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Plot introduction

Like Ishiguro's previous two novels, the story is told from the first person point of view with the narrator recalling his life through a letter to an unknown person, perhaps another butler, while progressing through the present. Events in the narrator's contemporary life remind him of events from his past.

The novel was Ishiguro's first not based in Japan or told from the point of view of a Japanese person, although his first novel, A Pale View of Hills, was told from the point of view of an elderly Japanese woman living in Britain and recalling her past in Japan.

Explanation of the title

1. "The Remains of the Day" refers to evening, when a person can reflect on a day's work. Evening is symbolic for older age, when one can look back and assess one's life work. But "remains" also suggests what is left after a wreck, and it may be suggesting that this life was wrecked.
2. "The Remains of the Day" also refers to the last vestiges of Great Britain's grand houses. Stevens is part of these "remains," paralleling the other trace remains of Britain's overseas empire. The action takes place during July 1956 which coincides with the Suez Canal Crisis, a notable marker of the decline of overseas British influence.
3. At the end of the novel, Stevens reflects on the "remains of my day", referring to his future service with Mr. Farraday.
4. "The remains of the day" is also a part of one sentence of this story, written under "day one — evening", as a summary of the first day of his journey. 'And yet tonight, in the quiet of this room, I find that what really remains with me from this first day's travel is not Salisbury Cathedral, nor any of the other charming sights of this city, but rather that marvellous view encountered this morning of the rolling English countryside.'