The Remains of the Day
BOOKER PRIZE WINNER - From the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, here is "an intricate and dazzling novel" (The New York Times) about the perfect butler and his fading, insular world in post-World War II England. This is Kazuo Ishiguro's profoundly compelling portrait of a butler named Stevens. Stevens, at the end of three decades of service at Darlington Hall, spending a day on a country drive, embarks as well on a journey through the past in an effort to reassure himself that he has served humanity by serving the "great gentleman," Lord Darlington. But lurking in his memory are doubts about the true nature of Lord Darlington's "greatness," and much graver doubts about the nature of his own life.
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Community Reviews
Well, I was really infuriated with Stevens when he acted coldly with Kenton after she told him about her engagement, I still have my doubts about his romantic feelings towards her runs how deep as there was no definitive response after Kenton's confession other than he said his heart broke and his teary eyes(which I don even know if it's because he was talking about his old post). I don't think wasted his life away though maybe if his self-realization was prevalent when his life was at the morning stage then he would've been supposedly much more of an original person not only someone's employee. The title was very nice, by that I mean really really nice. Oh well, Mr. Darlington was a Nazi sympathizer⦠I don't know how to feel about this as I've not encountered his personality other than Steven's vision. The portrayal of the aftermaths of ww1 and ww2 behind the life of a butler in a grand mansion, and how little it affects him personally is also depicted here quite nicely.
My rating is 4 stars.
My rating is 4 stars.
As a butler in a "great house" in England, Stevens had served Lord Darlington of Darlington Hall for 20 years. For Stevens, as for so many of the British whose careers were "in service" to the landed gentry, the goal was to serve with dignity and professionalism. Butlers of "great houses" oversaw a staff of dozens and held great responsibilities. Stevens was proud of his rank.
In this quiet but subtly powerful book, Stevens assesses his life and career while on a road trip. As he recalls in particular Lord Darlington's efforts after World War I to influence European leaders to ease up on the Versailles Treaty strictures imposed on Germany, Stevens begins to admit to himself that the employer he considered wise and almost infallible was, in fact, probably a Nazi sympathizer. Lord Darlington made choices that proved wrong and led to his eventual public humiliation, but, as Stevens muses, at least Lord Darlington had made his own choices. As the sun begins to set on his own career, Stevens asks himself the painful question: Have I made my own choices, or have I merely followed a path unthinkingly?
Stevens' recollections also dwell heavily on Miss Kenton, the former housekeeper at Darlington Hall whom he plans to visit on his trip. Miss Kenton is feisty where Stevens is subdued to the point of emotional imprisonment. When, in flashback scenes, she challenges him to allow himself to feel and to think for himself rather than just serve Lord Darlington, he doesn't have the language to respond.
The Remains of the Day is an outstanding study of a man in later mid-life reviewing how he has spent the best years of his life. The 1993 movie based on the book, starring Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson, is terrific, and its script is exceptionally loyal to the book.
In this quiet but subtly powerful book, Stevens assesses his life and career while on a road trip. As he recalls in particular Lord Darlington's efforts after World War I to influence European leaders to ease up on the Versailles Treaty strictures imposed on Germany, Stevens begins to admit to himself that the employer he considered wise and almost infallible was, in fact, probably a Nazi sympathizer. Lord Darlington made choices that proved wrong and led to his eventual public humiliation, but, as Stevens muses, at least Lord Darlington had made his own choices. As the sun begins to set on his own career, Stevens asks himself the painful question: Have I made my own choices, or have I merely followed a path unthinkingly?
Stevens' recollections also dwell heavily on Miss Kenton, the former housekeeper at Darlington Hall whom he plans to visit on his trip. Miss Kenton is feisty where Stevens is subdued to the point of emotional imprisonment. When, in flashback scenes, she challenges him to allow himself to feel and to think for himself rather than just serve Lord Darlington, he doesn't have the language to respond.
The Remains of the Day is an outstanding study of a man in later mid-life reviewing how he has spent the best years of his life. The 1993 movie based on the book, starring Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson, is terrific, and its script is exceptionally loyal to the book.
Sad. Mr Stevens’ life of service strikes me as modern day slavery. And yet, either by choice or by temperament, he seems oblivious to his own feelings and the feelings/needs of anyone but his Lord Darlington. Were his choices just that or was his life inevitable? Beautifully written and lushly described situations throughout.
Some spoilers ahead.
First, my current mental state. I lost my father 7 years ago. He was 61, and I was 31 at the time. Last week- but it feels like a million terrible years - I lost my mother. She was 60, and I am now an old-feeling 38. My parents didn't have any other children, and I have virtually no family left from my childhood. I say this in part because it feels weird that I haven't told my "Goodreads friends" but also because it strongly affected how I responded to this book.
I picked this book up knowing it had a romantic component and hoping to take my mind off things with a Jane Austen-like repressed love. Nope. Steven's father dies. Kenton's maternal-figure aunt dies leaving her with no family. Rip. My. Heart. Out.
Then it just gets worse. Just like real life! Very sad, very moving, and real.
It ends on a hopeful note but I wonder if that fits with the rest of the novel or not.
First, my current mental state. I lost my father 7 years ago. He was 61, and I was 31 at the time. Last week- but it feels like a million terrible years - I lost my mother. She was 60, and I am now an old-feeling 38. My parents didn't have any other children, and I have virtually no family left from my childhood. I say this in part because it feels weird that I haven't told my "Goodreads friends" but also because it strongly affected how I responded to this book.
I picked this book up knowing it had a romantic component and hoping to take my mind off things with a Jane Austen-like repressed love. Nope. Steven's father dies. Kenton's maternal-figure aunt dies leaving her with no family. Rip. My. Heart. Out.
Then it just gets worse. Just like real life! Very sad, very moving, and real.
It ends on a hopeful note but I wonder if that fits with the rest of the novel or not.
How can such a mundane storyline beguile the reader into the inability to put this book down? The soft gentle prose? The occasional smile you feel appearing? Such a unique, heartbreaking 💔 story for anyone who is looking back. Kazuo Ishiguro deserved his Noble prize in literature.
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