diff --git a/Lib/pathlib.py b/Lib/pathlib.py
index eff6ae3..5134eea 100644
--- a/Lib/pathlib.py
+++ b/Lib/pathlib.py
@@ -1083,6 +1083,39 @@
         return io.open(str(self), mode, buffering, encoding, errors, newline,
                        opener=self._opener)
 
+    def read_bytes(self):
+        """
+        Open the file in bytes mode, read it, and close the file.
+        """
+        with self.open(mode='rb') as f:
+            return f.read()
+
+    def read_text(self, encoding=None, errors=None):
+        """
+        Open the file in text mode, read it, and close the file.
+        """
+        with self.open(mode='r', encoding=encoding, errors=errors) as f:
+            return f.read()
+
+    def write_bytes(self, data):
+        """
+        Open the file in bytes mode, write to it, and close the file.
+        """
+        # type-check for the buffer interface before truncating the file
+        view = memoryview(data)
+        with self.open(mode='wb') as f:
+            return f.write(view)
+
+    def write_text(self, data, encoding=None, errors=None):
+        """
+        Open the file in text mode, write to it, and close the file.
+        """
+        if not isinstance(data, str):
+            raise TypeError('data must be str, not %s' %
+                            data.__class__.__name__)
+        with self.open(mode='w', encoding=encoding, errors=errors) as f:
+            return f.write(data)
+
     def touch(self, mode=0o666, exist_ok=True):
         """
         Create this file with the given access mode, if it doesn't exist.
diff --git a/Lib/test/test_pathlib.py b/Lib/test/test_pathlib.py
index 4f76217..8839888 100644
--- a/Lib/test/test_pathlib.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_pathlib.py
@@ -1310,6 +1310,23 @@
             self.assertIsInstance(f, io.RawIOBase)
             self.assertEqual(f.read().strip(), b"this is file A")
 
+    def test_read_write_bytes(self):
+        p = self.cls(BASE)
+        (p / 'fileA').write_bytes(b'abcdefg')
+        self.assertEqual((p / 'fileA').read_bytes(), b'abcdefg')
+        # check that trying to write str does not truncate the file
+        self.assertRaises(TypeError, (p / 'fileA').write_bytes, 'somestr')
+        self.assertEqual((p / 'fileA').read_bytes(), b'abcdefg')
+
+    def test_read_write_text(self):
+        p = self.cls(BASE)
+        (p / 'fileA').write_text('äbcdefg', encoding='latin-1')
+        self.assertEqual((p / 'fileA').read_text(
+            encoding='utf-8', errors='ignore'), 'bcdefg')
+        # check that trying to write bytes does not truncate the file
+        self.assertRaises(TypeError, (p / 'fileA').write_text, b'somebytes')
+        self.assertEqual((p / 'fileA').read_text(encoding='latin-1'), 'äbcdefg')
+
     def test_iterdir(self):
         P = self.cls
         p = P(BASE)