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The lost copy of The Girl from Petrovka
- Type
- Story
- By
- Anthony Hopkins (retelling)
- Source
- Widely reported anecdote
- Published
- 1974
While searching London for a copy of the novel he was about to film, Anthony Hopkins found an abandoned copy on a station bench — and later learned it was the author's own annotated copy, which had been stolen.
The story goes like this: Anthony Hopkins, preparing to film The Girl from Petrovka, searched London bookshops for a copy of George Feifer's novel and could not find one. Waiting for a train, he spotted an abandoned paperback on a bench — a copy of the very book, covered in handwritten notes. He later met Feifer and learned the author's own annotated copy had been stolen.
It is one of the most widely repeated coincidence stories of the modern era, and it is a perfect specimen of the genre. The details are told by the people involved, are hard to verify, and have grown in the retelling. The believer finds the odds unimaginable; the skeptic finds the telltale shape of an anecdote.
The meaning
Finding the exact lost, annotated copy of the very book you are about to film is the kind of coincidence that stops people cold.
The skeptic
The story is told by the people involved, is hard to verify, and its details have grown in the retelling — the classic shape of a coincidence anecdote.
About the source
A famous coincidence involving Anthony Hopkins and the novel The Girl from Petrovka by George Feifer.
Key takeaways
- Hopkins found an abandoned copy of the novel he needed for a film.
- It turned out to be the author's own annotated, stolen copy.
- A widely reported anecdote whose details are impossible to verify.