The Uncommon Reader
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| The Uncommon Reader | |
 A First edition of the novel |
|
| Author | Alan Bennett |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Peter Campbell |
| Country |  England |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Faber & Faber |
| Publication date | 2007 |
| Media type | Hardback |
| Pages | 124 |
| ISBN | 978-1-84668-049-6 |
| OCLC | NA |
The Uncommon Reader is a novella by Alan Bennett. After appearing first in the London Review of Books, Vol. 29, No. 5 (March 8, 2007), it was published later the same year in book form by Faber & Faber.
[edit] Plot
The title's "uncommon reader" (Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom) becomes obsessed with books after a chance encounter with a mobile library. The story follows the consequences of this obsession for the Queen, her household and advisers, and her constitutional position.
The title is a play on the phrase "common reader". This can mean a person who reads for pleasure, as opposed to a critic or scholar. It can also mean a set text, a book that everyone in a group (for example, all students entering a university) are expected to read, so that they can have something in common. A Common Reader is used by Virginia Woolf as the title work of her 1925 essay collection.
In British English, "common" holds levels of connotation. A commoner is anyone other than royalty. "Common" as an adjective has the now old-fashioned meaning, additional to the main meaning of "frequent" or "ordinary", of "working class", as in "the common man" or "the common people".
[edit] External links
- The Complete Review (with further links)
- John Crace's "Digested Read"
