The Remains of the Day
The Remains of the Day is a 1989 novel by the Nobel Prize-winning British author Kazuo Ishiguro. The protagonist, Stevens, is a butler with a long record of service at Darlington Hall, a stately home near Oxford, England. In 1956, he takes a road trip to visit a former colleague, and reminisces about events at Darlington Hall in the 1920s and 1930s. The work received the Booker Prize for Fiction in 1989. A film adaptation of the novel, made in 1993 and starring Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson, was nominated for eight Academy Awards . Plot summary. The novel tells, in first-person narration, the story of Stevens, an English butler who has dedicated his life to the loyal service of Lord Darlington (who is recently deceased, and whom Stevens describes in increasing detail in flashbacks). As the work progresses, two central themes are revealed: Lord Darlington was a Nazi sympathizer; and Stevens is in love with Miss Kenton, the housekeeper at Darlington Hall, Lord Darlington's estate. The novel begins in 1956, with Stevens receiving a letter from a former colleague, the housekeeper Miss Kenton, describing her married life, which Stevens believes hints at  an unhappy marriage. Furthermore, Darlington Hall is short-staffed and could greatly use a skilled housekeeper like Miss Kenton. Stevens starts to consider paying Miss Kenton a visit. His new employer, a wealthy American named Mr. Farraday, encourages Stevens to borrow his car to take a well-earned vacation—a "motoring trip". Stevens accepts, and sets out for Cornwall, where Miss Kenton (now Mrs. Benn) lives. During his journey, Stevens reflects on his unshakable loyalty to Lord Darlington, who had hosted lavish meetings between German sympathizers and English aristocrats in an effort to influence international affairs in the years leading  up to the Second World War; on the meaning of the term "dignity" and what constitutes a great butler; and on his relationship with his late father, another "no-nonsense" man who dedicated his life to service. Ultimately, Stevens is forced to ponder Lord Darlington's character and reputation, as well as the true nature of his relationship with Miss Kenton. As the book progresses, evidence mounts of Miss Kenton's and Stevens' past mutual attraction and affection. While they worked together during the 1930s, Stevens and Miss Kenton failed to admit their true feelings toward each other. Their conversations  as recollected by Stevens show a professional friendship which at times came close to blossoming into romance, but this was evidently a line that neither dared cross. Stevens in particular never yielded, even when Miss Kenton tried to draw closer to him. When they finally meet again, Mrs. Benn, having been married now for more than twenty years, admits to wondering if she made a mistake in marrying, but says she has come to love her husband and is looking forward to the birth of their first grandchild. Stevens later muses over lost opportunities, both with Miss Kenton and regarding  his decades of selfless service to Lord Darlington, who may not have been worthy of his unquestioning fealty. Stevens even expresses some of these sentiments in casual conversation with a friendly stranger of a similar age and background whom he happens upon near the end of his travels. This man suggests that it is better to enjoy the present time in one's life than to dwell on the past, as "the evening" is, after all, the best part of the day. At the end of the novel, Stevens appears to have taken this to heart as he focuses on  the titular "remains of the day", referring to his future service with Mr. Farraday and what is left of his own life. Characters. On his motoring trip, Stevens briefly comes into contact with several other characters. They are mirrors to Stevens and show the reader different facets of his character; they are also all kind and try to help him. Two in particular, Dr. Carlisle and Harry Smith, highlight themes in the book. Release and publication history. Remains was first published in the United Kingdom by Faber and Faber in May 1989, and in the United States by Alfred A.  Knopf on 4 October 1989. Reception. "The Remains of the Day" is one of the most highly regarded post-war British novels. In 1989, the novel won the Booker Prize. It ranks 146th in a composite list, compiled by Brian Kunde of Stanford University, of the best 20th-century English-language fiction. In 2006, "The Observer" asked 150 literary writers and critics to vote for the best British, Irish or Commonwealth novel from 1980 to 2005; "The Remains of the Day" placed joint-eighth. In 2007, "The Remains of the Day" was included in a "Guardian" list of "Books you  can't live without" and also in a 2009 "1000 novels everyone must read" list. "The Economist" has described the novel as Ishiguro's "most famous book". On 5 November 2019, the "BBC News" listed "The Remains of the Day" on its list of the 100 most influential novels. In a retrospective review published in "The Guardian" in 2012, Salman Rushdie argues that "the real story … is that of a man destroyed by the ideas upon which he has built his life". In Rushdie's view, Stevens's obsession with dignified restraint has cost him loving relationships with his father  and with Miss Kenton. Kathleen Wall argues that "Remains" "may be seen to be "about" Stevens's attempts to grapple with his unreliable memories and interpretations and the havoc that his dishonesty has played on his life" (emphasis in original). In particular, she suggests that "Remains" challenges scholarly accounts of the unreliable narrator. Wall notes that the ironic effect of Mr Stevens's narration depends on the reader's assuming that he describes "events" reliably, while "interpreting" those events in self-serving or peculiar ways. According to Steven Connor, "Remains" thematises the idea of English national identity. In Mr Stevens 's view, the qualities of the best butlers, which involve restraining personal emotions in favour of keeping up appearances, are "identified as essentially English". Connor argues that early critics of "Remains", who saw it as a novel about Japanese national identity, were mistaken: "there seems to be no doubt that it is Englishness that is at stake or under analysis in this novel".