Echoes of Grandeur and Heartache Resonate Through a Stately Home. Delve into the profound and introspective world of Kazuo Ishiguro’s acclaimed novel, “The Remains of the Day.” This captivating work explores the complexities of personal identity, the weight of history, and the enduring legacy of a lifetime of service. Join us as we uncover the poignant and powerful narratives that have cemented this book’s place as a literary masterpiece.

Discover the timeless themes and masterful storytelling that have made “The Remains of the Day” a beloved classic. Read on to embark on a journey of self-discovery, historical reflection, and the pursuit of meaning in the face of life’s inevitable challenges.

Genres

Fiction, Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction, Psychological Fiction, Character-Driven, Introspective, Melancholic, Philosophical, Slow-Paced, Reflective, Biography, Memoir Society, Culture

“The Remains of the Day” follows the introspective journey of Mr. Stevens, a distinguished butler in post-World War II England. As he embarks on a road trip to visit a former colleague, Stevens reflects on his decades of dedicated service to Lord Darlington, a nobleman with controversial political ties. Through these recollections, the novel delves into the complexities of personal identity, the weight of historical events, and the sacrifices made in the pursuit of professional excellence.

Ishiguro’s masterful storytelling slowly unveils the emotional and psychological landscape of Mr. Stevens, a man who has devoted his life to upholding the ideals of dignity and duty, often at the expense of his own personal fulfillment. The narrative seamlessly interweaves the past and present, inviting the reader to examine the convoluted nature of memory, regret, and the elusive search for meaning.

Review

“The Remains of the Day” is a captivating and deeply introspective novel that showcases Kazuo Ishiguro’s remarkable literary prowess. The book’s quiet yet powerful narrative, combined with its meticulous character development, makes it a true masterpiece of modern fiction.

Ishiguro’s masterful use of language and subtle emotional nuances create a poignant and thought-provoking exploration of the human condition. The protagonist, Mr. Stevens, is a complex and multifaceted character whose journey serves as a prism through which readers can examine the themes of duty, identity, and the ever-present influence of the past.

The novel’s slow-paced, reflective nature may not appeal to readers seeking fast-paced action, but for those willing to immerse themselves in the rich tapestry of Ishiguro’s storytelling, “The Remains of the Day” offers a profoundly rewarding and deeply affecting reading experience. The book’s exploration of E-E-A-T and YMYL concepts is masterful, as it delves into the ethical and moral implications of personal choices and the lasting impact they can have on individuals and society.

Overall, “The Remains of the Day” is a literary masterpiece that deserves its place among the greatest works of contemporary fiction. Ishiguro’s exceptional command of language and his ability to craft a captivating, introspective narrative make this novel a must-read for fans of literary fiction, historical fiction, and anyone seeking a profound and thought-provoking reading experience.

Introduction: A story resounding with nostalgia and regret

The Remains of the Day (1989) features one of contemporary literature’s most unforgettable narrators, Stevens, a butler who reminisces on his life in service at one of England’s stately homes in the years leading up to World War II.

In this true classic of contemporary literature, a butler named Stevens sets off on a road trip around the south of England. As he moves through the English countryside, Stevens reflects on his decades spent in service at Darlington Hall. His reminisces present a compelling servant’s-eye-view of the political maneuvering that occurred in England’s stately homes in the inter-war period. Slowly, another story emerges: the poignant record of the wrenching personal sacrifices Stevens made out of dedication to his employer.

Ready to discover more about a story regarded as a modern classic?

A change of scenery

When we first meet Stevens, the fastidious butler who is also the novel’s narrator, it’s the 1950s. Stevens is in the library at Darlington Hall, a stately home in the South of England. More precisely, he stands halfway up a step-ladder, dusting a portrait of one Viscount Wetherby.

Stevens is interrupted by his employer Mr Farraday, who informs him that he’ll be spending five weeks in the United States. Farraday suggests Stevens take advantage of his absence to have a holiday himself.

Farraday is American, and Stevens feels Farraday doesn’t always grasp what the “done thing” is in England. A butler borrowing his employer’s car for a holiday is, in Stevens’s opinion, very much not the done thing. But the arrival of a letter from Miss Kenton, former housekeeper at Darlington Hall, is enough to change his mind. Miss Kenton now lives in Cornwall and has invited Stevens to visit. Stevens starts to form a plan.

In its pre-World War II glory days, when Lord Darlington still owned the house, Darlington Hall employed a full staff of servants. Currently, there are only four people on staff and Stevens is acutely aware that understaffing prevents him from delivering the standard of service he would like – the strain shows in “small but telling” ways. Consulting maps and travel books from the library, Stevens plots a route through Devon and Cornwall that will eventually take him to Weymouth where Miss Kenton now lives. Here, he decides, he will ask her to resume her post as housekeeper.

Stevens sets out in Farraday’s car, and at first, he feels a sense of alarm at leaving Darlington Hall and its familiar environment. But soon he is impressed, even exhilarated, by the surrounding landscape. Enjoying a particularly fine view, he finds himself thinking that the English countryside has an understated greatness that other, more superficially dramatic landscapes cannot approach. As he drives, he reflects on his years in the service industry, and how the role of the butler has changed over his lifetime. Stevens recalls his father’s own tales of life in service as a butler, and the examples of dignity they conveyed. In one tale, a butler to an English family in India found a tiger under the dining table. He soberly informed his employer that dinner service would be slightly delayed, before shooting the animal, removing its carcass, and setting the table for the evening meal. This kind of unflappable dignity, Stevens thinks, is the mark of a truly great butler.

ANALYSIS

The butler Stevens is both protagonist and narrator of the novel, and he spends much of the narrative reflecting on his past experiences. In particular, he meditates on his life in service and how the nature of service has changed in the shifting cultural landscape of interwar England. Like his reflections on the landscape, Stevens’s reflections on dignity and service are intertwined with his sense of what it means to be English. A great butler, thinks Stevens, one that truly possesses dignity, is bound to be an Englishman. Being in the presence of an accomplished English butler is like taking in the sweep of England’s finest countryside – one simply knows, thinks Stevens, that one is in the presence of greatness. The personal restraint on which Stevens prides himself is reflected in his admiration for the restrained beauty of the English countryside.

A consummate professional

After admiring the countryside, Stevens takes an overnight stay in the cathedral city of Salisbury. In the morning, he revisits Miss Kenton’s letter, in the process revealing to the reader that Miss Kenton has married. She is now Mrs Benn – throughout the novel, though, Stevens will insist on referring to her as Miss Kenton.

Miss Kenton was hired when Stevens’s father was under-butler at Darlington Hall. Not long after, Stevens himself joined the household staff. At first, Stevens felt Miss Kenton was far too personal – in a gesture that Stevens remembers as ‘forward’, she brings him a bunch of flowers to ‘brighten his room’. He’s particularly aggrieved by her suggestion that his father, in his seventies, is too old to manage his heavy workload. Though Miss Kenton points out evidence of Stevens’s fathers’ oversights – dull forks and dusty ornaments – Stevens refuses to believe his father is anything other than perfectly capable.

From here, he reminisces about a conference held at Darlington Hall in 1923. The topic up for discussion is the Treaty of Versailles, an agreement signed at the end of World War I which imposed economic and military sanctions on Germany. Lord Darlington feels the treaty is too punitive, and gathers a group of influential figures with the aim of revising it – figures which include Oswald Mosley, the right-wing politician who would later take inspiration from Mussolini and Hitler to form the British Union of Fascists. Stevens is aware of his employer’s fascist leanings, but resolutely feels it is not his place to question Lord Darlington’s politics, and maintains his professional discretion at all times. In fact, he recalls with pride one confidential discussion in which Lord Darlington declines to send Stevens from the room, telling his guests, “You can say anything in front of Stevens”.

During this same conference, Stevens’s father is taken gravely ill. He visits his father’s bedside, but only after he has been discharged from his duties for the day. When Miss Kenton informs him that his father has passed away, Stevens is assisting one of Lord Darlington’s guests. He tells Miss Kenton he’ll go upstairs to see his father in the servants quarters when he’s no longer needed downstairs, saying that his father would have wanted it that way.

ANALYSIS

Miss Kenton offers an interesting foil to Stevens. Like Stevens, she excelled at her job, but Miss Kenton displays a warmth and compassion that Stevens lacks, as we see in the scenes around Stevens’s father’s death. By refusing to go to his father’s bedside until he’s no longer needed by his employer, Stevens is shown subsuming personal desire to professional duty. The conference at Darlington Hall adds a new dimension to this dynamic – his commitment to maintaining discretion even while his employer convenes a group of fascists with the aim of influencing European politics also sees Stevens potentially compromising his own morality for the sake of professionalism.

A regrettable incident

After taking in the sights of Salisbury, Stevens continues to the market town of Taunton, where he stays overnight. In the morning, he orders a pot of tea at a tea room. Through its windows, he notices a sign pointing the way to the nearby town of Mursden. This prompts a fresh wave of recollections: it was in Mursden that Giffen and Co., a silver polish company, had been established in the early 1920s, creating a surge in demand for finely polished silver in England’s stately homes. Stevens remembers how the gleaming silverware at Darlington House had been praised by guests like Lord Halifax, the former Viceroy of India, and Herr Ribbentrop who, after his visits to Darlington Hall, became Foreign Affairs Minister in Hitler’s Nazi government.

Stevens remembers that in the years Herr Ribbentrop frequented Darlington Hall – roughly between 1936 and 1937 – he was widely respected. These days, Stevens concedes, Ribbentrop is regarded as a “trickster”, sent to England to promote a false narrative about Hitler’s political and military intentions. And yet he’s frustrated when people imply that they knew all along Ribbentrop was not to be trusted. In the same way, he’s frustrated by the harsh, judgmental tone in which his former employer, Lord Darlington, is now so frequently discussed. Yes, notes Stevens, Lord Darlington did often stay with contacts in the Nazi party on his trips to Europe. He also entertained members of the party, and other notable fascists like Mosley, in his own residence. But at the time, Stevens insists to himself, this kind of behavior was unremarkable – after all, Lord Darlington couldn’t have known the true nature of the Nazi regime.

But one particular memory from this period troubles Stevens. Under the influence of Mrs. Carolyn Barnet, a fervent member of the British Union of Fascists, Lord Darlington makes a decision that Stevens characterizes as “regrettable”: he dismisses two maids from their positions at Darlington Hall solely because they are Jewish. Stevens is taken aback. But despite his misgivings, he remains steadfastly loyal to Lord Darlington, believing it is not his place to question his employer’s decisions.

Later that same day, during his regular evening meeting with Miss Kenton, Stevens tells Miss Kenton about Lord Darlington’s decision to dismiss the maids. Despite personally disagreeing with Lord Darlington’s choice to fire the Jewish maids, whom he acknowledges as excellent workers, Stevens feels it isn’t his place to question his employer’s decision, even when speaking privately with Miss Kenton. Miss Kenton is shocked by Lord Darlington’s decision and by Stevens’s seeming indifference. She tells Stevens, heatedly, that the decision was unjust and that if Lord Darlington went through with it she would quit, too. Though the maids are ultimately dismissed, Miss Kenton stays on. Nearly a year later, she admits to Stevens that fear, rather than loyalty, kept her from leaving her position at Darlington Hall – she worried she wouldn’t find work elsewhere. Stevens then tells Miss Kenton that Lord Darlington now regrets his decision. Not only this, Lord Darlington has charged Stevens with tracing the maids, with a view to offering them their jobs back. Stevens is pleased with this development, he tells Miss Kenton, because their dismissal had troubled him just as much as it did her. To his surprise, Miss Kenton is not pleased to hear this. Instead, she is upset that Stevens didn’t share his true feelings with her at the time. Why, she asks him, does he always pretend? Stevens is unable to provide an answer.

A final recollection comes to him: Miss Kenton discovers him reading a romance novel and starts to tease him about his sentimental choice of reading material. Rather than join in her banter, Stevens asks her, in a formal tone, to leave him alone. Shortly after this exchange, Stevens notes that Miss Kenton begins to make fuller use of her days off. She later tells Stevens she has “renewed her acquaintance” with a butler she worked with before she came to Darlington Hall. Stevens wonders, in his own oblique style, if things could have turned out differently between him and Miss Kenton, questioning whether his overly-formal attitude to her turned “whole dreams forever irredeemable”.

ANALYSIS

This section of the novel highlights Stevens’s unquestioning loyalty to Lord Darlington. Despite clear evidence suggesting otherwise, Stevens maintains that Lord Darlington wasn’t implicated in England’s burgeoning fascist movement, and had no insights into Hitler’s plans for Germany and Europe. He refuses to show his own misgivings about Lord Darlington’s decision to fire the two Jewish maids. In contrast, Miss Kenton vehemently opposes Darlington’s actions, even threatening to resign from her position. Stevens’s commitment to projecting a formal, neutral composure at all times also has repercussions for his personal life. Although he never admits it outright, Stevens’s allusions to past episodes in his relationship with Miss Kenton make it clear that he felt – and still feels – deeply for her.

A bittersweet reunion

Back to the present-day 1950s, Stevens is in the dining hall of The Rose Garden in Cornwall, 40 minutes early for his meeting with Miss Kenton.

He recalls the night Miss Kenton informed him she had accepted her now-husband’s marriage proposal. Stevens coolly offers his congratulations, then excuses himself to the library, where he finds Lord Darlington’s godson, Reginald Cardinal. When Stevens refills his brandy, Cardinal informs Stevens that Lord Darlington has convened a meeting with influential figures to discuss promoting a visit to Nazi Germany by the British Prime Minister. Cardinal believes the Nazis are manipulating Lord Darlington to extend their influence in England.

Later, passing by Miss Kenton’s room, he hears the muffled sound of crying. He hesitates, and almost goes in to comfort her, but instead carries on with his duties. Standing outside another door – this time the door to the drawing room – he now feels a sense of triumph, believing he is aiding men who will change the course of history.

Back at The Rose Garden, Miss Kenton tells Stevens she is still married to her husband and not unsatisfied with her life. But after they have talked for some time she admits that she wonders if she might have had a different kind of life with Stevens. Hearing these words, Stevens finally admits to himself how deeply he feels for Miss Kenton. He is overcome with sadness thinking back on the opportunities for personal happiness he has missed in favor of pursuing professional excellence.

After Miss Kenton departs, Stevens walks down to the pier. A stranger approaches and takes a seat beside him. They strike up a conversation, and the man reveals that he used to work as a butler at a small house. Stevens shares that he is the head butler at Darlington Hall. He confesses that he feels he isn’t serving his current employer, Farraday, to the highest standard. He has already given everything he has to give to Lord Darlington. At this point, the stranger hands Stevens a handkerchief, a subtle hint that Stevens is crying. The stranger tells Stevens to cheer up – Steven’s has done his day’s work. The evening, the stranger says, is the best part of the day. Stevens collects himself and leaves the pier, with a fresh resolve to make the most of the “remains of his day”, by improving his service to Farraday.

ANALYSIS

Although it’s clear to the novel’s readers for some time that Stevens’s regard for Miss Kenton was more than professional, and that his attitude to his work has cost him the chance of romance, in this last section of the book, Stevens finally admits these things to himself. At the start of his journey, Stevens views the English landscape with wistful nostalgia, regretting that the country’s finest days are over. As the novel progresses, though, this sense of nostalgia and regret becomes concentrated on episodes from his own past. In the final scene at the pier, Stevens finally reckons with his choices, particularly involving Lord Darlington and Miss Kenton, and the regrets they have caused him.

Conclusion

In this Blink to The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro, you’ve met one of modern literature’s most compelling narrators. Stevens is a butler who has proudly spent his life in service. But a journey through the English countryside and a meeting with an old friend force him to confront the sacrifices he has made in the name of duty and dignity.

About the Author

Kazuo Ishiguro

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