Ten of the best pianos in literature

For the Guardian, John Mullan named ten of the best pianos in literature.

One novel on the list:

Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray

Amelia and Becky – the good girl and the bad girl – both play the piano, but look at their different styles! After her husband's death, Amelia "spends long evening hours, touching ... melancholy harmonies on the keys, and weeping over them in silence". Becky, meanwhile, entrances the wife of the man she is seducing with the bogus "tenderness" of her renditions of Mozart.

Read about the other pianos on Mullan's list.

Vanity Fair also appears on Thomas Mallon's list.

--Marshal Zeringue