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Loading... The Uncommon Reader: A Novella (original 2006; edition 2008)by Alan Bennett
Work InformationThe Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett (Author) (2006)
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. Still thinking about this strange little book. I am not sure what I think. I am not British. I know very little about royalty, or the Queen in particular. This is a story of her becoming a true reader. In ways universal, but at times unique to her world and its trappings. The writing didn't grasp me with poetic use of the English language, even though I needed a dictionary at times with the words brandished. No earth shattering plot. No depth of place or setting. Yet? Still thinking. This a very short read. Try it and let me know what you think. Lovely. This is the second time I read this book, and it is still very nice. Very sympathetic, somehow. The queen is quite a character, and it's lovely to read how she develops her reading. And how she manages her reading: the idea of her reading in her carriage on the way to her yearly speech, all the while waving at the audience is very entertaining!
Det är träffsäkert, roligt och nästan oanständigt underhållande... Bennett manages to touch on some pointed issues in this little volume: life experience versus book experience; the pleasure of reading versus the sterility of being briefed; the riddle of what is "natural" behavior when a person lives so much in the public eye. And he makes you whoop with laughter while he's at it. In recounting this story of a ruler who becomes a reader, a monarch who’d rather write than reign, Mr. Bennett has written a captivating fairy tale. It’s a tale that’s as charming as the old Gregory Peck-Audrey Hepburn movie “Roman Holiday,” and as keenly observed as Stephen Frears’s award-winning movie “The Queen” — a tale that showcases its author’s customary élan and keen but humane wit. The Uncommon Reader is a political and literary satire. But it's also a lovely lesson in the redemptive and subversive power of reading and how one book can lead to another and another and another. This time, his odd, isolated heroine is the queen of England. The story of her budding love affair with literature blends the comic and the poignant so smoothly it can only be by Bennett. It’s not his very best work, but it distills his virtues well enough to suggest how such a distinctive style might have arisen. Belongs to Publisher SeriesAwardsNotable Lists
In this deliciously funny novella that celebrates the pleasure of reading, the Uncommon reader is none other than Her Majesty the Queen who drifts accidentally into reading when her corgis stray into a mobile library parked at Buckingham Palace. She reads widely (J.R. Ackerley, Jean Genet, Ivy Compton Burnett, and the classics) and intelligently. Her reading naturally changes her world view and her relationship with people such as 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. With the poignant and mischievous wit of The history boys, England's best loved author revels in the power of literature to change even the most uncommon reader's life. No library descriptions found.
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LibraryThing Early Reviewers AlumAlan Bennett's book The Uncommon Reader was available from LibraryThing Early Reviewers. Current DiscussionsNonePopular covers
Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)823.914Literature English & Old English literatures English fiction Modern Period 1901-1999 1945-1999LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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It’s a quick read with some moments of wry humour and a surprise ending. ( )