Although I hadn’t yet seen the film, from the first word of Kazuo Ishiguro’s “The Remains of the Day” I heard the voice of Sir Anthony Hopkins. Hopkins, who won a Golden Globe for the portrayal of Ishiguro’s narrator, Stevens the butler, perfectly captures the subtleties of Stevens.

As narrator, Stevens is the focus of the novel, which takes place in the English countryside in the years between World War I and World War II. Stevens is the head butler at Darlington Hall, now owned by an American, and formerly owned by an English lord known as a Nazi sympathizer before the second war.

At his American employer’s urging, Stevens takes a car trip through the countryside, intending to visit the estate’s former housekeeper, Miss Kenton, and inquire whether she would be interested in returning. Over the course of his trip, Stevens tells the story of Lord Darlington, his political activism and Stevens’ own relationship with Miss Kenton (brought to life in the film by the talented Emma Thompson).

Ishiguro

Darlington feels strongly that the Treaty of Versailles that ended the first World War is oppressive to Germany and doomed to fail. In response, he organizes various European leaders and a U.S. senator (played in the movie by Christopher Reeve) in an unofficial “Conference of 1923.” Stevens takes his role in the events very seriously, to the point of choosing to remain downstairs with the lord’s guests rather than sit at his dying father’s bedside upstairs.

Stevens is a very sad and somewhat pathetic character. His extreme emotional restraint and blind devotion to his former employer have had stark consequences for his life. In fact, in the dual plotlines of the novel, Stevens realizes over the course of his trip and through many reminiscences of Miss Kenton’s time at Darlington Hall that he feels a strong attachment to her. Only at the end of the novel does he begin to understand the relationship never bloomed because he would not venture outside his stiff formal demeanor.

Miss Kenton realizes early on the extent to which Stevens’ extreme restraint has hampered his life. When Lord Darlington orders Stevens to dismiss two Jewish maids ahead of the conference, Miss Kenton threatens to leave also. Stevens dismisses her concerns, and many months later, he admits to her that the maids’ dismissal was unjust and points out with a laugh that she never followed through on her threat to resign and she becomes exasperated:

“Do you realize Mr. Stevens, how much it would have meant to me if you had thought to share your feelings last year? You knew how upset I was when my girls were dismissed. Do you realize how much it would have helped me? Why, Mr. Stevens, why, why, why do you always have to pretend?”

I gave another laugh at the ridiculous turn the conversation had suddenly taken. “Really, Miss Kenton,” I said, “I’m not sure I know what you mean. Pretend? Why, really ...”

“I suffered so much over Ruth and Sarah leaving us. And I suffered all the more because I believed I was alone.”

“Really, Miss Kenton ...” I picked up the tray on which I had gathered together the used crockery. “Naturally, one disapproved of the dismissals. One would have thought that quite self-evident.”

She did not say anything, and as I was leaving I glanced back towards her. She was again gazing out at the view, but it had by this point grown so dark inside the summerhouse, all I could see of her was her profile outlined against a pale and empty background. I excused myself and proceeded to make my exit.”

“Pretend” is an excellent way to summarize Stevens’ behavior. Throughout the novel he pretends — pretends that his interest in Miss Kenton is strictly professional, pretends that his blind devotion to Lord Darlington is well placed, pretends that his employer really believes that supporting the growing Nazi movement is really in the best interests of the people of Germany and greater Europe, etc. This list goes on, which is one of the things that makes Ishiguro’s novel so intriguing: He does a wonderful job of capturing Stevens’ voice and stunted emotional life while keeping him believable and even sympathetic.

Monday Book Talk discussion leader Carol Campbell plans to use a comparison between Stevens and Lord Darlington as a starting point for the group’s next meeting at 6 p.m. Monday, March 7 at Taylor Books. As she pointed out in a recent e-mail, “both Stevens and Darlington are out of their element in trying to assess the world and indeed, probably in assessing their own lives. A good line of discussion would be to think about the ways in which these two men are similar in their distortions and their failures.”

Other planned discussion topics include:

- A comparison between the themes in “All Quiet on the Western Front” and Ishiguro’s novel. The horrible events of World War I are followed in this novel by the oppression of postwar Germany imposed by the Treaty of Versailles. Could this be the cause for Hitler’s rise to power?

- The relationship between Stevens and Miss Kenton, which Campbell terms “the love story that Stevens doesn’t recognize for what it is.” “It is a very nice touch to have that parallel story,” she writes. “Is it just another version of Stevens’ blindness to his own life and values? Or is something deeper indicated by the progression and failure of that relationship?”

To contact Regina C. Davis, use e-mail or call 348-7936.