H. M. Pulham, Esquire

A Novel

John P. Marquand

• Publisher: Open Road Media
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN:
  9781504052894
• eBook ISBN:
  9781504015707
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Literature General
• Index: Literature

A Harvard reunion prompts a Boston Brahmin's search for meaning in this comedy of manners by the #1 New York Times–bestselling author of Point of No Return.
In preparation for the twenty-fifth reunion of his class at Harvard, Harry Pulham is asked to collect and edit the personal histories of his fellow alumni. A glance at the previous year's class book tells him just how tedious the assignment will be: "I have been very busy all this time practising corporation law and trying to raise a family," a typical entry reads. "I still like to go to the football games and cheer for Harvard."
 
Harry's autobiography is almost indistinguishable from those of his classmates. From his career at a Boston investment firm to his marriage to childhood friend Kay Motford, he has always made the safe, familiar choice—with one exception. For a brief interlude after World War I, Harry joined an advertising agency in Manhattan and fell in love with a beautiful, independent woman unlike anyone he had ever met. A wholly unexpected future opened up for him in those few months, but when family obligations called him back to New England, the relationship came to a sudden end. Now, twenty years later, Harry believes that his story could not have turned out any other way.
 
A clever satire that achieves heartbreaking poignancy,  H. M. Pulham, Esquire is a masterpiece from the author declared by the  New York Times to be "our foremost fictional chronicler of the well-born."

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• To the Gentle (or Otherwise) Reader
• I Play Up—and Play the Game
• II Mr. Hilliard Tells All
• III The Thoughts of Youth Are Long, Long Thoughts
• IV We Were Going Out to Dinner
• V The Golden Age
• VI I Consider Mr. Chips
• VII It Never Helps to Talk About It
• VIII May I Have This Dance?
• IX Adventures in Companionship
• X Boys and Girls Together
• XI You’d Better Ask Frank Wilding
• XII A Great Experience, the War
• XIII Something Basic
• XIV Let Me Draw a Diagram
• XV I Make My Letter
• XVI I Must Go Down to the Seas Again
• XVII When the Girl You Love Loves You
• XVIII I Remember Marvin Myles
• XIX It Had to Happen Sometime
• XX For I’ll Come Back to You
• XXI Good–by to All That
• XXII Kiss and Don’t Tell
• XXIII Frankly, Only a Symbol
• XXIV I Break the News
• XXV It’s a Long, Long Walk
• XXVI The Music Goes Round and Round
• XXVII We Westerners Like Our Fish
• XXVIII It All Adds Up to Something
• XXIX What Did I Do Wrong?
• XXX They Possibly Might Start Talking
• XXXI Yoicks—and Away
• XXXII Pale Hands I Love
• XXXIII Rhinelander Four—
• XXXIV With Pleasure Rife
• XXXV He Was Certainly Low in His Mind
• XXXVI Two in the Bowl
• XXXVII Home from the Hill
• About the Author
• Copyright Page