A Very American and Very British Love Story (84 Charing Cross Road - Helene Hanff)

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Product:	84 Charing Cross Road - Helene Hanff
Date:	31/07/07 (141 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A humourous and poignant love story

Disadvantages: Maybe a little dated in parts and may bring on the waterworks!

Sometimes life can be perverse! Outside the warm sun was shining and the sea sparkling and inviting on the first seasonal summer Saturday we had been blessed with in quite a while. Inside I was suffering a headache, sneezing, shivering and generally lacking any energy to get out and enjoy it! I clicked on the television and there on the Freeview guide the words “84 Charing Cross Road” sprang out to greet me bringing memories flooding back. I wrapped myself in a duvet, curled up on the settee and got lost in that gentle and wonderful film. When it finished I wanted more and went in search of the book that I first read twenty five or so years ago and have re-read on several occasions. I was relieved that, when I moved in 2004 and cleared out many of my books to a charity shop, I had the foresight to retain this particular title. It’s well thumbed and the dust aggravated my sneezing at first but the rest of my weekend was happily spent revisiting its yellowing pages!

~~~84 CHARING CROSS ROAD (London)~~~

For many years, this was the address of Marks and Co, an antiquarian book shop which opened in 1904 and ceased trading in 1970 but is immortalised in this slim volume. It’s simply a collection of letters which details the trans-Atlantic relationship which developed between the book's author/compiler, Helene Hanff, a forthright, brash, but extremely likeable, New York writer and the staff of Marks and Co, in particular the manager, Frank Doel, a correct, restrained and very English gentleman. The correspondence stretches over twenty years, starting in 1949 when Helene, having seen an advertisement in a literary journal, writes to request certain obscure titles and ending in 1969 when she receives the sad news of Frank’s sudden death.

Gradually Helene becomes involved with the staff and their families. She sends food parcels when she learns of the scarcities in post war Britain, arranges for a friend to deliver nylons “ for the girls” and generally entertains them with details of her life in Manhattan. They reciprocate by zealously acquiring the titles she requires and offering advice, sending letters of gratitude acknowledging her generosity and returning small gifts which delight her.

Frank is her main correspondent throughout and the stiff punctilious style of his prose contrasts sharply with her vibrant informality as she teases and cajoles him sometimes with praise and thanks but also with rebukes and sarcasm. Frank melts over the years as he gradually opens up to this fascinating lady and his letters come to include details of his life and news of his wife, Nora and their daughters. Eventually, after ten years’ communication, he abandons his usual “yours faithfully” and “yours sincerely” signatures in favour of “with love”.

Helene’s writings are almost “stream of consciousness” in their construction and full of humour. She wins a grant to produce history dramatisations and announces her intention to start “ with a script about new York under seven years of British occupation” and indignantly proclaims, “ I marvel at how I rise above it to address you in a friendly and forgiving fashion, your behaviour over here from 1776 to 1783 was simply FILTHY”

Some of the literary references are hard going and many, I suspect, unintelligible to those who did not achieve a ”Masters” or above in English literature but again they are interspersed with down to earth observations! On receiving “Walton’s Lives”, Helene writes “did you knew John Donne eloped with the boss’s highborn daughter and then landed in the Tower for it and starved and starved and THEN got religion , my word.

Frank’s replies never really rise to the heights of humour but his factual, precise and sometimes slightly ironic mode of expression provides an admirable straight-man foil to Hanff’s comedic ramblings as they develop a mutual respect and affection which is remarkably endearing.

Helene is determined to visit England to meet up with her pen-pal and his associates but her various plans get thwarted by financial crises. The poignancy of the story is that she doesn’t make it to London until 1971, after the bookshop has closed its doors, Frank has died and this book, dedicated to his memory, has been published.

~~~THE DUCHESSE OF BLOOMSBURY STREET~~~

Published in 1974 as a separate title, this is now invariably reproduced as part of “84 Charing Cross Road” as it contains Helene’s account, written in diary form, of her 1971 London visit. Ironically, the visit was mainly financed by Deutsch, the English publishers of the original work, who invited her over to help publicise its launch.

It is the consummation of Helen’s long distance love affair with England, and particularly London, born of her admiration for English literary achievement. She enjoys all the benefits of being a minor celebrity, interviewed for newspapers and the BBC and entertained and feted by the likes of Joyce Grenville. She finally meets Frank’s widow, Nora and his daughters with whom she has also developed a close bond over the years and visits 84 Charing Cross Road, dusty and empty but with copies of her book displayed in the window. Here she describes herself standing on the stairs in remembrance and silently saying “ How about this, Frankie? I finally made it!”

She gets caught up with exploring the familiar streets and sights and her descriptions display an almost naïve excitement. Her humorous and quirky observations on London landmarks, its people , its language, its customs and conventions are made with such lively and informal enthusiasm that even the capital’s most ardent detractors can’t fail to warm to. It makes for a delightful read and not only gives a deeper understanding of the writer but also achieves a measure of closure on the sadness of the ending of the original work.

~~~MY EXPERIENCE~~~

The original book was published in 1971 which coincidentally was the year I moved to London to start my first “proper” job working in Westminster. When I first read the dual volume in 1974, it was rapidly gaining something approaching cult status and it reflected the delight and excitement I felt living in that buzzing historical hub! Therefore, although I immediately loved the little tome, it was difficult to make an objective assessment of its merits.

A decade later, when motherhood allowed me the luxury of listening to afternoon Woman’s Hour on Radio 4, I was spurred on to make a pilgrimage into its pages by the regular contributions Helen Hanff made to that programme concerning her life in New York. By then I had lived away from London for some years and its attraction had palled. I still found it an enticing read but, maybe because of my hormones or the passing of the young, single, free and easy stage of my life, it left me with an overwhelming sadness.

Twenty years later and I still find it difficult to make a dispassionate appraisal of its literary worth or appeal. Maybe this is because reading of the book holds memories intrinsic to my own experiences or maybe it is a measure of the author’s ability to draw you into her own personal experiences, - the triumphs and failures, excitement and disappointment, joys and sadness - by means of her candid and impromptu style.

I cannot but recommend it especially to the over fifties who are bound to enjoy it if only because it is provides quite a comfortable vehicle for reminiscences of the times it describes. But I hope that it will also have some appeal to younger readers as a piece of living history and a gentle love story – not the love story of Frank and Helene, as some commentators have suggested, but the love story of one woman for the England she created in her imagination through her reading of those antiquarian books.

~~~EPILOGUE~~~

Prior to the publication of “ 84 Charing Cross Road”, Helen Hanff had been writing plays that never got produced, while eking out a precarious existence reading scripts for Paramount Pictures, writing articles for encyclopaedias, television scripts, and children's history books. After publication, she continued writing into the 1990s. Her books included The Apple of My Eye (1978), a quirky look at New York, and Q's Legacy (1985) - about the work of Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch, whose essays found in a library first ignited her passionate love of English literature and “ A Letter From New York” which consisted of reprints of the talks she gave to “BBC Woman’s Hour” between 1978 and 1985.

However she never again achieved the success which was hers following the publication of “ 84 Charing Cross Road”. She died of pneumonia in 1997. The apartment building at 305 E. 72nd Street, where she lived for the last forty years of her life, has been named "Charing Cross House" in her honour. A bronze plaque next to the front door commemorates her residence and authorship of the book.

The book went on to be adapted for radio, television, stage and, finally, the 1987 film in which Anne Bancroft and Anthony Hopkins skilfully and respectfully portray the characters of Helene and Frank.

I can find no record of what now occupies the site of Marks and Co but a brass plaque outside simply states:-
“84 Charing Cross Road
The booksellers Marks and Co
Were on this site which became world renowned
Through the book by Helene Hanff”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~
Many different versions of “ 84 Charing Cross Road” are listed on Amazon. The most recent English paperback version appears by that published by Virago in 2002 ( ISBN978-1860498503 ). The recommended retail price is £7.99 but it is presently listed at £5.99.

Summary: It will have you in tears one way or the other!