Description
The narrator of Kazuo Ishiguro's novel is the quintessential English butler who has outlived the heyday of country-house society. It is 1956, and Stevens, after more than three decades of service at Darlington Hall, treats himself to a summer holiday. During a leisurely drive through the English countryside, he looks back on his career to reassure himself that he has achieved his professional ideal: to serve humanity by serving 'a great gentleman'. His journey into the past uncovers doubts about the part his late employer, Lord Darlington, played in the politics of the inter-war years, and even greater doubts as to what his own life has been.
An entertaining comedy of manners and a compelling character study, The Remains of the Day is above all a moving portrayal of the human capacity for self-deception, a story that transcends the time and place the author so vividly evokes. The Remains of the Day won the Booker Prize in 1989 and became an international bestseller. It was adapted into an award-winning film starring Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson.
