The Remains of the Day in Reading with Style

Mar 31, 2018 Chinook rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 1-kindle, 1001, europe, ww2

I can’t seem to decide if I’ve read this before or I just recall the story because I saw the movie back when it came out. Certainly, it was impossible to read without seeing Emma Thompson and Anthony Hopkins in my mind the entire time, but I also think that this was the sort of book I was starting to want to read right about when it came out, so maybe.

The first third or so bored me a bit, with all the talk of famous butlers and what makes a great butler. Then it finally all gets going - the rel ...more

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Jan 31, 2019 Rachel W rated it it was amazing

Shelves: owned-on-the-shelf, historical-fiction, beautiful, would-recommend, read-in-2019

One rarely encounters a book both so touching and so dignified. Masterful.

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Jan 20, 2011 Coralie rated it it was ok

Shelves: historical

Another Booker prize winner that I didn't enjoy. I wondered if it was satire and meant to be funny but just went over my head as I am unfamiliar with the background. I saw it was on the list of best endings so I amagined all sorts of interesting potential endings only to be met with an anti-climax. I really can't see why so many people liked it. ...more

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Dec 17, 2022 Kim rated it really liked it

Shelves: audio, historical-fiction, epistolary, housing, europe, libby, 1000books, classics, literary-fiction, boxall

Lovely little epistolary novel about Stevens, a proper British butler, who looks back over his long career in service when his house, Darlington Hall, changes hands from the longtime owner, Lord Darlington, to a new American. Stevens, upon reflection, questions whether everything he thought he knew about life, fellow staff and the Lord himself was as it appeared.
Awarded the Booker Prize in 1989.

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