The Remains of the Day 1989
- Man Booker Prize Winner, Literature, Household employees, Butlers
In the summer of 1956, Stevens, the ageing butler of Darlington Hall, embarks on a leisurely holiday that will take him deep into the countryside and into his past . . .A contemporary classic, The Remains of the Day is Kazuo Ishiguro's beautiful and haunting evocation of life between the wars in a Great English House, of lost causes and lost love.
- Bleak ending
Log it
Sign in to log this.
Character
Contemplative, prestige, grave and meticulous.
- contemplativerelentless
- unpretentiousprestige
- gravecomic
- rawmeticulous
- intimateepic
Who loves it, who doesn't
16 profiled raters. Loved most by The Empaths; disliked most by The Provocateurs.
Where do you stand?
Answer first; then see how everyone, and your circle, split.
“Is this Kazuo Ishiguro's best work?”
Sign in to answer.
18 Buds have answered. Yours unlocks the split.
“Would The Remains of the Day hit harder if it came out today rather than in 1989?”
Sign in to answer.
14 Buds have answered. Yours unlocks the split.
“Is it the best man booker prize winner book of its decade?”
Sign in to answer.
18 Buds have answered. Yours unlocks the split.
Ask the title
A yes-or-no question, answered from what people wrote here, on TMDB and on Wikipedia. Never made up.
Reviews
We read them all: the case for is mara_k's. Marked below.
- mara_kThe case forThe Provocateur★★★★★
A whole life spent misreading the room, told by the man who did the misreading. Ishiguro's cruelty is that Stevens is likeable. I finished it on a train and could not look at anyone.
- amara.readsThe Empath★★★★★
Perfect. There is no other word. A man tells you about his life and never once notices what he is telling you.
About the book
- Author
- Kazuo Ishiguro
- First published
- 1994
- Pages
- 254
- Publisher
- Anagrama, RBA, Gallimard Education
- Editions
- 87
- Language
- cat, Korean, Polish, Russian
- ISBN
- 9788673467184
Where to read
Libraries first: a card gets you most books for nothing. Each opens that service’s page for this title.
On Open Library, 56 have read it and 317 want to.
“Tonight, I find myself here in a guest house in the city of Salisbury.”
Sir Kazuo Ishiguro (born 8 November 1954) is an English novelist, screenwriter, musician, and short-story writer. Ishiguro was born in Nagasaki, Japan, and moved to Britain in 1960 with his parents when he was five. He is one of the most critically-acclaimed and praised contemporary fiction authors writing in English, being awarded the 2017 Nobel Prize in Literature. In its 2017 citation, the Swedish Academy described Ishiguro as a writer "who, in novels of great emotional force, has uncovered the abyss beneath our illusory sense of connection with the world". [source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kazuo_Ishiguro)
Pairings
Companions we picked from the closest works, and how to take them.
Similar in taste
Closest on the same fourteen dimensions, from everything scored on Tastebuds Other media included when they land close.
Go Ahead in the Rain 201960% alikeBoth contemplative, nostalgic, grave.
Never Let Me Go 200558% alikeBoth contemplative, grave, prestige; this one is more contemporary.
The Secret History 199256% alikeBoth grave; this one is more contemporary.
Beloved 198752% alikeBoth contemplative, grave, earnest; this one is more overwhelming.
Piranesi 202051% alikeBoth contemplative, intimate, grave; this one is more richly built.
On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous 201951% alikeBoth contemplative, grave, prestige; this one is more contemporary.
Klara and the Sun 201946% alikeBoth contemplative, grave, prestige; this one is more contemporary.
Both contemplative, character-led, prestige; this one is more contemporary.
The Remains of the Day 199386% alikeFilm · Both contemplative, prestige, grave.
The Last Picture Show 197180% alikeFilm · Both contemplative, prestige, grave.
