Mr. Stevens, the central character and first-person narrator of
The Remains of the Day, is a butler for Mr. Farraday, a wealthy American who has purchased Darlington Hall, the country house that Stevens has worked in for much of his life. The novel opens with Stevens explaining (somewhat disingenuously) that he has accepted an offer from his employer of a few days holiday because he wishes to visit the West Country and persuade Miss Kenton, a former housekeeper, to return to Darlington Hall in order to resolve some problems relating to a “faulty staff plan”. The novel then follows Stevens as he makes his way, in Mr Farraday's Ford, through the English countryside, via Salisbury, Dorset, Somerset and Devon, to Cornwall where, in what may be seen as a dénouement to this stylishly…
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Citation: Teverson, Andrew. "The Remains of the Day". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 16 June 2003 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=7561, accessed 27 November 2024.]
