84, Charing Cross Road

Just one word to say. All you booklovers who bought the Penguin edition of this wonderful book have missed out on its sequel, 'The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street'. In the Virago edition of the book, both '84' and 'Duchess' have been put together in a single volume. This Virago edition is also available on Amazon.in -- just type '84 Charing Cross Road Virago' in the Search panel, press Return and you will find the book. Alternatively, paste this on the URL panel in the desktop version of Amazon: http://www.amazon.in/Charing-Cross-Virago-Modern-Classics/dp/1860498507/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1497545302&sr=1-1&keywords=84+charing+cross+road+virago

84, Charing Cross Road is an absolutely enthralling true story of friendship and a shared love of books, which has been retold through a series of letters that were written between 1949 and 1968. Helene Hanff was an American writer who, upon one day seeing an advertisement by Marks & Co. Booksellers in London, contacts them and asks them to send her some specific books. This marks the beginning of the friendship between Helene and Frank Doel. The friendship soon expands to the exchange of beautiful letters and beautiful gifts between Helene Hanff and all the employees of the bookstore as well as with Frank Doel’s family. Miss Hanff is funny, caring, sweet and an absolute bibliophile. She is whimsical and so particular when it comes to her books. Reading her talking about books was just so raw and honest and I saw so many parts of myself being reflected in that. All the bookstore employees are so cordial and thankful for Helene’s affection that it is nothing other than heart touching. I found myself breezing through this book. Reading it gave me this fuzzy feeling which just made me warm and cozy quite simply because the words in this book are that powerful. It made me laugh and it made me cry. The friendships portrayed in this book reflects the beauty of humanity. It made me marvel at the power of a single page letter which could turn out to be the source of so many emotions for so many people. And at the end of it all, it made me feel overwhelmed. It is one such book that everyone must definitely read at least once in their lifetimes. It is a book lover’s paradise.

84 Charing Cross Road is the correspondence between a brassy American writer and a gentlemanly English bookseller. Spanning two decades, it begins in the post-war days of the 1940s when English books were not only difficult to find in the States, they were prohibitively expensive…especially for a poor free-lance writer and script reader living in New York City. A chance encounter with an ad in The Saturday Review prompted the first letter, an endearingly-blunt request with a five dollar bill enclosed. The friendship that bloomed almost instantly between Miss Hanff in her brownstone and Mr. Frank Doel in his London shop expanded to include fellow employees and even Frank’s wife, Nora. The letters are a blend of amusement, candid exchanges, quaint, tender, charming, sweet, and lovely conversations that warm the heart and bring a smile to the reader's face. Hanff's quirky personality and Frank's blend of the personal and the professional attitude add life to their letters. Whether they were talking about books, family, or the odd tidbit, I was consistently interested in what they had to say. For twenty years the letters—and books—fly back and forth across The Pond. And in that time one of the most touching accounts of human friendship and kindness unfolds. There is an almost spiritual quality to the giving and the receiving that transpires, the careful love of old books and the tending of relationships. The most remarkable effect this book has had on me is to bring a new light to the love of second-hand books. I cherish my books and so I mostly prefer new, paperback books so that I may treasure them for as long as I live. But Hanff has made me re-think my love of new books because she believed that, a used book is certainly more loved and treasured than a new one, because every time someone has loved it, the book has a memory of it. A used book tells its own story, it says about its previous owner-of a careless reader who does not use a book mark and folds the edges of the book or a booklover who neatly handles the book as something of infinite value. I was disappointed with Frank’s untimely death and that Hanff and Frank could not meet. The book reassures my belief that people seek each other, friendships blossom between strangers and compassion transcends all divisions. I could not help but believing, quite pompously, that one of the greatest achievement of human civilization is to give value to life, to converse with others and to form relationships.

This is a sloppy, poorly done edition of a very fine piece of writing. Bereft of any notes or explanation (I know the story and have read this book any number of times), the spacing is weird and the paper is cheap. Unless one is to find a good used edition, though, this is our only option.

I bought this edition for this specific cover of the original bookshop. But at 460/- this is a very poor edition of the classic - run-on pages, bad print and paper. there are better ones available. I had to return this and get another.

Read it after reading the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society. I suppose that is where I felt disappointed. There is a fair amount of charm to this book but not enough to make you read it over and over again. I suppose that is to be expected when you read a memoir. Needed a bit more editing and the form should have been thought over neatly. The author, however, is quirky and fun to read. Pick it up if you love books but don't expect to fall in love with this book.