MovieChat Forums > The Reader (2009) Discussion > What is the book that has Hannah crying?

What is the book that has Hannah crying?

posted 10 years ago by tomtac
8 replies | jump to latest

At one point Michael is reading and Hannah has her head in his lap, crying her eyes out, almost hysterical:

He pressed her hand to his lips. She was dead. She was beyond all help -- Or need of it.

Can anyone identify this?

I tried the various texts listed in the credits ("Acknowledgements", mostly. They didn't list them here on IMDB the way music is listed in the credits.) On each text that I could find, I searched for the words and especially looked at or near the book's conclusion.

So I did not find the quote in:

o A Farewell to Arms (my first guess)

o The Lady with the Little Dog by Checkov

o The World of Tomorrow by Stephan Zweig
(Actually that is "The World of Yesterday by Stephan Zweig", but I checked them both, I think.)

o Emile Verhaeren by Stephan Zweig

o Anatole

o Love and Intrigue (or Intrigue and Love)

o Lady Chatterly's Lover by D. H. Lawrence

o The Old Curiousity Shop by Charles Dickens

o David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

o War and Peace

o T.S. Eliot Four Quartets, East Coker

I could not find the text of Doctor Zhivago. I suppose I may go to a bookstore or library and check a copy there.

I haven't checked "The Old Man in the Sea", but I did read that long ago and don't remember anyone dying.

So I have also done a search on Google just for the text of the quote.

Came up dry. Anyone else give it a try? If you can't find it either, that would be helpful to know.

Thanks in advance.

[–] Lyndhen 10 years ago

It's not in the book the film was based on. I also did a quick google book search but it doesn't seem to turn anything up.

I have a suspicion that the lines are actually describing the two main characters. In my interpretation of the story the lines certainly make a great deal of sense.

[–] tomtac 10 years ago

Woah. Now that's interesting.

I returned the DVD, but maybe I will get it out again. Did Michael kiss the corpse's hand?

I read 'The Reader', too. None of the quotes are in there at all, IIRC. So, if some writer thought they were being clever, yes, they could have inserted their own prose in there.

(Also checked Dr. Zhivago and the poems by Sappho, and some more. Still not finding it.)

[–] Lyndhen 10 years ago

I didn't mean it literally though.

[–] !!!deleted!!! (61689113) 9 years ago

Knowing Winslet's level of literacy, it was probably The Wiggly Woggly Caterpillar.

[–] micirisi 9 years ago

Kinda late but that was a line from The Old Curiosity Shop by Dickens describing the death of Nell.

He killed sixteen Czechoslovakians. Guy was an interior decorator.

[–] tomtac 9 years ago

Arg! Nuts nuts nuts!

Yes, it is there. That is it. And, when one thinks of what we learn about Hannah later, it fits in perfectly that she goes nuts when hearing about a young girl dying.

So, thank you, very much!

* * * * *

But ... as I stated in the first post, I looked through "The Old Curiousity Shop". That is, I got the text and did a "find" on the key phrases in the quote.

And the reason that did not turn up the excerpt is that this movie's quote of it is "abridged". I think.

So just now I pulled the text from Project Gutenberg, just before the beginning of Chapter 72.

It was the hand she had stretched out to him with her last smile--the hand that had led him on, through all their wanderings. Ever and anon he pressed it to his lips; then hugged it to his breast again, murmuring that it was warmer now; and, as he said it, he looked, in agony, to those who stood around, as if imploring them to help her.

She was dead, and past all help, or need of it.

And that is a far cry from what I remember of the movie quote:

He pressed her hand to his lips. She was dead. She was beyond all help -- Or need of it.

I shall have to get the DVD from the library again and double check what he said.

[–] micirisi 9 years ago

You are right the excerpt is not only "abridged" but also altered which makes it all the more difficult to find its origin.

This is the complete line from the film. "He pressed her hand to his lips, she was dead. Past all help or need of it."

Below are the two paragraphs from which that line was derived.

The old man held one languid arm in his, and had the small hand tight folded to his breast, for warmth. It was the hand she had stretched out to him with her last smile--the hand that had led him on, through all their wanderings. Ever and anon he pressed it to his lips; then hugged it to his breast again, murmuring that it was warmer now; and, as he said it, he looked, in agony, to those who stood around, as if imploring them to help her.

She was dead, and past all help, or need of it. The ancient rooms she had seemed to fill with life, even while her own was waning fast--the garden she had tended--the eyes she had gladdened--the noiseless haunts of many a thoughtful hour--the paths she had trodden as it were but yesterday--could know her never more.

He killed sixteen Czechoslovakians. Guy was an interior decorator.

[–] wg-15485 9 years ago

I dont know but it was a sad scene to me