The Remains Of The Day is told from a first person point of view by the unreliable narrator, Stevens as he takes a motoring trip, recalling his life during the time of war, relationship with a former colleague and his ideals and his struggle with them. It won the Booker prize in 1989. It is a good book but saying that would not suffice cause this is an astounding book.
The protagonist in this book is a myth of England, the English butler. Jeeves is the one that comes to the mind, created by P G Wodehouse; and Stevens is the closest rival to Jeeves considering literary servant sweepstakes. Stevens is a butler who serves in the Darlington Hall and is extremely loyal to Lord Darlington. He admires the idea of dignity and constantly strives to get there. He is loyal to a fault. He just agrees as to any order his lord bestows on him, blinding and thus unable to distinguish into moral and immoral acts. Moreover he realises this too late in his life as he ventures on his motoring trip and realising that he may have taken the wrong path.
The objective of the outing is visiting Miss Kenton, the former housekeeper at Darlington Hall and hope to persuade her to return to the hall. Excluding her response to this and skipping, near the end of the book, Stevens, who is the epitome of courtesy and skill is found weeping in front of a complete stranger. Then does he come to an understanding that his remains of the day have been blighted. Hindsight enables him to see that Darlington played a dangerous game and that his ideals proved to be toxic and foolish in the continuity. Still the hindsight backfires and makes him feel as a victim and it proves to be too big to judge for him and he finds himself at a loss.
The reader cannot trust Stevens' protestations and it should be kept in mind that he is an unreliable narrator. Annoyingly he resorts to the ideas of duty, loyalty and dignity, blinding himself for his moral failure. At the end of the novel the reader might find it hard to believe anything he says. This is a cannily structured novel. Soon as it ends, one realises that this is the story of a man whose life was destroyed by his ideals alone.
Stevens is much engaged by the concept of greatness, the same way his father was; yet this bred deep inarticulacy of emotions between them so much that they treated each other holding resentments. This constant obsession to strive for greatness fails him to acquire a chance at love.
The protagonist in this book is a myth of England, the English butler. Jeeves is the one that comes to the mind, created by P G Wodehouse; and Stevens is the closest rival to Jeeves considering literary servant sweepstakes. Stevens is a butler who serves in the Darlington Hall and is extremely loyal to Lord Darlington. He admires the idea of dignity and constantly strives to get there. He is loyal to a fault. He just agrees as to any order his lord bestows on him, blinding and thus unable to distinguish into moral and immoral acts. Moreover he realises this too late in his life as he ventures on his motoring trip and realising that he may have taken the wrong path.
The objective of the outing is visiting Miss Kenton, the former housekeeper at Darlington Hall and hope to persuade her to return to the hall. Excluding her response to this and skipping, near the end of the book, Stevens, who is the epitome of courtesy and skill is found weeping in front of a complete stranger. Then does he come to an understanding that his remains of the day have been blighted. Hindsight enables him to see that Darlington played a dangerous game and that his ideals proved to be toxic and foolish in the continuity. Still the hindsight backfires and makes him feel as a victim and it proves to be too big to judge for him and he finds himself at a loss.
The reader cannot trust Stevens' protestations and it should be kept in mind that he is an unreliable narrator. Annoyingly he resorts to the ideas of duty, loyalty and dignity, blinding himself for his moral failure. At the end of the novel the reader might find it hard to believe anything he says. This is a cannily structured novel. Soon as it ends, one realises that this is the story of a man whose life was destroyed by his ideals alone.
Stevens is much engaged by the concept of greatness, the same way his father was; yet this bred deep inarticulacy of emotions between them so much that they treated each other holding resentments. This constant obsession to strive for greatness fails him to acquire a chance at love.
"Why, why, why do you always have to pretend?"
I suppose the author wanted to show that ideals can corrupt and they do wreck life at the snap of a finger.
"You see, I trusted ...I can't even say I made
my own mistakes. Really, one has to ask oneself,
what dignity is there in that?"
Pity him, his life has been a whole foolish mistake led by his self-deception and obsession over his ideals. The cruelty with which he suffers paints a stunning story. What Stevens desired at the end of the day and life was to know that it was worth something but knowing it was all in vain, hurt and façade came in naturally. Admitting it to himself was the only thing he could be proud of and looking forward, just forward. This is a mesmerizing masterpiece of work bundles up in words flowing with emotions.
Highly recommended.
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