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06-11-2001, 02:41 PM
|  | Scanning maniac | | Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: Ontari-ari-ari-o
Posts: 534
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Anyone have any favourite last lines?
I find that even a mediocre book can be completely redeemed by a really good last line, or paragraph.
A former roomie of mine said that the last line of A Tale of Two Cities made him go "Oh YAH!" and start cheering. It goes something like this:
"It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have every known."
My favourite will have to wait until I can find my copy of The Summer of Katya. pageclot |
06-11-2001, 09:23 PM
| | Ø | | Join Date: Jun 2000 Location: Return to sender
Posts: 260
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Poo-tee-weet? 
__________________ » t-þoo /ê·dì·ot/ or /id·jït/ n. blatherskite ( obs.)
»******************************** Science-off
» ... since giving out praise doesn't cost a person anything but actually wins affection, praise is ladled out freely and praise inflation occurs. The value of each unit of flattery declines, and pretty soon {you} have to pass over a wheelbarrow full of praise just to pay one compliment.  |
06-11-2001, 11:58 PM
|  | Geeky goof | | Join Date: Jul 2000 Location: Boston, Mass.
Posts: 5,605
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Not a classic last line by any means, but a good ending that leaves you hanging (from Primary Colors):
"This is ridiculous: you've gotta be with me."
If only the movie had stopped there, too.
Ailsa
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06-12-2001, 03:53 AM
|  | Epinions Members | | Join Date: Jul 2000 Location: Richmond Hill, GA
Posts: 2,329
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Pageclot, what a great thread! I've been waiting all day to get home from work, so I could run to my library and find my favorites.
A closing line can be like the last note in a beautiful symphony. The author picks just the right pitch, the right volume, the right length and crescendoes to a moment that makes us catch our breath.
All that is a fancy way of saying, I really dug these last lines:
In this manner, the issue was decided.
--the brilliant short-short story "Popular Mechanics" by Raymond Carver
I am haunted by waters.
--A River Runs Through It by Norman Maclean
O God--please give him back! I shall keep asking You.
--A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
And one that probably changed my life forever when I first read it:
Intermittently the boy's jagged shadow slanted across the road ahead of him as if it cleared a rough path toward his goal. His singed eyes, black in their deep sockets, seemed already to envision the fate that awaited him but he moved steadily on, his face set toward the dark city, where the children of God lay sleeping.
--The Violent Bear It Away by Flannery O'Connor
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06-12-2001, 11:12 AM
|  | Glamorous Hollywood Star! | | Join Date: May 2001 Location: Hollywood, California by way of Birmingham, Alabama
Posts: 2,353
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My all time favorite last line comes from the master of understatement, Ray Bradbury.
His short story, The October Game ends with a brilliant little comment...
And then someone turned on the lights.
MNM
__________________ MNM, coming to you live from Chateau Maine, high in the Hollywood Hills.
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06-12-2001, 02:38 PM
|  | Epinions Members | | Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Ohio, USA
Posts: 1,362
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"His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead."
Can you beat that with a stick?
Julie
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06-20-2001, 04:54 AM
| | Epinions Members | | Join Date: Jul 2000 Location: Sacramento, California, USA
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"Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derived by vanity; and my eyes burned with anguish and anger."
- Joyce, "Araby"...
Darren |
06-20-2001, 03:28 PM
| | Geeky goof | | Join Date: Jul 2000 Location: Boston, Mass.
Posts: 5,605
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Quote: Originally posted by MrsNormanMaine
My all time favorite last line comes from the master of understatement, Ray Bradbury.
His short story, The October Game ends with a brilliant little comment...
And then someone turned on the lights.
MNM | Ooh, that's a great ending too. I got shivers down my spine just reading that one.
Ailsa |
06-26-2001, 01:22 AM
|  | Epinions Members | | Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: Malden, MA, USA
Posts: 8,461
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My all time favorite last line, from my least favorite Narnia book, the finale The Last Battle:
All their life in this world and their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and title page: Now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on Earth has read: which goes on forever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.
Janice |
06-28-2001, 02:53 PM
|  | Epinions Members | | Join Date: Mar 2001 Location: Providence, RI
Posts: 1,701
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Simple but memorable:
"I blew him away."
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