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84 Charing Cross Road / The Duchess Of Bloomsbury Street (1970)

by Helene Hanff(Favorite Author)

4.23 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

0860074382 (ISBN13: 9780860074380)

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

Futura

review 1: Absolutely loved this book. It's actually two books in one, 84 Charing Cross Road - for anyone who loves letters and books; and The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street - for travellers who love exploring, the little details and random anecdotes you get from taking an interest in the world around you. Just loved it - will definately be dibbling my toes in this pool again in the future.84 Charing Cross Road is twenty years of communication between New Yorker Helene Hanff (TV script writer and reader) and a second hand bookshop on 84 Charing Cross Road in London. She sends them a wishlist, looking to buy these books for a couple of dollars a pop - she wants the nicely produced English versions. And so a correspondence starts up, with her eccentric letters, the bookshop staff, in par... moreticular Frank Doel, opening up to her, and friendships blossoming, all through letters. As this all kicks off in the late 40s, Britian is still under rationing, which Hanff is horrified by, so she sends them food parcels at Christmas. Obviously not every letter in the chain is here, it's just a selection, but you really experience the growing friendships, and I just love the fact that this is celebrating letters and post - I am a letter writer myself so I can really relate to this personally, but I think it's a dying art these days with email and text messages and I think it's just such a shame - a tragedy. It is also such a reflection on life itself, which is a little bittersweet but rings true. A couple of the women at the shop she writes with inevitably move away - one with an RAF husband, another thinking moving to South Africa will be a clever idea - and they disappear out of this particular circle and we never know what happens to them. As happens with some friends. The most heartbreaking thing for me was that Helene kept intending to come to London, but every time she saved up enough another emergency happened - needed to move, major dental work - so she had to keep postponing. And then she gets a letter to let her know that Frank Doel had died. It just broke my heart. It really reminds you that you've got to live now and enjoy what you've got because you just don't know what's around the corner.The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street is Hanff's little travelogue of when she did finally make it to London, in the 70s. Sadly Frank Doel is dead and the little bookshop is closed and empty. But she has been in love with London all her life and is thrilled by the weeks she spends there - it's really like a love letter to the city and all the characters she meets whilst there.
review 2: Waargebeurde liefdesgeschiedenis die geheel bestaat uit de correspondentie tussen de Amerikaanse Helene Hanff, en een employee van de Engelse boekhandel op Charing Cross Road.Liefde voor boeken, en voor elkaar.Ik kan dit alle boekenliefhebbers aanraden. Ik zou ook erg graag de film een keer zien, want ik heb net op IMDB gezien dat Anthony Hopkins daar in speelt.De relatie begint met deze brief.Marks & Co,84, Charing Cross RoadLondon, W.C. 2EnglandGentelmen:Your ad in the Saturday Review of Literature says that you specialize in out of print books. The phrase 'antiquarian book seller' scares me somewhat, as I equate 'antique' with expensive. I am a poor writer with an antiquarian taste in books and all the things I want ar impssible to get over here except in very expensive rare editions, or in Barnes & Nobles, marked-up schoolboy copies.I enclose a list of my most pressing problems. if you have clean second hand copies of any of the books on the list, for no more than $5.00 each, will you consider this a purchase order and send them to me?Very truly yours,Helene HanffZe krijgt een antwoord dat begint met "Madame, " , waarop zij in een vervolgbrief reageert met "I hope 'madam' doesn't mean overthere what it does here."Een heerlijke briefwisseling doe zo'n 40 jaar beslaat."It's against my principles to buy a book I haven't read, it's like buying a dress you haven't tried on." Dit trof me. Een échte boekliefhebber. Ze sanpt ook niet dat mensen boeken kopen, ze asl een gek uitlezen en vervolgens in de boekenkast zetten om ze nooit meer aan te raken.Lees dit boek. Het blaast je liefde voor boeken weer nieuw leven in.Het eerste deel bestaat alleen uit de briefwisseling.Het tweede deel gaat over haar reis naar London die ze jaren later maakt, asl haar briefwisseling al uitgegeven is.Vooral het 1e deel is erg mooi less

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