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Summary: A BEAUTIFUL, HEARTWARMING BOOK
Review: Anyone who loves books will love this story about a vibrant New York lady's passion for collecting them, told in alternating letters of correspondence between the struggling author and a British antiquarian seller who supplied by mail the treasured secondhand books she could barely afford to buy. An amazing true story spanning twenty years, it was made into a memorable and moving film starring Anne Bancroft and Anthony Hopkins, and is available on video.
Some editions of 84 Charing Cross Road come with the companion book The Duchess of Bloomsbury (or you can get it separately), a diary Ms Hanff kept when she visited London for the first time; but not until the original book had made her famous and she was finally able to afford the dream trip she had longed for. Also try to get her autobiography, Q's Legacy, or her book about New York, Apple of My Eye.
Sadly, Ms Hanff passed away recently, but her story will live on forever in the letters that touched the hearts of thousands.
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Summary: Those darn missing letters
Review: As you read this book you will discover some letters are missing here and there....it angers you. It makes you want to scream. It makes you realize just how much you truly love this book. After having stumbled across the movie one night, I couldn't resist taking a look at the book. Now I will say, I am an extremly busy man, and for me to ever read a book twice is a miracle.....well 6 readings of 84 Charing Cross Road later.....At times you feel a little guilty peeking into this private corraspondance, but at the same time you don't want to tear your eyes away. If you love books, you MUST read this book. If you love life...if you love living...oh forget it...just read this book!!!
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Summary: Charming story with a moral.
Review: 84 Charing Cross Road When I lived in London, people spoke of this address with awe and respect. I did not know why until I finally picked up the story. 84, Charing Cross Road is a delightfully plain (and true) story about a woman in New York who orders books from a regular old bookshop in London. While the woman could seek out an address in London to purchase her books, she chooses to remain loyal to Marks & Co. of London. The letters encompass a near 20 year span and each one is more brilliant than the next. The charm and wit of this love affair between Ms Helene Hanff and the bookshop staff, and their books, is undeniable. The book is short and sweet, enjoyable and just wonderful. Tragically, being that it is from true life, it teaches an important moral. If you are ever in London, you will never pass 84, Charing Cross Road with the same feeling. Enjoy! 10/15/02
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Summary: The Romance of Books
Review: Two people review: HERS: This is a nostalgic book, set in most part during the years immediately following WWII. It is also an epistolary documentary. In the 20+ years of correspondence between a New Yorker and an English book seller an entire portait of an era is depicted. Not only the small details of daily rationings in England, or the American's employment ups and downs; but also the manners and restrained etiquette of years past. Below the surface of these formal letters, outwardly dealing with the passion for books is an underlying void of words never written but well inderstood: a platonic love affair among people who care for books. The personalities and values of the letter writers is marvelously displayed through innuendos, reticences, outright indignation, passion and despair more often than not only alluded to. It is a masterful portrait of an era, of a relationship and of the art of letter wrting! HIS: Perfectly delightful, every page. It all works because of understatement, warranted by an assumed relationship through the love of books. So what doesn't get said doesn't need to be said, for people of like minds. Like lovers. Yet the two correspondents never met.
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Summary: Charming read
Review: I wasn't expecting much from such a slim little book. I read it in one sitting and was sorry when it ended. The letters the author selected to include really fleshed out the characters. I laughed out loud several times! A wonderful read for a rainy day.
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Summary: Beautiful, with a heart-rending and tragic moral
Review: This is the story of an American writer (the author of the book) who strikes up a friendship by mail with a bookseller in England. The entire book is a series of unedited and un-commented-on letters exchanged between Hanff and the Marks & Co. booksellers at 84 Charing Cross Road. Her primary pen pal is a man named Frank Doel, with whom she shares a love of old books. [Perhaps this is the point where I should say that I flatly disagree, without reservation, with the previous reviewers who believe there was a potential romantic attachment between the two of them.] The correspondence runs from 1949 until 1969, during which time Helene and the people at 84 Charing Cross Road exchange Christmas gifts and news of their families, but never meet. At least in the early years of the correspondence, almost every year Ms. Hanff states her intention to come over to visit England, but something always comes up to prevent the trip. In 1969, one of Hanff's letters to Frank Doel is answered by another member of the firm, informing her that Frank Doel has died. This is a beautiful book, which can be read in 45 minutes. I suppose every reader will take his or her own lessons from the book, but here is mine: If there is something you really want to do in your life, then DO IT when the opportunity arises. Time is finite. If you keep saying, "Maybe next year," there will eventually come a time when there IS no next year. It is a painful tragedy that Helene Hanff never got to England to meet Frank Doer and the other people at Marks & Company, and that poignant sadness is what stayed with me after I had closed the book.
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Summary: A Pearl of Great Price for Bibliophiles!
Review: I've always known booklovers were special people and this slender volume speaks of that eloquently. Amid the quaint and quirky book orders, fascinating in all their diversity and antiquity (wouldn't you just love to have Frank and Helene over for dinner?), the kindness, compassion, and just plain love for one's fellow humans sparkles like the gem this small tome resembles. Whenever I start to lose faith with the other b'zillion travelers on this planet, I return to this book, and others like it, and that faith is reaffirmed. A blessed, joyous, unsurpassed reading pleasure.
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Summary: Short, sweet, funny, sad and true
Review: This book was recommended highly and even so it exceeded my expectations. This epistolary chronicle of the growing friendship between the author and the folks at the bookstore in England is simply wonderful. It increased my already considerable appreciation for reading and for books. In spite of making me cry right before I had to leave for work, I carried the memory of it with me for several days after I finished it and it always made me smile. I immediately sent my copy on to someone else, who also loved it and it is awaiting its next fan.
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Summary: A delightful book of letters covering 20 years of friendship
Review: An engaging work of non-fiction, Hanff relates her 20 year relationship with a London bookseller via the postal service, Starting in 1949, not long after the war when shortages in England were plentiful. Miss Hanff, a writer of TV scripts, writes her first letter to Marks & Company Booksellers in search of rare books. It is the beginning of a long relationship that encompasses not only the man in charge of her account, Frank Doel, but the many workers at the company who come to love her teasing and sometimes biting letters, always followed by packages of powdered eggs and tins of meat during a time when meat is a scarcity. Her sarcastic nature comes across pleasantly as they banter across the ocean, she in New York and he in London. This was a sweet compilation from a period in time that is not to be forgotten, brought to you with the personal whimsical taste of a woman who shared the love of a good book. Kelsana 6/24/02
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Summary: I'd give this book 5 stars if it was just twice as long...
Review: I just read this book in less than two hours and I am left with a very nice feeling about "friendship". Friendship comes in many forms and this book is thereby proof. If you love books, love talking to your friends about books and have had a long distance friendship, this is a book you will be able to relate to. The mere descriptiveness of these letters amazes me. I also was completely unaware that this was a true interaction. I have since come to realize that is the case. I was reading this book believing it was fiction until I actually realized the author was one and the same. I'm pleasantly surprised by my own innitial confusion. I have a friend in England I have never met in person. But he's still my best friend. I'm going to send him a copy of this book. It says what I have never found the words to portray. It saddens me that Ms. Hanff never made it to England. I can only hope that will never happen to me. This book inspires me to save more and more pennies to make that trip happen. This book is just plain great.
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