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The Remains of the Day (1989)

by Kazuo Ishiguro

Other authors: See the other authors section.

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16,268475315 (4.2)2 / 1370
Fiction. Literature. HTML:

From Kazuo Ishiguro, a tragic, spiritual portrait of the perfect English butler and his reaction to his fading insular world in post-war England.

.
  1. 60
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  4. 40
    What the Butler Saw: Two Hundred and Fifty Years of the Servant Problem by E. S. Turner (thorold)
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    JuliaMaria: Nette aus der Welt gefallene Männer erklären die Welt.
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» See also 1370 mentions

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Showing 1-5 of 429 (next | show all)
“After all, when one thinks about it, it is not such a foolish thing to indulge in—particularly if it is the case that in bantering lies the key to human warmth.”

Ishiguro knows how to craft a damn character. One restrained man’s road trip-turned-introspection, steeped in pride, regret, and realization...all while he remains reluctant to introspect? Relatable. A slow build, but my heart broke on page 239, when Mr. Stevens admits to his own breaking. ( )
  hannerwell | Feb 24, 2024 |
An incredibly earnest and wholesome reflection on age and retirement and the insecurities and wonders that can come from any life that is lived, whether spent in servitude to some task or person, or filled with recklessness or love. The mix of historical fiction with Lord Darlington's involvement in WW2 and romance with Mrs Kenton was wonderful. The story is told through Stevens memory of events that took place in the historical manor told while Stevens travels his way to see Mrs Kenton. I use the term romance lightly because it isnt a typical cliche happy ending with eloping and marriage, and rather a soft and bittersweet blow to the heart that left me content with the way it was told. Stevens defense of Lord Darlingtons actions as a puppet of the Nazi's during WW2 served as a defense of his insecurities in a life spent in servitude aswell as a defense of a life spent nobly and filled with mistakes.

"He chose a certain path in life, it proved to be a misguided one, but there, he chose it, he can say that at least. As for myself, I cannot even claim that. You see, I trusted. I trusted in his lordships wisdom. All those years I served him, I trusted I was doing something worthwhile. I cant even say I made my own mistakes. Really - one has to ask oneself - what dignity is there in that?"

A brilliant look at the defining of a life well lived and how its created and critiqued through our hardships, mistakes, loves, passions, and efforts. ( )
  MalkMan | Feb 10, 2024 |
Heart wrenching, beautiful, emotional but restrained writing. A message of live your life now and not be a slave to your job. A tearjerker at the end. ( )
  jtsolakos | Feb 9, 2024 |
Slow but interesting story about a parochial English butler, Stevens, who served Lord Darlington at Darlington Hall for 35 year and then in, the dying days of the British Empire, the manor house acquires a new owner: a wealthy American, Mr. Farraday, who, in Stevens’s view, has no conception of the class-based proprieties of servant and served. Stevens figures out that he has to learn to “banter” with Mr. Farraday and takes him up on his offer to use the car for a motor trip while Farraday is away. Although the story ostensibly takes place over the course of a week in July 1956 as Stevens travels to visit a former housekeeper whose services he is hoping to enlist again, it is more rumination about his decades of service. Stevens is a stuffed shirt who believes he can never step out of the character of butler—he reminded me of Carson in Downton Abbey—and it was hard to feel sympathy for his disappointments. Part of his ruminations were focused on what makes a great butler: Dignity and serving a great gentleman, who in turn serves mankind. I assume the voice of this rather sad man and his bleak outlook was authentic. ( )
  bschweiger | Feb 4, 2024 |
I've had a used copy of this book sitting on my bookshelf for years. There were multiple times in the past that I've tried to read it. I lost count of how many times I'd read the first chapter and then set it aside for another book.

Set in the post WWII era, this is a quiet and reflective story about an aging butler who has spent most of his professional career at Darlington Hall, first serving Lord Darlington and then a new American owner of the estate. In the summer of 1956 Stevens decides to take a six day motoring vacation, partially with the objective to convince a former staff member, Miss Kenton, to return to her post. As Stevens drives he recollects and eventually comes to some realizations about his father, Lord Darlington and also about Miss Kenton.

Throughout most of the book Stevens is emotionally stunted, burying himself in his work and quest for perfection. His biggest pride is having a sense of utter devotion to Lord Darlington and also striving for professional dignity.

I must say I struggled some with the slow pacing of the story and Steven's unemotional demeanor. At times he almost seemed like a robot given his verbal responses during incredibly sad or difficult situations. It wasn't until the end of the book that he let down his guard and actually allowed himself to have a display of emotion.

For the most part, I enjoyed Ishiguro's descriptive writing but I'm not sure if I'll seek out another book by this author. ( )
  Ann_R | Feb 3, 2024 |
Showing 1-5 of 429 (next | show all)
The Remains of the Day is too much a roman à thèse, and a judgmental one besides. Compared to his astounding narrative sophistication, Ishiguro's message seems quite banal: Be less Japanese, less bent on dignity, less false to yourself and others, less restrained and controlled. The irony is that it is precisely Ishiguro's beautiful restraint and control that one admires, and, in the case of the last novel [The Remains of the Day], his nerve in setting up such a high-wire act for himself.
added by jburlinson | editNew York Review of Books, Gabriele Annan (pay site) (Dec 7, 1989)
 
Kazuo Ishiguro's tonal control of Stevens' repressive yet continually reverberating first-person voice is dazzling. So is his ability to present the butler from every point on the compass: with affectionate humor, tart irony, criticism, compassion and full understanding. It is remarkable, too, that as we read along in this strikingly original novel, we continue to think not only about the old butler, but about his country, its politics and its culture.
 

» Add other authors (32 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Ishiguro, Kazuoprimary authorall editionsconfirmed
Bützow, HeleneTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Daryab̄andi, NajafTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Hawthorne, NigelReadersecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Kriek, BarthoTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Miteva, PravdaTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Prebble, SimonNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Rushdie, SalmanIntroductionsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Rybicki, JanTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Saracino, Maria AntoniettaTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Stiehl, HermannTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
West, DominicNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed

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In memory of Mrs Lenore Marshall.
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It seems increasingly likely that I really will undertake the expedition that has been preoccupying my imagination now for some days.
Quotations
The English landscape at its finest—such as I saw this morning—possesses a quality that the landscapes of other nations, however more superficially dramatic, inevitably fail to possess. It is, I believe, a quality that will mark out the English landscape to any objective observer as the most deeply satisfying in the world, and this quality is probably best summed up by the term 'greatness.' And yet what precisely is this greatness? I would say that it is the very lack of obvious drama or spectacle that sets the beauty of our land apart. What is pertinent is the calmness of that beauty, its sense of restraint. It is as though the land knows of its own beauty, of its own greatness, and feels no need to shout it.
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Fiction. Literature. HTML:

From Kazuo Ishiguro, a tragic, spiritual portrait of the perfect English butler and his reaction to his fading insular world in post-war England.

.

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Book description
A butler looks back over his career at a fine English country house while on a trip to visit a former colleague.
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