Modernismo

Chapter 2: Unfamiliar Territory Three months later,
Stevens sets out; he has not left the area for many
years. He stays at a guesthouse in Salisbury, and worries
about meeting Miss Kenton (now MrsBenn) again. We
understand that he is always thinking about what makes
a good butler. We discover that Miss Kenton is now
married but separated, and that it is twenty years since she
leftDarlington Hall. He thinks back to those days in the
1920s, when England was so different and he was running
Darlington Hall with 28 staff.
Chapter 3: Small Errors Back in 1922, Stevens employed
MissKenton as housekeeper and also employed his own
father, an experienced but aged man, as under-butler.
Stevens and Miss Kenton have a disagreement over
whether she has the right to address his fatherby his
first name. Stevens’s father begins to make small cleaning
errors, which to Stevens are a very serious matter. He tries
nevertheless to ignore them.
Chapter 4: An Embarrassing Fall Stevensrecalls a
conversation he had in 1923 with Lord Darlington, who,
he insists, was ‘a good man with a good heart’. Darlington
is concerned that Stevens’s father is making more mistakes.
The lord isparticularly concerned since ‘an important
conference’ of ‘friends of Germany’ is soon to be held in
the house. Stevens explains to his father stiffly that he
must only do more simple jobs from nowon.
Chapter 5: The Birds and the Bees Miss Kenton is rather
ill-tempered with Stevens. Meanwhile the first guests
arrive for the conference. One of them has brought his
twenty-three-year-old son,who is engaged to be married.
The young man’s father has not been able to talk to his
son about sex. Darlington asks Stevens to explain the facts
of life to the young man, a job Stevens does notfind easy.
Chapter 6: The Conference During the conference,
Stevens’s father falls seriously ill. Despite his serious
illness, he is only concerned about the work in the house
being well done. He...