What are your favourite final sentences from books? Is there a book that you liked specially because of its last sentence? Or a book, perhaps that you didn’t like but still remember simply because of the last line?
Oooh good! The companion question to last week’s BTT! I thought I remembered reading the “Best Last Lines” somewhere recently, so I googled and got a little help. I think I need two categories: Favorite Last Lines and Most Appropriate Last Lines.
Three novels that end on just the right note, in my opinion, are:
The Sun Also Rises: “Yes,” I said. “Isn’t it pretty to think so?” (Jake finally realizes that he and Brett would have never, ever worked out… Finally…)
The Great Gatsby: So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past. (I love how this line sums up the futility and sense of loss Nick has after everything has happened…)
My Antonia: Whatever we had missed, we possessed together the precious, the incommunicable past. (So very Jim… So very irritating…)
Now, on to my favorite last lines!
The Handmaid’s Tale: Are there any questions? (Um, yes… So perfect! So Atwood!)
Middlemarch: But the effect of her being on those around her was incalculably diffusive: for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs.
(I really, really hope so…)
Their Eyes Were Watching God: So much of life in its meshes! She called in her soul to come and see.
(I just love that novel…)
As I’ve stated in earlier posts, the only endings I really don’t care for are “hokey” or inauthentic endings — like in Water for Elephants or My Sister’s Keeper. I don’t like it when an author “sells out” to please the reader…
What about you? Any favorite last lines or endings? Any you hate?
Be sure to check back tomorrow for our second Tiny Tale!!
I truly detest…happily ever after endings!
Here is my BTT post
I like happy endings, but more importantly, I like the book to feel complete when it ends.
Oooh, I’d forgotten about the ending to My Antonia . I also loved that one. You’re the second person I’ve seen so far who’s mentioned The Handmaid’s Tale , so I think I may need to bump it up from its current position as tenth in line on the TBRs. That sounds like a great ending.
Yeah for Their Eyes Were Watching God! It’s my all time favorite novel.
I like a well-placed happy ending, too, Sally!
But I do wince at those “tacked-on” crowd pleaser endings, Gautami!
@Rebecca — Be sure to stop by again and give your impressions of Handmaid’s Tale when you read it. You are in for a wild ride!
@Heather — Isn’t it the best!? I just love the writing / imagery / poetry… Gotta love Janie and Tea Cake!
I just remembered one I loved. In Tess of the d’Urbervilles, they knelt to the ground and watched the flag flap in the wind:
As soon as they had strength, they arose, joined hands again, and went on.
Hardy makes that basic point, “Life goes on.”
Ooh! Another good choice! I think my favorite aspect of the past two BTTs is being reminded of so many great reads… Thank you!
I like the one from There Eyes Were Watching God.
I love happy endings! Of course, if it’s really happy or really sad, I cry! Thanks for the reminders!
I do love a good cry…
My favorite endings are when I cry simply because the book is over and the characters are leaving my life forever…
I don’t have “The Prince of Tides” in front of me, but this is what is said in the film made from the book and it is quite close, if not the same:
“I feel the words building inside me, I can’t stop them, or tell you why I say them, but as I reach the top of the bridge these words come to me in a whisper. I say these words as a prayer, as regret, as praise, I say: Lowenstein, Lowenstein.”
I don’t remember last lines so much as I remember endings in general. Handmaid’s Tale? Excellent ending. I agree: Atwood’s great.
Guess what! Pat Conroy’s Prince of Tides is my pick for South Carolina!
Now I remember that line from The Great Gatsby. Beautiful!
hmm.. thank you very much. usefull information
You’re welcome!