A Canary for One
"A Canary for One"is a short story byErnest Hemingway.It was first published inScribner's MagazineApril 1927.[1][2][3]It was republished inMen Without Women(1927),The Fifth Column and the First Forty-Nine Stories(1961) andThe Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway(1987).
Plot
[edit]Three Americans, a married couple and a middle-aged woman, are traveling on a train from theFrench rivierathroughMarseillesandAvignonovernight toParis.The middle-aged woman seems to be partly deaf and anxious about the fast-moving train crashing. She is delighted by acanaryshe bought inPalermoinSicily.The train passes a house fire and wrecked vehicles. Halfway through the story, the narrator reveals himself to be the husband, listening in on the woman’s conversation with his wife. After finding out that the couple are American, the woman mentions repeatedly that Americans make the only good husbands. She bought the canary for herstill-heartbrokendaughter, whom she prevented from marrying a Swiss man inVeveytwo years ago. As they exit the train, it is revealed that the American couple will live separately in Paris.
Development
[edit]Hemingway began writing the first drafts of "A Canary for One" in September 1926.[1]
References
[edit]- ^abJustice, Hilary K."Courting Exposure: The Composition of Hemingway's" A Canary for One "".Retrieved2020-07-16.
- ^Hemingway, Ernest.A Canary for One.OCLC613269374.
- ^Scott Donaldson."Preparing for the End: Hemingway's Revisions of" A Canary for One "".Johns Hopkins University Press.Retrieved2020-07-16.
External links
[edit]
The full text ofA Canary for Oneat Wikisource- Full text of "A Canary for One" at HathiTrust Digital Library
