In 1956, Stevens, the elderly butler of an English country house, sets out on a short motoring trip across the West Country. As he travels, he looks back on his decades of service, his devotion to ideas of dignity and duty, and his working relationship with the housekeeper, Miss Kenton. His master, Lord Darlington, made choices in the years between the wars that Stevens has never fully examined. The novel is a delicate study of loyalty, restraint and missed chances, told by a narrator whose polite account gradually shows more than he intends. It won the Booker Prize.
Quotes
After all, there's no turning back the clock now. One can't be forever dwelling on what might have been. One should realize one has as good as most, perhaps better, and be grateful.
Perhaps it is indeed time I began to look at this whole matter of bantering more enthusiastically. 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.