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Old 03-02-2012, 07:53 PM   #7
Hamlet53
Nameless Being
 
So I have finished this. At first I found it not that appealing and was feeling embarrassed at being the first to nominate it. However, as I read on I came to really enjoy it. I will put the rest of my comments in a spoiler since so many seem to be still in the process of completing it.

Spoiler:
I liked the rather unique style of telling the story by which the first person narrator would appear to be discussing something rather mundane about the life of a high class English butler and then smoothly slide into important insights about his character or significant facts about Lord Darlington , his former employer.

I really wonder whether it was Stevens single minded pursuit of attaining the status “great butler” that left him so emotionally isolated from other human beings, or whether it was just a natural flaw in his character. As I said previously I liked the way this was slowly revealed through reminisces from the minor, such as his inability to recognize the attempts by Miss Keaton to try and form a personal, or even romantic relationship with him, or his inability to engage in banter, to the major such as his behavior as his father was dying.

Then there is the slow revelation of the history of Lord Darlington who we slowly come to see was at best naive and misguided concerning Hitler and the Nazis, and at worst for a time an anti-Semite Nazi sympathizer. Just as a side note until I actually read Edward VII mentioned as a separate character I thought Lord Darlington might have been a roman a clef for Edward VII.

I found the story at the end rather heart breaking as Stevens is left questioning the worth of his devoted loyalty to Lord Darlington as well as wondering whether or not he sacrificed the possibility of a relationship, perhaps marriage and children, with Miss Stevens. All to achieve his current position as a butler for Mr. Farraday, a position which he is beginning to wonder if he is losing the capability to perform up to the exacting standards he has always set for himself. Perhaps a sad and lonely “end of the day for him?”
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