What is The Remains of the Day about?
The Remains of the Day (1989) follows Stevens, a long-serving English butler, on a motoring holiday to the West Country in 1956 to visit Miss Kenton, the housekeeper he once worked alongside. As he drives, he looks back on decades of service to Lord Darlington between the wars, and slowly, almost against his will, the reader sees what his devotion to duty and dignity has cost him. Kazuo Ishiguro's novel won the Booker Prize in 1989.
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Very little happens in The Remains of the Day, and it is one of the most quietly devastating novels of its time. Kazuo Ishiguro, later a Nobel laureate, published it with Faber and Faber in 1989, and it won the Booker Prize that same year. It is often described as one of the most highly regarded British novels of the post-war era, and it is a book people press on friends.
The story
Stevens has served for decades as butler at Darlington Hall, a grand country house near Oxford. In 1956 the house belongs to a wealthy American, Mr Farraday, and Stevens is given the rare chance of a few days off and the use of the car. He decides to drive west to see Mrs Benn, who years ago was Miss Kenton, the housekeeper at Darlington Hall.
The journey itself is modest: country roads, small hotels, conversations with strangers. The real journey is backwards, through Stevens's memories of the 1920s and 1930s, when Lord Darlington held grand gatherings and Stevens ran the house to perfection. Bit by bit we learn more about Miss Kenton, and about what Lord Darlington was really doing at those gatherings.
We will leave the rest. The power of the book is in what gradually becomes clear.
Why it works
The voice. Stevens narrates, in a formal, careful, slightly stiff English that is itself a kind of uniform. He is polite, precise and devoted to his idea of what a great butler should be.
What he does not say. Stevens is a classic unreliable narrator, not because he lies but because he cannot let himself see. He explains, justifies and changes the subject, and the reader learns to read the gaps. Critics often describe the novel as being about the damage that self-deception does to a life. Our page on the unreliable narrator explains the technique more broadly.
Dignity and duty. Stevens's code of professional dignity is the backbone of the book. It is admirable, and it is also a cage. Ishiguro lets you feel both at once.
Regret. The title says it all: the remains of the day are the evening hours, what is left after the main business of a life is over. The question the book asks quietly is what you do with them.
Who will love it
- Readers who liked quiet, interior novels where the drama is in what goes unsaid.
- Anyone who has given themselves to a job, an institution or a role and wondered what it cost.
- Lovers of dry, very English comedy; Stevens's unbending formality has its own gentle comedy.
If you want plot, look elsewhere. If you want a novel that keeps unfolding in your head for weeks, this is it.
Book and film
The 1993 Merchant Ivory film, written by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala and starring Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson, received eight Academy Award nominations and is very fine. But the novel's special trick, being trapped in Stevens's own careful voice and seeing past it, can only really happen on the page. Read it first if you can.
FAQ
Is The Remains of the Day a sad book?
It is melancholy and very moving, but also gentle and often funny. Most readers finish it sad in the best way.
Do you need to know about English history between the wars?
No. Everything you need emerges through Stevens's memories. A little background on the 1930s adds depth but is not required.
Is it long?
No. It is a modest-length novel that can be read over a few evenings, and it rewards reading slowly.
Is it a good first Ishiguro?
Yes. It is often called his most famous book, and it is a clear example of what he does best: a narrator whose calm surface hides a great deal.
Sources
Written by the Zestasy editors. General information for curious adults, not medical, nutrition or training advice.