The Versailles Treaty, which is mentioned in the novel, is the peace treaty that Germany was forced to sign when it lost World War I, and whose harsh terms were economically devastating to the country-contributing, many have argued, to the rise of Nazism in the first place. The character of Lord Darlington embraces what historically was known as “appeasement,” the idea that Britain should have done everything it could to resolve tensions with Germany peacefully rather than entering into another war as devastating as World War I. The novel also includes real historical figures, like Herr Ribbentrop (the German ambassador to England and Nazi Foreign Minister) and Lord Halifax (Britain’s foreign minister), who in the book are frequent visitors to Darlington Hall. The Parliament Act of 1911, which undid many of the privileges of the aristocracy, only hastened the decline, one that proved definitive after World War II, when many aristocrats still retained their titles but were financially ruined-and, like Darlington’s family, forced to sell off their grand estates. Also implicit, though, is the decline of the English aristocracy, a process that began in the nineteenth century with the rise of a new moneyed class whose status was based not on land possession and noble titles, but on the acquisition of commercial wealth. The Remains of the Day is, in some ways, a historical novel that is “about” the effects of Nazism and World War II on England, even if it is more concerned with the ways these significant historical events pressed on individual circumstances.

The remains of the day pages