- Hardcover: 124 pages
- Publisher: Faber and Faber; 1st edition (6 Sep 2007)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1846680492
- ISBN-13: 978-1846680496
- Product Dimensions: 17 x 12.6 x 2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (130 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 117,648 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
The Uncommon Reader
and over 900,000 other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Visit the Amazon.co.uk Trade-In Store for more details. |
Product details |
More About the Author
Product Description
Review
"Alan Bennett, with his combination of pitiless observation and gentle understatement, is perhaps the best-loved of English writers alive today." Sunday Telegraph"
Jane Shilling, Times
`An exquisitely produced jewel of a book...[but] beneath the tasteful gilt-and-beige cover seethes a savagely Swiftian indignation against stupidity, Philistinism and arrogance in public places, and a passionate argument for the civilising power of art.'
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
213 of 220 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Delight in reading, even the Queen does now!,
By
This review is from: The Uncommon Reader (Hardcover)
Oh, such a fabulous premise for a book: Walking her corgis one night the Queen stumbles upon a mobile library. Not wanting to seem rude she borrows a book, and then another. Soon she has been bitten by the bug and finds herself reading whenever she gets a moment. She becomes adroit at reading in the car while waving with her free hand and seems to be neglecting her once impeccably performed duties. She reads capriciously and diversely, everything from Proust to Vikram Seth and soon the seditious world of literature has her questioning her life and the political world around her.
This is a devilishly funny book, an absolute joy for any lover of reading who wonders what the world would be like if more people in power read for themselves. In his portrayal of the Queen, Alan Bennett has traversed a minefield skilfully and created a character who is both eminently believable and endearingly lovable. If the Queen lives vicariously then this delightful portrayal of her joyous rebellion could even persuade her to take up reading in reality! There is absolutely nothing to dislike in this humorous and well conceived novella. It is a short and enjoyable read, crammed with little anecdotes and facts which will be of interest to anyone fascinated by the world of books. Indeed, if you have already fallen for the vast world of literature then you will be rubbing your hands with glee at this celebration of reading in all its forms. I cannot think of a better way to spend a couple of hours than devouring The Uncommon Reader. It is a book which everyone should read.
139 of 144 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
"Books, bread and butter, mashed potato--one finishes what's on one's plate.",
By
This review is from: The Uncommon Reader (Hardcover)
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 what might be, or what we might wish, 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
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
the uncommon reader, a small jewell in the crown,
By Anne de Bueil (Paris) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Uncommon Reader (Paperback)
I highly enjoyed the Uncommon Reader (an enticing title, full of old memories) where Her Majesty the Queen becomes a reading addict, a situation full of most comic consequences. But this delightful novel goes deeper than a mere entertainment: it also tells of the decay of reading, which can be seen in all social classes. It is also charmingly ambiguous (as was the film the Queen) for even if we know what fiction means, we cannot help confusing the queen in the novel and the real one, asking ourselves questions about the latter. We can also draw a personnal benefit from this brilliant novel: for my part,I completed a list of the books the queen devoures and I have just started reading Rose Tremain's novels thanks to the Uncommon Reader; with apologies for my clumsy english, not my home language.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews |
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
![[Start the discussion]](http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/02/x-locale/communities/discussion_boards/start-new-discussion-sec._V192198663_.gif){kind=small}
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
