The Pursuit of the Piano

The Pursuit of the Piano by William Dean Howells

A successful Boston lawyer, freshly liberated from a busy court term, embarks on a summer vacation marked by an unexpected fixation. While enjoying breakfast at a quiet restaurant, he notices a truck carrying an upright piano bearing an inscription for a young Miss Desmond of Lower Merritt—a birthday present, it appears. The sight of the piano awakens in him a romantic reverie: he imagines the girl as the sweet, genteel daughter he once knew from childhood, and his thoughts drift to the possibility of fate intervening in both the journey of the instrument and his own life. Over the course of his vacation—marked by stops in towns such as Burymouth, Kent Harbor, and Lower Merritt—the lawyer becomes increasingly preoccupied with the piano’s long, meandering transit and the mysterious identity of its intended recipient. His attention is piqued by a series of delays, misrouted shipments, and bureaucratic mishaps that transform the physical journey of the piano into a metaphor for convoluted romance. Incidents include the intervention of an impulsive express agent, Mrs. Maze, who takes charge of telegraphing information about the delayed instrument, and humorous exchanges with railway workers who treat the piano’s misadventures with a blend of dry indifference and rustic wit. As he continues his travels, he finds himself swept into the local social life of New England’s genteel communities. At a tea and luncheon gathering among well-bred, bibliophilic ladies, his tale of the wandering piano captures the group’s imagination, and they encourage him to pursue the matter as a matter of both duty and romance. In the ensuing days, he navigates crowded trains and freight depots, obsessively checking on the piano’s progress even as his own plans shift from Kent Harbor to a brief sojourn at Craybrooks. Upon arriving in Lower Merritt, he discovers a transformed inn that evokes both modern conveniences and the faded charm of an earlier era. The community is abuzz with the arrival of the piano. During a local hop, he observes the instrument’s central role in a celebration, and his attention is divided between two young women. One is the presumed recipient—a woman whose reserved manner and history with the piano hint at a troubled past—and the other, a bright, talented violinist whose warm presence challenges his earlier idealization. Their interactions, set against the backdrop of the inn’s modest yet spirited cultural life, force him to confront the gap between his romantic fantasies and the reality of human character. Throughout the narrative, the delayed piano becomes emblematic of the unpredictable nature of both love and life. The lawyer’s initial determination to set affairs in order—reflecting his legal training and disdain for disorder—is repeatedly undermined by chance events and the capricious behavior of those around him. His pursuit transforms from a whimsical quest driven by romantic nostalgia into a more somber meditation on the limits of control in the face of fate. The convoluted journey of the piano, mishandled at multiple junctions and subject to the indifference (and occasional impulsiveness) of railway agents, mirrors his own uncertain progress in matters of the heart. By the end of his stay, faced with the resolution of the piano’s tumultuous journey and the shifting affections among the local young women, the lawyer is compelled to reassess his priorities. The object of his fixation, originally a symbol of a perfect, idealized love, has become entangled with the messy realities of human experience—miscommunications, unfulfilled expectations, and the unpredictability of romance. Accepting that both his professional order and his personal desires cannot be forced to follow a predetermined course, he opts to let the matter rest. His journey concludes not with the satisfaction of conquering either his legal or romantic pursuits, but with the sober recognition that chance and imperfection form the texture of real life.

By William Dean Howells · First published 1901 · Genre: Realist Fiction, Literary Fiction, Cultural Fiction · 9 chapters · 16,598 words

First lines

Hamilton Gaites sat breakfasting by the window of a restaurant looking out on Park Square, in Boston, at a table which he had chosen after rejecting one on the Boylston Street side of the place because it was too noisy, and another in the little open space, among evergreens in tubs, between the front and rear, because it was too chilly. The wind was east, but at his Park Square window it tempered the summer morning air without being a draught; and he poured out his coffee with a content in his circumstance and provision which he was apt to feel when he had taken all the possible pains, even though the result was not perfect. But now, he had real French bread, as good as he could have got in New York, and the coffee was clear and bright. A growth of crisp green watercress embowered a juicy steak, and in its shade, as it were, lay two long slices of bacon, not stupidly broiled to a crisp, but delicately pink, and exemplarily lean. Gaites had already had a cantaloupe, whose spicy fragrance lingered in the air and mingled with the robuster odors of the coffee, the steak, and the bacon.

Genres

Tags

realism · music · piano · cultural commentary · American literature · social issues · romantic themes · artistic pursuit · character study · historical setting · literary style · musical narrative

What this Textopian page supports

The Pursuit of the Piano is listed on Textopian as a novella by William Dean Howells, dated 1901 CE.

This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.

Good citation fit

Contents

More by William Dean Howells