84 Charing Cross Street was adapted into a poster for the film
Press: 84 Charing Cross Street, which I enthusiastically promoted at a book club a few years ago and left an introductory text, will be published in four parts today to entertain readers who love this book as much as I do.
"84 Charing Cross Street", a thin little book (about 30,000 words), a collection of correspondence on the theme of books, has become a deeply loved book by people around the world, known as "the Bible of readers" and "the code between global book lovers". And The famous Taiwanese prose writer Tang Nuo also said, "There is a street, it is bigger than the whole world, much bigger." The street that Donno is talking about is 84 Charing Cross Street.
"The Bible of The Reader"! "The code word between global book lovers"! What kind of book is it that enjoys such a reputation among readers around the world?
A blogger named "I Book My Heart" said, "If I write a blog, then it must be related to books; if I start writing my collection of books, then the first book must be it: 84 Charing Cross Street." Oh, how do I record this book? I have even been reluctant to recommend this book to others, it is like a daughter I love the most, I refuse to show it easily to people; it is even more like a most tender and secret love, how can it be easily handed over to others to judge. Any little bit of confusion about it—let alone a misunderstanding—is the most intolerable thing for me. Decades ago, thousands of miles away, in a lifetime that would never be possible to meet, there was a person, or several people, who actually acted out your inner feelings - not your story, but your feelings. You understand every word, every sentence, every paragraph, every page for no reason. ”
Why you can understand that every character written by others can breathe and rejoice with others, that is because human hearts are connected; why a small street is larger than the whole world, and it is because the story that stretches out of this street warms the whole of mankind.
Here, let us walk into the holy land of readers and read the Bible of readers: 84 Charing Cross Street (hereinafter referred to as "Cha").
First, "Cha" is a book about what it is
The author, Helene Hanff, was born in Philadelphia on April 15, 1916, and died of pneumonia in New York on April 9, 1997, never married. She spent most of her years in Manhattan, New York, writing for a living but living in near-predicament. She is infinitely kind and bookish. But a copy of 84 Charing Cross Street made her famous.
Helene Humphre of the United States is writing a letter of purchase to Britain on the other side of the ocean
In October 1949, in New York, in an unheated rental apartment in Manhattan, Helene, a 33-year-old poor writer, stumbled upon an advertisement for a london used bookstore that said it was a bookstore that "specializes in out-of-print books." She took the liberty of sending her first tentative letter to the bookstore, and for fear of the high price of old out-of-print books, she did not forget to state that "I am just a poor writer with an 'ancient' appetite for books," and attached a list of the books she most wanted to read and could not find at the moment. "If your store has a book list that is listed and each book is not more than five dollars, can you treat this letter as a purchase order and send me the book?" The letter was sent on October 5, 1949. Twenty-nine days later, on November 3, Helene received her first book and letter from the other side of the Atlantic, and the "beauty" of the book made Helene's heart blossom, and she replied, "I didn't know that a book could be so charming, just touching it will teach people to feel comfortable." And so fascinating books are surprisingly inexpensively inexpensive.
In this way, Helen and the bookstore had a wonderful connection and a wonderful story because of the book. The exchange of books and letters between foreign countries lasted for twenty years. And the address of the bookstore is 84 Charing Cross Street, London.
In the past twenty years, because of the exchange of books and letters, poetic and rich feelings have been derived, and the colleagues of the bookstore have invited Helen to visit many times, and Helen has also arranged trips to visit "her bookstore" and her old friend Frank and her colleagues with complicated feelings, but it is difficult to make the trip due to financial constraints. Later, when bad news broke out, the "chief writer" of the letter with whom she had been communicating, Mr. Frank Del, died suddenly of illness on December 22, 1968, and Helen learned of this information in January 1969. This was an unspeakable blow to Helene, and it also left an irreparable flaw in her life—her promise of a trip to London became extremely sad whether it was fulfilled or not. From then on, for Helene, the bookstore that remained in London's Central and Western Districts could not be the same again. In order to commemorate this extraordinary affection, Helen decided to use an eternal form to restore those indelible memories and present a transatlantic warmth to mankind, and she published her correspondence with Frank and others, a collection of letters published in 1970 under the name "84 Charing Cross Street", from which the bookstore "will not disappear because of the sudden suspension of this man's adventure". On the contrary, with the advent of this book, it has been preserved in the world for generations, and has shone brightly, becoming a sacred place cherished and yearned for in the hearts of readers.
As soon as the book was published, it sold well for more than ten consecutive years and was reprinted twenty-four times. In 1975, the BBC decided to bring 84 Charing Cross Street to the screen; six years later, the prestigious British theatre scene decided to adapt it into a stage play, which lasted for three months; and six years later, the book was adapted into a film, starring the famous actors Anne Bancroft and Anthony Hopkins, and the film introduction said, "This film aims to reflect two kinds of love, one is Hanf's passionate love for books, and the other is her spiritual love for Del".
One scene in the film is: Helene Hanf, she stepped out of a black taxi, a slender woman, wandering eyes over the window of the house with books, No. 68, No. 72, No. 76, No. 78, No. 82, looking foraging, and finally stopped, but the No. 84 in front of her was empty. The cobwebbed bookshelves inside the gray glass windows were crooked from side to side, and the floor was littered with scrap paper, full of dust; the door was pushed in, and there was no unexpected surprise greeting, and the empty staircase led to other equally abandoned rooms. The lone woman wanted to open her mouth to tell her master that she had arrived, and she kept her promise, but there was no response in the empty house, only a cold wind struck, and tears flowed quietly down her cheeks. Is it a book affair, or a love affair, that makes this new York solitary woman so sad for the broken bookstore in London's small streets? Holding the thin little book in his hand, which wish was it to return 84 Cross Street? This scene is lamentable.
In 2016, coinciding with the centenary of the birth of Helian Hanfu, Chinese World launched the hardcover collector's edition of the book for the first time in April of that year, and republished it in May, which is a tribute to the author of the book "Cha", and has also allowed countless Chinese readers to get a belated touch and joy.
2. Where is the reputation of "84 Charing Cross Street"
Human trust that is more precious than gold.
Following a Saturday Literary Review advertisement for "exclusive out-of-print books," Helen hesitantly sent a tentative letter and book list to London, stating that "if each book is not more than five dollars ... can you just treat this letter as a purchase order and send me the book?" ”
It was such a unilateral offer with no credibility guarantees and no prepayment, and it was far away from home, and the other party, the "Max and Cohen Bookstore" at 84 Charing Cross Street, quickly sent the book that Helen wanted, and the book was of excellent quality and low price. Mr. "FPD" of the bookstore (later named Frank Del) also personally replied to Miss Helen in detail and humbly:
Dear Lady,
I would like to reply to your letter from 5 June. We are proud to relieve you of two-thirds of your troubles. The three types of Hazrit essays you listed are included in the Harzrit Selected Essays of this exemplary publishing house; Stevenson's work can be found in To Girls and Boys. We have selected two books of good quality for you to send, and we believe that they will be delivered to you soon, hoping that you will be satisfied. Please check the invoice attached to the book.
As for the essay you mentioned, Leigh Hunter is not easy to see at the moment, but we will check to see if we can find a well-collected and well-bound version, which will be sent to you later. And the Latin Bible you describe, we currently have no books in our store, only the recently published Latin and Greek New Testament editions of the hardcover regular editions, I wonder if you are interested?
Max and Cohen Bookstore FPD salute
As soon as Helen received the book, she wrote down her indescribable wonderful feelings in her reply: stroking her beloved distant book and feeling that putting it in the shelf of the fruit box was "too wronged", she "held it, afraid of defacing its delicate leather cover and beige thick inner page..." She indulged in her love book: "I didn't know that a book could be so charming, just touching it would teach people to feel comfortable."
She called the girl upstairs, Kate, and her British boyfriend Brian to help her convert the price of the books on the bill into a five-dollar triangle, and she sent six dollars, explaining, "Please use the extra seven corners to pay for the New Testament, and I will buy both of them." And at the end of the letter, he exhorted, "Can you do it?" Next time, the price of the book will be converted into US dollars. I'm a mess of adding or subtracting dollars, and it's really Amitabha Buddha to convert pounds sterling into dollars! ”
The bookstore replied that Sheff "might as well pay by postal transfer, which would be convenient for both parties and much safer than putting the money in the envelope." At the same time, he sent the two New Testament books and bills that Hanf wanted, and the books were priced in pounds sterling and dollars according to Hanf's request.
And When Hanfu received the New Testament, she was furious. She wrote a long letter without even looking up to vent her seemingly "inexhaustible anger":
What kind of New Testament is this!
Kindly convey to me to the Anglican princes, who have wasted the most beautiful words ever written. Which guy came up with the idea of turning the Plain Latin Bible into this virtue? They were about to burn him alive, not believing to remember what I said.
Hanf also pulled out her seven aunts and eight aunts and said what they would do if they saw the book. Then she said to herself:
Ahem, him! I still have a Bible borrowed from my Latin teacher, so I won't return it to him for the time being, and I'll wait until you find one to sell to me.
Send four dollars to pay the three dollars I owe you, and you will take the extra dime two to buy a cup of coffee! ......
Do you have Lando's Hypothetical Dialogues? I think there should be more than one book in the whole set, I want to read the "Greek Dialogue", if there is a dialogue between Aesop and Lotto Peter, it is the one that is correct.
Although he was not satisfied with the book, he paid for the book, and he also gave them an extra dime to buy coffee to drink, and also to buy "Imaginary Dialogues".
In the face of Miss Hanf's fierce anger, max Cohen's bookstore is still as calm as water and warm as spring. They replied to "Dear Miss Hanf" that the book payment had been received, and the extra dime and half would be credited to her exclusive account in our store (no coffee), the bookstore that Hanf wanted happened to have it and sent it on the same day (with a bill), and most importantly, at the end of the letter, they did not forget to apologize and promised to find a new authentic Popular Latin Bible for Hanf and send it.
In addition to mailing The books Hanf asked for, the bookstore also recommended books that Hanf wanted to her that she might like based on her interests. For example, Frank asked Hanf if he was interested in Newman's "The University Theory" (it seems that Hanf had inadvertently consulted this book), which cost $6. This book is the first edition, while Hanfu Suxi is a second-hand book. Frank said to keep it for Humph first, so that no one else would get there first. The Oxford Selected Poems is also available, and I don't know if Hanf has bought it in another bookstore.
When Hanf replied, he said the following playful words in parentheses above the letterhead:
(He had the first edition of "College Theory, which sold for only six dollars," and even asked me if I wanted to buy it!) I really don't know whether to say that he is honest or humble? )
Dear Frank,
yes! I'm going to! I can't stand myself anymore, I didn't pay much attention to the first edition, but the first edition of "That Book"...!
Whoops – I can't wait to see it.
Please also send the Oxford Selected Poems. Next time, don't wonder if I've bought a book from someone else. Since I can buy you clean and beautiful books without leaving my desk, why should I run to Seventeenth Avenue to buy dirty and ugly ones? From where I sat, London was so close.
Exotic London is even closer than Seventeenth Avenue in New York!
Humphre asked the bookstore for hardcover versions of the choral scores of Bach's Passion for Matthew and Handel's Messiah. She said, "Although I can buy it fifty streets away against the cold wind, I will ask you first if I am 'nearest'." The bookstore in her heart is really close at hand.
Also, When Hanf received the Fisherman's Word, she replied that the woodcuts in it were fantastic, and the illustrations alone were worth ten times the price of the book. We live in a strange world—such a beautiful book that we can keep for the rest of our lives, and we can have it at the cost of watching a movie. alas! If you were to price each book according to its actual value, I would certainly not be able to afford one.
Hanfu thinks that the books are too cheap and thinks that the bookstore has done a loss-making business.
Frank sent Hanf a well-bound memoirs of the Duke of St. Simon, which cost eighteen dollars and seventy-five cents. Frank instructed Hanf: Don't hang on to the book, your payment history in our store has always been good.
There is no contract. No arrears. Cheap and fine. cash on delivery. Buying and selling across borders. Right as nails. From the warm exchange of buying books and selling books, a period of human affection is deduced.
(To be continued)