A Canary for One (Hemingway)
Short Summary
France, presumably the early 1920s. On a train journey from Palermo toward Paris, an American narrator traveled quietly alongside his wife, listening to the chatter of a middle-aged American woman who shared their compartment.
The American lady, wealthy and partially deaf, traveled with a caged canary she had bought for her daughter in Palermo. She disliked traveling by the fast overnight 'rapide' train, afraid of an accident. She explained that her daughter had fallen deeply in love with a Swiss man during a trip to Vevey two years earlier, but she had disapproved strongly because the man was a foreigner and took her daughter back to America. Believing foreigners made poor husbands, the lady continuously emphasized that only American men made proper husbands.
Approaching Paris, they passed three wrecked cars from a train accident. Seeing this, the lady reaffirmed her fear of railroad accidents. At Paris station, porters assisted them as they exited. The narrator and his wife helped the American lady with her belongings, bidding her farewell.
We followed the porter with the truck down the long cement platform beside the train. At the end was a gate and a man took the tickets. We were returning to Paris to set up separate residences.
Detailed Summary
Division into chapters is editorial.
The Train Journey and the American Lady with Her Canary
A train sped through the countryside, passing a red stone house with palm trees and tables, with the sea visible on one side. Inside a lit salon compartment, an American lady spoke about a canary she had purchased in Palermo during a brief shore visit on a Sunday morning. She mentioned paying a dollar and a half for the bird, which she claimed sang beautifully.
The compartment was very hot, with no breeze coming through the open window. The American lady pulled down the window blind, blocking the view of the sea. The train continued its journey, passing through dusty trees, oiled roads, and fields of grapes with gray-stone hills in the background. As the train entered Marseilles, it slowed down and pulled into the station.
"I bought him in Palermo," the American lady said. "We only had an hour ashore and it was Sunday morning... He really sings very beautifully."
The American Lady's Views on Marriage and Her Daughter's Love Story
During the twenty-five minute stop in Marseilles, the American lady purchased a copy of The Daily Mail and a half-bottle of Evian water. She walked along the platform but stayed near the steps of the car, fearful of missing the train as she had nearly done in Cannes. Being partially deaf, she worried about not hearing departure signals.
After leaving Marseilles, the train passed a burning farmhouse in a field where people had gathered to watch. Later, the train stopped at Avignon station, where passengers got on and off. When night fell, the porter prepared the three beds in the compartment. The American lady lay awake all night, afraid of the train's speed in the darkness. Her canary, with its cage covered by a cloth, was placed in the corridor away from drafts.
Inside the lit salon compartment the porter had pulled down the three beds... In the night the American lady lay without sleeping because the train was a rapide and went very fast and she was afraid of the speed in the night.
In the morning, as the train neared Paris, the American lady returned from the washroom looking wholesome and middle-aged. She uncovered the birdcage and hung it in the sunlight coming through the window. After returning from breakfast in the restaurant car, she found that the beds had been converted back into seats. She commented that the canary loved the sun and would soon sing, which it did after shaking its feathers.
"I've always loved birds," the American lady said. "I'm taking him home to my little girl. There--he's singing now." The canary chirped and the feathers on his throat stood out, then he dropped his bill...
The train crossed a river and passed through a carefully tended forest and several towns outside Paris. The narrator had not been listening to the American lady, who was talking to his wife. The American lady asked if the narrator's wife's husband was also American. When she confirmed they were both Americans, the lady expressed surprise, having thought they were English.
The narrator suggested this might be because he wore braces (suspenders), but the American lady didn't hear him as she was quite deaf and read lips, and he had been looking out the window. She continued talking to his wife, expressing her gladness that they were Americans and stating her belief that American men make the best husbands.
"I'm so glad you're Americans. American men make the best husbands," the American lady was saying. "That was why we left the Continent, you know. My daughter fell in love with a man in Vevey."
The American lady explained that she had taken her daughter away from Vevey because of this romance. When the narrator's wife asked if her daughter had gotten over it, the lady replied that she didn't think so. Her daughter wouldn't eat or sleep and seemed to have lost interest in everything. The American lady firmly stated that she couldn't allow her daughter to marry a foreigner, citing advice from a friend that no foreigner could make an American girl a good husband.
Arrival in Paris and the Final Revelation
The American lady admired the narrator's wife's traveling coat and revealed that she had been buying her clothes from the same couturier in Paris for twenty years. She explained that they had her measurements on file, and a vendeuse named Thérèse selected dresses for her, which were then sent to America. The dresses were always simple-looking to avoid high customs duties. Before Thérèse, another vendeuse named Amélie had assisted her. The lady mentioned that they now had her daughter's measurements as well.
As the train approached Paris, they passed the leveled fortifications and many railway cars, including restaurant cars and sleeping cars bound for Rome. The American lady continued to assert that American men were the only men in the world to marry. The narrator's wife asked how long ago they had left Vevey, and the lady replied that it had been two years ago that fall. She confirmed that she was taking the canary to her daughter.
When asked if the man her daughter loved was Swiss, the American lady confirmed he was from a good family in Vevey and was studying to be an engineer. The couple had met there and used to go on long walks together. The narrator's wife mentioned that she knew Vevey, as she and her husband had spent their honeymoon there, staying at the Trois Couronnes hotel.
As they conversed, the train passed three cars that had been in a wreck, with splintered openings and sagging roofs. The narrator pointed this out, and the American lady expressed her fear of just such an accident, vowing never to travel on a rapide at night again.
We were passing three cars that had been in a wreck. They were splintered open and the roofs sagged in. "Look," I said. "There's been a wreck." The American lady looked and saw the last car. "I was afraid of just that all night."
Finally, the train arrived at the Gare de Lyons in Paris. The American lady was met by representatives from Cook's travel agency who had her name on a list. The narrator and his wife said goodbye to her and followed a porter with their luggage down the platform. At the end, a man took their tickets. The story concluded with the revelation that the narrator and his wife were returning to Paris to establish separate residences—they were separating.
The irony of the situation was stark—while the American lady praised American men as ideal husbands and prevented her daughter from marrying a foreigner, she was unwittingly sharing a train compartment with an American couple whose marriage had failed. The narrator and his wife parted ways at the end of the platform, their shared journey coming to an end both literally and figuratively.