FREE! Click here to Join FunTrivia. Thousands of games, quizzes, and lots more!

'84, Charing Cross Road' Trivia Quiz

The late Helene Hanff burst on the literary scene with this collection of letters she wrote for two decades to a used book store. Now it's a minor classic.

A multiple-choice quiz by tjoebigham. Estimated time: 5 mins.

Author
tjoebigham

Time
5 mins

Type
Multiple Choice

Quiz #
58,991

Updated
Dec 03 21

# Qns
20

Difficulty
Tough

Avg Score
12 / 20

Plays
615

Awards
Top 20% Quiz

One at a Time - Single Page - Timed Game

Question 1 of 20

1. What was the store? Hint

Marks and Co.

Powell's

Waldenbooks

Barnes and Noble

NEXT>

Question 2 of 20

2. Where was the store located? Hint

London, England

Sydney, Australia

Paris, France

Dublin, Ireland

NEXT>

Question 3 of 20

3. Who was Helene's main correspondent? Hint

George Orwell

Cecily Farr

Frank Doel

Winston Churchill

NEXT>

Question 4 of 20

4. What authors did Helene first receive? Hint

Keats and Shelley

Donne and Marvell

Shakespeare and Marlowe

Hazlitt and Stevenson

NEXT>

Question 5 of 20

5. True or False: Helene once ordered a Bible.

Answer: (One Word)

NEXT>

Question 6 of 20

6. What did Helene send over to the booksellers? Hint

linen

tea

coal

food

NEXT>

Question 7 of 20

7. For what dish did Helene get a receipe? Hint

Yorkshire Pudding

Lobster Newburg

Veal Picatta

Salisbury Steak

NEXT>

Question 8 of 20

8. Whose diary did Helene order? Hint

Anne Frank

Thomas Mann

Henry David Thoreau

Samuel Pepys

NEXT>

Question 9 of 20

9. What TV mystery show did Helene write scripts for? Hint

Sherlock Holmes

Dragnet

Richard Diamond

Ellery Queen

NEXT>

Question 10 of 20

10. What Christmas gift did Helene get from the shop? Hint

A tablecloth

hosiery

A dreidel

A scarf

NEXT>

Question 11 of 20

11. Who was the English professor who inspired Helene's love of literature? Hint

William Strunck,Jr.

Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch

William Lyon Phelps

Noah Chomsky

NEXT>

Question 12 of 20

12. Who was the author of a fishing treatise that Helene ordered? Hint

Izaak Walton

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Robert Hughes

Zane Grey

NEXT>

Question 13 of 20

13. Who was the novelist who ended Helene's bias against fiction? Hint

Daphne DuMaurier

Jane Austen

L.P. Hartley

Henry Green

NEXT>

Question 14 of 20

14. What author did Helene NOT order? Hint

John Donne

Charles Lamb

Laurence Sterne

W. Somerset Maugham

NEXT>

Question 15 of 20

15. True or false: Helene once ordered musical scores.

Answer: (One Word)

NEXT>

Question 16 of 20

16. What happened to Helene in 1956? Hint

her dog died

her apartment caught fire

she was evicted

she caught the flu

NEXT>

Question 17 of 20

17. What was the main reason Helene couldn't visit the shop? Hint

dental bills

fear of flying

bankruptcy

emergency surgery

NEXT>

Question 18 of 20

18. Did Helene ever order paperbacks?

Answer: (One Word (yes or no))

NEXT>

Question 19 of 20

19. What happened in 1968? Hint

Frank Doel died

her books burned in a fire

the shop burned down

she visited England

NEXT>

Question 20 of 20

20. Did Helene ever visit the shop?

Answer: (One Word (yes or no))

(Optional) Create a Free FunTrivia ID to save the points you are about to earn:

Select a User ID:

Choose a Password:

Your Email:

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. What was the store?

Answer: Marks and Co.

'Marks and Co.', by the way, did not stand for 'and company', but for 'Marks and Cohen', the partners who owned the store.

2. Where was the store located?

Answer: London, England

The title of the book referred to the London street where the shop was.

3. Who was Helene's main correspondent?

Answer: Frank Doel

For two decades she and Doel wrote letters to each other.

4. What authors did Helene first receive?

Answer: Hazlitt and Stevenson

They were the 'Selected Essays' of essayist William Hazlitt and 'Virginibus Puerisque' by Stevenson.

5. True or False: Helene once ordered a Bible.

Answer: true

Though Jewish, she expressed interest in having an old Vulgate Bible.

6. What did Helene send over to the booksellers?

Answer: food

For some time after World War Two Britain was still on food rationing, so Helene's shipping of eggs, meat and other foodstuffs was very welcome.

7. For what dish did Helene get a receipe?

Answer: Yorkshire Pudding

The 'pudding' is really a light, hollow pastry.

8. Whose diary did Helene order?

Answer: Samuel Pepys

Pepys' diary is a window into the world of seventeenth century England.

9. What TV mystery show did Helene write scripts for?

Answer: Ellery Queen

Before the 70's version with Jim Hutton in the title role, there was the 50's version.

10. What Christmas gift did Helene get from the shop?

Answer: A tablecloth

It was a hand-embroidered linen tablecloth made by a next-door neighbor of the shop.

11. Who was the English professor who inspired Helene's love of literature?

Answer: Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch

Best known as 'Q', Quiller-Couch wrote volumes on literature that Helene read in the Depression when she couldn't attend college.

12. Who was the author of a fishing treatise that Helene ordered?

Answer: Izaak Walton

It was the classic 'The Compleat Angler'. She also got Walton's 'Lives', biographies on many of Walton's contemporaries.

13. Who was the novelist who ended Helene's bias against fiction?

Answer: Jane Austen

She went gaga over 'Pride and Prejudice'.

14. What author did Helene NOT order?

Answer: W. Somerset Maugham

She was interested only in the older English authors.

15. True or false: Helene once ordered musical scores.

Answer: true

Handel's 'Messiah' and Bach's 'Saint Matthew Passion'.

16. What happened to Helene in 1956?

Answer: she was evicted

She was evicted from her old apartment.

17. What was the main reason Helene couldn't visit the shop?

Answer: dental bills

The cost of dental surgery was a big block to her visiting Marks and Co.

18. Did Helene ever order paperbacks?

Answer: no

She was a diehard lover of old hardcover books.

19. What happened in 1968?

Answer: Frank Doel died

The death of her longtime correspondent on December 22, 1968 was a great blow to her.

20. Did Helene ever visit the shop?

Answer: yes

Thanks to the sales of her book, Helene finally visited England and though the shop had closed for good, she finally saw the bookshop that was a part of her life all those years.

Source: Author tjoebigham

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor agony before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.