Astronomer's Wife

“Astronomer’s Wife” is a short story by American ex-pat Kay Boyle, first published in 1936 in the collection The White Horse of Vienna and Other Stories. It is about the small but profound epiphany the eponymous astronomer’s wife experiences during a brief encounter with a plumber. Boyle was a member of the Lost Generation of American writers living and working in Paris. She was a member of avant-garde art scenes in both New York and Paris, wrote more than 40 books, and reported for magazines such as the New Yorker and the Nation. In her later years, she became a political activist for anti-war, civil rights, and feminist causes.

The story begins when the astronomer’s wife, Mrs. Ames, wakes up. She calls out for coffee, gets out of bed, and performs her morning exercises. Her husband, the astronomer, is still asleep. They spend most days physically close, but she keeps herself busy with chores and errands, while he is often silent and idle, contemplating or gazing through his telescope for hours. It is clear that although Mrs. Ames is rarely apart from her husband, she is lonely.

The maid comes upstairs and announces that the plumber has arrived. He is there to fix a leak that has flooded a bathroom upstairs. Mrs. Ames says, “I am Mrs. Ames,” to herself several times as the plumber climbs the stairs, practicing her greeting to him. She speaks very softly because her husband is still sleeping.



The plumber observes her as a young woman with a light that has been extinguished. Her husband’s silence has suppressed her. The plumber is described as a hardy man who nonetheless takes off his hat when he speaks to her.

The two observe the flooded bathroom and the plumber inspects the leaky toilet. The plumber says the leak is coming from the soil line outside, and that the water seals aren’t working. He tells Mrs. Ames that a valve would have prevented the problem. She reacts with embarrassment that her husband is not awake to speak with him instead. She feels out of her element discussing the plumbing.

The plumber says he’ll look at the soil line in the garden. Mrs. Ames is relieved. Then her husband, “the professor,” wakes up in the other room. He calls out to his wife that she has finally found a problem worthy of her. The plumber notices a “wave of color” cross her face after that remark.



In the garden, the plumber explains to her how the drains in her neighborhood work, but she is still thinking of what her husband said to her. She realizes that she prefers his silences to his scorn. The plumber asks her in a bitter tone if Mr. Ames would like to go into the human-sized drain system with him and have a look. Mrs. Ames points out that her husband is still in bed, and that her husband would never go underground—he prefers “going up” to the stars.

The plumber descends into the drain himself, and says that he thinks something is clogged at the elbow of the system.

His simple comment stuns Mrs. Ames. She realizes that when her husband speaks of the heights of his work, she cannot ever picture what he is saying. But she pictures and comprehends the plumber’s words clearly. She is stunned that a man can communicate something so well to her.



Sitting among the weeds, she realizes now that there is not one type of man in the world, but two: her husband is “the mind,” and the plumber is “the meat.” Some men have their head in the clouds while others have their feet firmly on the ground.

The plumber emerges and says the problem is a backup in the soil lines. Mrs. Ames asks what they should do, noting the pleasure in asking questions to which she will receive “true answers.” The plumber smiles and tells her there’s a solution for everything, and that he’ll go back down and follow the pipe until he finds and fixes the clog.

Mrs. Ames calls for her maid and tells her that the problem is serious, and to tell Mr. Ames, when he gets up, that she has gone down into the pipes. Then she descends into the earth with the plumber as he tells her about a problem he once had with his cow. She takes his arm, “knowing what he said was true.”



“Astronomer’s Wife” is about a lost woman finding her place in the world. She once believed that her husband was representative of all men, and that the divide between them was natural. Her conversation with the plumber brings her to an epiphany: there are men like her, men concerned with the problems of daily life, men who aren’t always lost in silence and thought, men who aren’t scornful of her earthly concerns. She takes her rightful place in the earth with the plumber, where they both belong.

This story, and the collection it appeared in, received great critical acclaim. Critics called The White Horse of Vienna and Other Stories a masterpiece from a writer at the peak of her talents. The story bears similarities to James Joyce’s short fiction depicting moments of epiphany, but is original in its observations.