84, Charing Cross Road

84, Charing Cross Road
by Helene Hanff

84, Charing Cross Road
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Book Summary Information

Author: Helene Hanff
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 1990-10-01
ISBN: 0140143505
Number of pages: 112
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
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Book Reviews of 84, Charing Cross Road

Book Review: A funny, sweet story of correspondence
Summary: 5 Stars

This is a funny, sweet story of correspondence that was a delight to read. It is a story told in letters between Helene and a bookstore in London. I am a fan of diary style, journal and epistolary style books and this book fits that style pefectly. The time period of the letters was from the 1940's through the early 1960's. Helene was a writer and enjoyed the used books the bookstore sent to her. She got to know the employees and their families and their lives through the letters that they sent back and forth. It is sad that Helene never made a visit to England. She tried on many occasions but something always came along that she had to put her money towards instead.

Summary of 84, Charing Cross Road

A dramatization of the American Helene Hanff's 20-year correspondence with a London antiquarian bookshop. Also on this cassette is a witty duologue between a elderly general and his wife, played by John Mills and Peggy Ashcroft.
84, Charing Cross Road is a charming record of bibliophilia, cultural difference, and imaginative sympathy. For 20 years, an outspoken New York writer and a rather more restrained London bookseller carried on an increasingly touching correspondence. In her first letter to Marks & Co., Helene Hanff encloses a wish list, but warns, "The phrase 'antiquarian booksellers' scares me somewhat, as I equate 'antique' with expensive." Twenty days later, on October 25, 1949, a correspondent identified only as FPD let Hanff know that works by Hazlitt and Robert Louis Stevenson would be coming under separate cover. When they arrive, Hanff is ecstatic--but unsure she'll ever conquer "bilingual arithmetic." By early December 1949, Hanff is suddenly worried that the six-pound ham she's sent off to augment British rations will arrive in a kosher office. But only when FPD turns out to have an actual name, Frank Doel, does the real fun begin.

Two years later, Hanff is outraged that Marks & Co. has dared to send an abridged Pepys diary. "i enclose two limp singles, i will make do with this thing till you find me a real Pepys. THEN i will rip up this ersatz book, page by page, AND WRAP THINGS IN IT." Nonetheless, her postscript asks whether they want fresh or powdered eggs for Christmas. Soon they're sharing news of Frank's family and Hanff's career. No doubt their letters would have continued, but in 1969, the firm's secretary informed her that Frank Doel had died. In the collection's penultimate entry, Helene Hanff urges a tourist friend, "If you happen to pass by 84, Charing Cross Road, kiss it for me. I owe it so much."

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