84, Charing Cross Road

This was a reread for me. I don't remember what triggered the memory (probably in a chat with GRF Marilyn) but I remember loving this book when I read it about a million years ago and wanted a feel good quick read so I picked it up again a few weeks ago. This time around I listened to the book and loved it as much as the first time. The book is an atmospheric epistolary memoire by the author, comprised of over twenty years of post-WWII correspondence with a bookstore at 84 Charing Cross Road, in London. Helene Hanff was an NYC freelance playwright with a passion for books. She discovered that she could buy/order beautiful editions of rare books, inexpensively from the London shop and corresponded regularly, initially with one of the show more booksellers but eventually with the entire staff. They exchanged warm letters sharing personal details of their lives. Helene learned about the post-war rationing in England, and although not a wealthy woman, sent "care" packages for holidays and even for no reason. She sent hams and jams and whatever else she knew was scarce including silk stockings for the women. She had a dream to visit the shop one day, but freelancers don't always have the cash to squander. She did finally get to the shop, and if you want to know the rest you'll have to read it yourself! (no spoilers for this lovely book). The audio is always available on Hoopla!, if your library subscribes. Five big show less

When I think of ways to describe this book words like 'delight' and 'joyful' and 'jolly' are the first that spring to mind. This edition is actually two books, and includes the sequel The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street, but as they're both novellas and barely make a slight novel when sandwiched together I'll consider them as one book.

Helene Hanff, small-time writer of children's books and plays, became something of a quiet sensation amongst book fans after she published 84 Charing Cross Road, an epistolary chronicling her warm and witty correspondence from New York with an employee at Marks & Co. booksellers in London over 20 years from 1949 until his sudden death. Helene's teasing and mischievous prose is utterly charming, a wonderful show more piece of bygone nostalgia which just wouldn't happen in today's world of technical and professional efficiency.

Having always threatened to visit London and the store, The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street is a diary-style account of when Helene finally gets to visit London in the early 1970s on the back of the success of 84 Charing Cross Road. By then sadly the book shop has closed, but Helene has a fine old time jaunting around the sights she'd always dreamt of visiting, with outings facilitated by people connected with Marks & Co. and various fans, including the British actress Jean Grenfell. Hanff can't quite believe her luck at what a high time she's having, and as she keeps them all on their toes with her witty commentary it feels a privilege as a reader to get to tag along.

4.5 stars - a refreshing delight from start to finish. We all want to be in Hanff's gang. show less

http://philobiblos.blogspot.com/2006/06/book-review-84-charing-cross-road.html

I finally took the time (not very much was necessary, since it's less than a hundred pages long) to read Helene Hanff's 84, Charing Cross Road ... my only regret is that I didn't do so sooner. What a lovely little book! The collected letters from nearly two decades of correspondence between a New York writer and the staff of a used bookshop in London, 84 is at times both hilarious and sad, witty and wistful. By the end, I felt as though I knew the characters myself.

One of the most delightful things about these letters is Miss Hanff's personified descriptions of the books she receives from Marks & Co. Upon the arrival of a copy of Samuel Pepys' diary: "He says show more to tell you he's overJOYED to be here, he was previously owned by a slob who never even bothered to cut the pages." Or this, in a letter from May 8, 1960: "Mr. De Tocqueville's compliments and he begs to announce his safe arrival in America. He sits around looking smug because everything he said was true, especially about lawyers running the country. ... [C]ame home and read a couple of newspaper stories about the presidential hopefuls - stevenson, humphrey, kennedy, stassen, nixon - all lawyers but humphrey." I laughed out loud at several of those, and at other points where the persnickety customer berates (good-naturedly, of course) the poor staff for sending her inferior or abridged editions of items she's requested ... even as she constantly seems to be sending them presents.

Anyone who has known the pleasure of a newly-arrived book or formed a bond with those who supply them will enjoy this little gem. I am certain I'll return to it often. show less

An epistolary memoir, taking the form of twenty years of letters, from 1949 to 1969, between New Yorker Hanff and London bookseller Frank Doel, of the Marks & Co. antiquarian bookstore.

This is a small book -- less than 100 pages, many of them less than half full, and even that largely taken up with letterhead, salutations, and closings -- and it has the reputation of being a charming, heartwarming valentine to friendship.

I don't get it.

Hanff is the epitome of the Ugly American, a brash, pushy, intrusive woman with absolutely no sense of (or interest in) where to draw appropriate boundaries in a commercial relationship. She scolds Doel and his colleages when she thinks they haven't acted quickly enough to find the specific rare books show more she's looking for; she babbles on at length about her personal life; she winds up attempting to befriend not only Doel and his co-workers, but his wife, daughters, and next door neighbor. And her awfulness is clear from her second letter, in which she scolds a London bookstore for billing in British currency instead of "translating" into dollars.

To give credit where credit is due, she is also kind and generous, often sending holiday parcels of food that's difficult for Londoners to get during post-war rationing.

But if I had been Frank Doel, after reading the first two or three letters from Hanff, I would have written back that Marks & Co. unfortunately did not usually offer the sort of books that she was interested in, and referred her to whichever London bookseller was at the top of my enemies list. show less

This collection of letters has been on The List for ages and I know it's beloved by many an LTer. I am, unsurprisingly, one of their number now that I've finally read this short volume. While I had seen the film adaptation in advance of this, my first reading, and thus the outlines of the relationship was already familiar, there is such joy in sinking into Helene Hanff and Frank Doel's correspondence over the course of twenty years. Hanff's brash humour leaps off the page as she requests various books from the secondhand bookshop in which Doel works and contrasts delightfully with Doel's ever so British circumspectness that still reveals genuine fondness. Witnessing them exchange notes on books as well as slowly building bonds gives you show more such a warm fuzzy feeling for when it was possible to send a letter to a stranger and have that somehow lead to a deep and abiding friendship. A read for all the bibliophiles, whether you share Hanff's taste in books or not. show less

Not About Serial Killers!
Review of the Penguin Books paperback edition (1990) of the Grossman Publishers hardcover original (1970)

Do you have books which you avoid due to some misinformed notion or misconception about the title or the author? Even if so, I doubt that they can be as foolish as my shying away from 84, Charing Cross Road for many years because I thought that a book with a UK address in the title was about serial killers. It turns out that I must have been thinking about Ten Rillington Place all along. I recently read Ilse's superb review and realized my mistake. This is actually a book about the love of books and bookstores, which is one of my favourite genres.

84, Charing Cross Road is a non-fiction collection of excerpts show more from the correspondence between New York City screenwriter Helene Hanff and, at first, the anonymous bookseller at Marks and Co, the bookstore located at the title address. Hanff appears to have been somewhat of a shut-in, finding it easier to order books from London, England rather than to go searching for them in NYC bookstores. The correspondence turns into a friendship with the main bookseller Frank Doel and his family and the extended staff of Marks and Co. Hanff endears herself to the families by sending food parcels ordered from Denmark to an England which was still suffering post-World War II rationing into the early 1950s.

My thanks to Ilse, whose review revealed this wonderful book to me after many foolish years with my preconceived notion.

See cover at https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/29/84_charing_cross_first.jpg
The cover of the original Grossman Publishers hardcover edition from 1970. Image sourced from Wikipedia.

Trivia and Links
This book was adapted as a stage play 84 Charing Cross Road (1983) by James Roose-Evans which was then further adapted into the screenplay for the film version 84 Charing Cross Road (1987) directed by David Jones and starring Anne Bancroft as Helene Hanff and Anthony Hopkins as Frank Doel. There is a lovely recent homemade trailer for the film which you can watch on YouTube here. You can also watch the original 1987 trailer here. show less

This small book is a delightful collection of letters sent over the course of twenty years between a writer living in New York (Helene Hanff) and a secondhand bookshop in England (that resides at 84 Charring Cross Road). The letters are short and sweet, and sometimes sassy and will capture your heart from the very first epistle dated October 5, 1949. Helene Hanff sends off overseas for that which she cannot acquire at home - lovely editions of books that are affordably priced. Frank Doel works at Marks and Co. Booksellers and to him falls the task of hunting down the books requested by Helene and responding to her cheeky but thoughtful prose. Out of a love for literature will grow a friendship and camaraderie that will span two decades show more and infuse the entire staff of the bookshop with an appreciation for a mysterious American that loves books. show less