剧情：海伦是个热爱阅读旧书的纽约作家，在物质贫乏的年代里，她在阅读中找到心灵寄托。然而，纽约的书店却始终无法满足她这个需求。因此，一间伦敦旧书店的广告很快就吸引了她，从此她和书店主管法兰克以及所有员工，便透过书信展开数十年的订书、买书历程，以及心灵与情感的交流……
《查令十字街84号》记录了上世纪中叶纽约女作家海莲和伦敦一家旧书店书商弗兰克之间的书缘。双方通信达20年之久，却未曾谋面，至弗兰克去世也无缘相见。之后，海莲把往来的信件汇集成册，以书店的地址作为书名出版。书出版后深受读者喜爱，被译成多种文字流传，被称为“爱书人的《圣经》”。海莲也最终去到伦敦。但那时人去“店”空，她只能望门兴叹：“我来了，弗兰克，我终于来了。”
此书多次被改编成舞台剧、电视剧和电影。1987年的同名电影获得有英国“奥斯卡”之称的英国电影学院奖多项提名。1998年的热门电影《电子情书》也取材于改编自该书的电视剧。
时至今日，书店旧址依然钉着一个铜牌，写有“查令十字街84号，马克斯与科恩书店旧址，因海莲·汉芙的书而闻名天下”，仿佛慰藉海莲那句感动万千书迷的话：If you happen to pass by 84, Charing Cross Road, kiss it for me? I owe it so much.
9th April, 1951
Dear Miss Hanff,
I expect you are getting a bit worried that we have not written to thank
you for your parcels and you are probably thinking that we are an 1)ungrateful lot. The truth is that I have been chasing round the country in and out of various 2)stately homes of England trying to buy a few books to fill up our sadly
3)depleted stock. My wife was starting to call me the 4)lodger who just went home for bed and breakfast, but of course when
I arrived home with a nice piece of MEAT, to say nothing of dried eggs and ham,
then she thought I was a fine fellow and all was forgiven. It is a long time since we saw so much meat all in one piece.
We should like to express our appreciation in some way or other, so we are sending by Book
Post today a little book which I hope you will like. I remember you asked me for a volume of 5)Elizabethan love poems some time ago—well, this is the nearest I can get to it.
Yours faithfully,
Frank Doel
For MARKS & CO.
April 16, 1951
To All at 84, Charing Cross Road:
Thank you for the beautiful book. I’ve never owned a book before with pages edged all round in gold. Would you believe it arrived on my birthday?
I wish you hadn’t been so over-6)courteous about putting the 7)inscription on a card instead of on the
8)flyleaf. It’s the bookseller coming out in you all, you were afraid you’d decrease its value. You would have increased it for the present owner. (And possibly for the future owner.
I love inscriptions on flyleaves and notes in 9)margins, I like the 10)comradely sense of turning pages someone else turned, and reading passages someone long gone
has called my attention to.)
And why didn’t you sign your names? I expect Frank wouldn’t let you, he probably doesn’t want me writing love letters to anybody but him.
I send you greetings from America—faithless friend that she is, pouring millions into rebuilding Japan and Germany while letting
England starve. Some day, God willing, I’ll get over there and apologize personally for my country’s sins (and by the time I come home my country will certainly have to apologize for mine).
Thank you again for the beautiful book, I shall try very hard not to get 11)gin and ashes all over it, it’s really much too fine for the likes of me.
Yours,
Helene Hanff
September 10, 1951
Dearheart—
It is the loveliest old shop straight out of Dickens, you would go absolutely out of your mind over it.
There are stalls outside and I stopped and leafed through a few things just to establish myself as a
12)browser before wandering in. It’s dim inside, you smell the shop before you see it, it’s a lovely smell, I can’t 13)articulate it easily, but it combines must and dust and age, and walls of wood and floors of wood.
Toward the back of the shop at the left there’s a desk with a work-lamp on it, a man was sitting there, he was about fifty with a 14)Hogarth nose, he looked up and said “Good afternoon?” in a North Country accent
and I said I just wanted to browse and he said please do.
The shelves go on forever. They go up to the ceiling and they’re very old and kind of grey, like old oak that has absorbed so much dust
over the years they no longer are their true color. There’s a print section, or rather a long print table, with 15)Cruikshank and Rackham and Spy and all those old wonderful English 16)caricaturists and 17)illustrators that I’m not smart enough to know a lot about, and there are some lovely old, old illustrated magazines.
I stayed about half an hour hoping your Frank or one of the girls would turn up, but it was one-ish when I went in, I gather they were all out to lunch and I couldn’t stay any longer…
Love,
Maxine
April 11, 1969
Dear Katherine—
I take time out from housecleaning my bookshelves and sitting on the rug
surrounded by books in every direction to 18)scrawl you a 19)Bon Voyage. I hope you and Brian have a ball in London. He said to me on the phone:
“Would you go with us if you had the fare?” and I nearly wept.
But I don’t know, maybe it’s just as well I never got there. I dreamed about it for so many years.
I used to go to English movies just to look at the streets.
I remember years ago a guy I knew told me that people going to England find exactly what they go looking for.
I said I’d go looking for the England of English literature, and he nodded and said: “ It’s there.”
Maybe it is, and maybe it isn’t. Looking around the rug one thing’s for sure: it’s there.
The blessed man who sold me all my books died a few months ago. And Mr. Marks who owned the shop is
dead. But Marks & Co.[注] is still there. If you happen to pass by 84, Charing Cross Road, kiss it for me? I owe it so much.
Helene
1951年4月9日
亲爱的汉芙小姐：
我猜您大概已经开始有点担心了，我们竟然这么久都没写信谢谢您寄来的包裹，您心里头一定正在嘀咕：真是一群不知好歹的家伙。事实是，我一直在乡间转悠，到处拜访英格兰的私人宅第，搜寻待售的藏书，努力补充店里捉襟见肘的库存。我太太已经开始把我唤成房客了——我总是只回家睡觉，一吃完早餐又不见人影。不过，当然，当我带着(您送的)一大片肉——鸡蛋粉、火腿就更不用说了——回到家里，她就会觉得我人还是不错的，所有的不是也就随之烟消云散。我们已经太久没能见到这么一大块肉了。
我们总得想点儿法子，表达我们对您的感激。于是，我们今天将通过书刊邮寄寄上一本小书，希望您会喜欢它。我记得您不久前想买一卷伊丽莎白一世时期的情诗集——噢，这是我所能找到的尽可能符合您要求的了。
您忠实的
弗兰克·德尔敬上
马克斯与科恩书店
1951年4月16日
致查令十字街84号全体同仁：
谢谢你们送我这本美丽的书。我从没拥有过这么一本三边页缘都烫上金的书。你们知道吗?我竟在生日当天收到这本书!
你们另外写了一张卡片，而不直接题签在扉页上，我真希望你们不要这样过分拘谨。这一定是你们的“书商本性”使然吧，你们担心一旦写了字在书上，将会折损它的价值。你们如果真能这么做，对我这个该书的现时拥有者而言，增添了无可估算的价值。(甚或对未来的书主也如此。我喜欢扉页上有题签、页边写满注记的旧书;我爱极了那种与心有灵犀的前人冥冥共读，时而戚戚于胸、时而被耳提面命的感觉。)
还有，为什么大家都不签上名字呢?我猜一定是弗兰克不准你们签的，他大概怕我会撇下他，一一给你们大家写情书吧!
我在美国遥寄我对你们的祝福——“美国”，好一个“坚定的盟邦”!她一掷千金帮助重建日本、德国，却眼睁睁看着英国同胞饱受饥馑!苍天为证，总有一天我要亲自去英国，当面代她向你们道歉。(等我回国后，我会叫她加倍向你们赔罪!)
再次感谢你们送我这本美丽的书，我一定会格外小心，免得让它溅到酒滴、沾了烟灰。这份礼物对我这种人来说实在太厚
重了。
你们的
海莲·汉芙上
1951年9月10日
甜心儿：
这是一间活脱脱从狄更斯书里头蹦出来的可爱老铺子，如果让你见到了，不爱死了才怪。
店门口陈列了几架书，开门进去前，我先站在外头假装随意翻阅几本书，好让自己看起来像是若无其事地逛书店。一走进店内，便暗了下来，最先扑鼻而来的是书店奇妙的气息。我实在不知道该怎么形容：那是一种混杂着霉味儿、积尘和久远历史的气息，加上墙壁、地板散发的木头香。书店最里面的左手边有张书桌，上面有一盏工作灯，旁边坐着一位年约五十、长着一只贺加斯式鼻子的男士。他抬起头来，操着北方口音对我说：“日安。”我回答说我只是想随意逛逛，而他则有礼地说：“请。”
极目所见全是书架——这些书架高耸直抵到天花板，样式古旧，泛着灰色，像是经过漫长岁月洗礼的老橡木，已经不再呈现出原来的真实颜色了。接着是印刷区，或者应该说是一张长的印刷台。上头有克鲁克香克、拉克姆、斯派和许许多多我叫不出名字的英国老漫画家、插画家的作品;另外还有一些漂亮的很旧、很旧的画刊。
我在店内待了约莫半个钟头光景，期待着你的弗兰克或是哪个女孩儿翩翩现身。不过，因为我到达时已是一点钟左右，我猜他们全都外出用餐去了，而我又不能待太久。……
爱你的
玛克辛(译者注：海莲在伦敦的朋友)
1969年4月11日
亲爱的凯瑟琳：
我从整理书架中抽出时间，坐在四周都摆满书籍的地毯上给你写送别信。我希望你和布莱恩在伦敦过得快乐。布莱恩在电话中对我说：“如果你手头宽裕，有足够路费，会和我们一道去吗?”我一听，眼泪差点要夺眶而出。
但是我不知道，或许我从不踏足那片土地也不错。我巴望着去那里那么多年了。我曾经只是为了瞧伦敦的街景而看了大量的英国电影。记得多年前我认识的一个朋友对我说，那些去英国的人总能在那儿找到他们最想要的东西。我说，我要去找寻英国文学，他点点头，告诉我：“就是那儿了。”
或许在那儿，或许不在。看看地毯四周(散乱的书籍)，有一样东西我可以肯定：就是那儿了。
卖这些好书给我的那个好心人已在数月前去世了，书店老板马克斯先生也已不在人间。但是，马克斯与科恩书店还在那儿。你们若恰好路经查令十字街84号，代我献上一吻吧?我亏欠它良多。
海莲