYS

    Plays One (Forty Years On, Getting On, Habeas Corpus,

    Enjoy) • Plays Two (Kafka’s Dick, The Insurance Man,

    The Old Country, An Englishman Abroad, A Question of

    Attribution) • The Lady in the Van • Office Suite •

    The Madness of George III • The Wind in the Willows

    • The History Boys

    TELEVISION PLAYS

    Me, I’m Afraid of Virginia Woolf (A Day Out; Sunset Across

    the Bay; A Visit from Miss Prothero; Me, I’m Afraid of Virginia

    Woolf; Green Forms; The Old Crowd; Afternoon Off) •

    Rolling Home (One Fine Day, All Day on the Sands,

    Our Winnie, Rolling Home, Marks, Say Something Happened,

    Intensive Care) • Talking Heads

    SCREENPLAYS

    A Private Function (The Old Crowd, A Private Function,

    Prick Up Your Ears, 102 Boulevard Haussmann, The Madness

    of King George) • The History Boys: The Film (with

    Nicholas Hytner)

    AUTOBIOGRAPHY

    The Lady in the Van • Writing Home • Untold Stories

    FICTION

    Three Stories (The Laying On of Hands; The Clothes They

    Stood Up In; Father! Father! Burning Bright)

    The

    Uncommon Reader

    title_img

    Farrar, Straus and Giroux

    19 Union Square West, New York 10003

    Copyright © 2007 by Forelake Ltd.

    All rights reserved

    Printed in the United States of America

    Published in 2007 by Faber and Faber Limited, Great Britain

    Published in the United States by Farrar, Straus and Giroux

    First American edition, 2007

    This novella originally appeared, in slightly different form,

    in the London Review of Books on March 8, 2007.

    Grateful acknowledgement is made for permission to reprint lines

    from The Trees, from Collected Poems by Philip Larkin (New York:

    Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2004).

    Library of Congress Control Number: 2007926975

    ISBN-13: 978-0-374-28096-3

    ISBN-10: 0-374-28096-7

    Designed by Jonathan D. Lippincott

    www.fsgbooks.com

    1  3  5  7  9  10  8  6  4  2

    The

    Uncommon Reader

    At Windsor it was the evening of the state banquet and as the president of France took his place beside Her Majesty, the royal family formed up behind and the procession slowly moved off and through into the Waterloo Chamber.

    ‘Now that I have you to myself,’ said the Queen, smiling to left and right as they glided through the glittering throng, ‘I’ve been longing to ask you about the writer Jean Genet.’

    ‘Ah,’ said the president. ‘Oui.’

    The ‘Marseillaise’ and the national anthem made for a pause in the proceedings, but when they had taken their seats Her Majesty turned to the president and resumed.

    ‘Homosexual and jailbird, was he nevertheless as bad as he was painted? Or, more to the point,’ and she took up her soup spoon, ‘was he as good?’

    Unbriefed on the subject of the glabrous playwright and novelist, the president looked wildly about for his minister of culture. But she was being addressed by the Archbishop of Canterbury.

    ‘Jean Genet,’ said the Queen again, helpfully. ‘Vous le connaissez?’

    ‘Bien sûr,’ said the president.

    ‘Il m’intéresse,’ said the Queen.

    ‘Vraiment?’ The president put down his spoon. It was going to be a long evening.

    It was the dogs’ fault. They were snobs and ordinarily, having been in the garden, would have gone up the front steps, where a footman generally opened them the door.

    Today, though, for some reason they careered along the terrace, barking their heads off, and scampered down the steps again and round the end along the side of the house, where she could hear them yapping at something in one of the yards.

    It was the City of Westminster travelling library, a large removal-like van parked next to the bins outside one of the kitchen doors. This wasn’t a part of the palace she saw much of, and she had certainly never seen the library parked there before, nor presumably had the dogs, hence the din, so having failed in her attempt to calm them down she went up the little steps of the van in order to apologise.

    The driver was sitting with his back to her, sticking a label on a book, the only seeming borrower a thin ginger-haired boy in white overalls crouched in the aisle reading. Neither of them took any notice of the new arrival, so she coughed and said, ‘I’m sorry about this awful racket,’ whereupon the driver got up so suddenly he banged his head on the Reference section and the boy in the aisle scrambled to his feet and upset Photography & Fashion.

    She put her head out of the door. ‘Shut up this minute, you silly creatures,’ which, as had been the move’s intention, gave the driver/librarian time to compose himself and the boy to pick up the books.

    ‘One has never seen you here before, Mr . . .’

    ‘Hutchings, Your Majesty. Every Wednesday, ma’am.’

    ‘Really? I never knew that. Have you come far?’

    ‘Only from Westminster, ma’am.’

    ‘And you are . . . ?’

    ‘Norman, ma’am. Seakins.’

    ‘And where do you work?’

    ‘In the kitchens, ma’am.’

    ‘Oh. Do you have much time for reading?’

    ‘Not really, ma’am.’

    ‘I’m the same. Though now that one is here I suppose one ought to borrow a book.’

    Mr Hutchings smiled helpfully.

    ‘Is there anything you would recommend?’

    ‘What does Your Majesty like?’

    The Queen hesitated, because to tell the truth she wasn’t sure. 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. It was a hobby and it was in the nature of her job that she didn’t have hobbies. Jogging, growing roses, chess or rock climbing, cake decoration, model aeroplanes. No. Hobbies involved preferences and preferences had to be avoided; preferences excluded people. One had no preferences. Her job was to take an interest, not to be interested herself. And besides, reading wasn’t doing. She was a doer. So she gazed round the book-lined van and played for time. ‘Is one allowed to borrow a book? One doesn’t have a ticket?’

    ‘No problem,’ said Mr Hutchings.

    ‘One is a pensioner,’ said the Queen, not that she was sure that made any difference.

    ‘Ma’am can borrow up to six books.’

    ‘Six? Heavens!’

    Meanwhile the ginger-haired young man had made his choice and given his book to the librarian to stamp. Still playing for time, the Queen picked it up.

    ‘What have you chosen, Mr Seakins?’ expecting it to be, well, she wasn’t sure what she expected, but it wasn’t what it was. ‘Oh. Cecil Beaton. Did you know him?’

    ‘No, ma’am.’

    ‘No, of course not. You’d be too young. He always used to be round here, snapping away. And a bit of a tartar. Stand here, stand there. Snap, snap. And there’s a book about him now?’

    ‘Several, ma’am.’

    ‘Really? I suppose everyone gets written about sooner or later.’

    She riffled through it. ‘There’s probably a picture of me in it somewhere. Oh yes. That one. Of course, he wasn’t just a photographer. He

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