The Uncommon Reader
The novella “The Uncommon Reader” by Alan Bennett is based on the story of a queen. It focuses on her transformation to be from a queen responsible for the everyday ‘noble’ chores to a vivid reader. It traces a journey of how it all began and eventually led to the queen accepting the thoughts of the author and then after a period of addiction, how she becomes a writer.
Towards the beginning of the novella, the queen was not that fond of reading. Reading was just a commonplace task that some people did for the sake of it. It didn’t fascinate her at all. As expected from a queen of such high stature, her job was to make sure that the state was functioning in a smooth fashion. She didn’t take reading as a very noble task, as according to novella, she was a doer ‘reading wasn’t doing-she was a doer’. Hence owing to this very fact, the Queen had a very low and derogatory opinion about reading.
The Queen had this psyche which made her finish a book once she started it, regardless of the fact that she liked it or not. She didn’t read it with an impulse to learn and build on her knowledge. The novella also states that Queen didn’t like being contradicted, and if she came across any reading that wasn’t in line with her thoughts and actions, she used to lose her patience at it. Her lack of interest in reading can be judged by the incident when Norman, a servant sarcastically remarked about her reading sense by stating that the book ‘My dog Tulip’, must be comprehended by the queen to be about a dog. This can further be reinforced by the anecdotes about Henry James and Jean Ganet.
However, over the course of time she developed a strong insight into reading. It all sprung off after the queen felt obliged to borrow books from a City of Westminster Mobile Library outside the Buckingham Palace. She was guided by Norman, a former kitchen boy and an enthusiast of gay authors. She became an addict and began to take reading seriously. The transition can be termed as one from ‘an uncommon reader to a common reader’. Starting off with one book, she felt that one book lead to another. And the cycle continued. Reading with such interest helped the queen to learn about the common man, and how their lives were entirely different from those living in palaces like the Buckingham Palace. It helped her to explore a wider aspect of lives.
The Queen started seeing these books as a bridge of communicating what one feels and expresses. She came with terms to the fact that books were a best way to convey feelings and no other method of communication were that equally effective as reading. Hence now reading became one of her foremost and highly prioritised task. She transformed into a vivid and a quick learner.
The Queen also developed a high level of respect for the authors. She organised a dinner for them. No formal physical encounter was necessary to learn more about these authors, once their respective books have been read. The Queen not only kept her passion to herself, but also passed it on to the people she knew, Duke, the Prime Minister and some of her close associates. However, towards the latter half of the book, a transformation can be evidently pointed out in the queens reading pattern. From a vivid reader, she started being an active critic of the works she came through. She pointed out the mistakes and began to develop ideas to enter the field of writing.
As aforementioned, queen was a ‘doer’. In line of this context, she came to terms with the fact that reading was merely an experience. It was an act of absorbing and registering whatever the author has to say- without adding to the personal thoughts and insights one has about certain matters. Therefore, she began to start off with writing. She started taking writing as a more expressive and an effective art to strongly convey the message to the readers. This entire transformation helped the queen to grow as a more subtle and tolerant person.