London: Faber And Faber, 1989
8vo, first edition, original black cloth lettered in white on spine, dust-jacket
Stevens, butler in one of England’s grand houses, takes a five day road trip while his new American employer is away. During the course of the journey, he begins slowly to reveal, and to accept, the truth about his former employer, Lord Darlington, a naïve advocate of Hitler’s early regime. A meeting with Lord Darlington’s former housekeeper, whom he has not seen for twenty years, leads him inexorably into an acceptance of the sterility of his own life.
Winner of the 1989 Booker Prize. Ruth Prawer Jhabvala adapted the book for a 1993 film directed by James Ivory and starring Anthony Hopkins, Emma Thompson, Hugh Grant and Christopher Reeve.
Annotated on 51 pages including 6 full page ink drawings of scenes including the major characters. Approximately 2,050 words.
I’ve always been drawn to the ‘diary entry’ way of narrating a story, in which the time frame keeps shifting as the book progresses, and the narrator’s emotional and intellectual position keeps shifting with it. This method is particularly good for highlighting a character’s levels of self-deception, I find.
I’ve always been drawn to the ‘diary entry’ way of narrating a story, in which the time frame keeps shifting as the book progresses, and the narrator’s emotional and intellectual position keeps shifting with it. This method is particularly good for highlighting a character’s levels of self-deception, I find.
I’ve always been drawn to the ‘diary entry’ way of narrating a story, in which the time frame keeps shifting as the book progresses, and the narrator’s emotional and intellectual position keeps shifting with it. This method is particularly good for highlighting a character’s levels of self-deception, I find.