The Remains of the Day

The Remains of the Day is an interesting juxtaposition to Goodbye to All That in that it provides a butler's viewpoint to Edwardian upper class society.  It is interesting that the narrator's view of the English countryside, English people, and a good butler have a common thread of dignity and understatement.  Of course, not everyone fits into his tidy little box of hard-to-define rules.  One gets the impression that even as his father began to become less proficient as a butler-now-houseman, the narrator is more offended by this failure than understanding of the diminishing physical ability that comes to everyone who ages.  It is difficult to glean whether the father feels the same way or whether his reticence comes from shame.  Their conversation is surreal with the narrator referring to his father in the third person.   It seems that this inability to communicate with each other started before the narrator hired his father, the man who originally trained him,  as a an under-servant.   As often happens in families, the roles of father and son are reversed, but this time in a professional environment with little -- or maybe no -- hint of a family relationship.   The narrator clearly admires his father, even puts him on a pedestal, which makes it hard to understand why he would assign him living quarters more suitable to a young housemaid than to a respected and retired butler.

The narrator also continues to refer to the former housekeeper by her maiden name instead of her married name.  Does this indicate a desire to deny that she was married (and therefore emotionally involved) with another man?   I still remember the maiden names of my best friends from high school, but over the years their married names have become a part of them.  It feel that it would be disrespectful to refer to them by their maiden names, especially those of them who have had long and successful marriages.   That brings me back to the book.  The narrator states that Miss Benton has moved out of her marital home and appears to find some pleasure in that idea.  He couches it in terms of not letting a private life interfere with one's professional life, but I think there is more to it than that.  Underneath all the stuffy rules and disparagement of those who do not meet them there may be some real emotion.   I hope I'll find out before the end of the book!