Was asked this in chat today:
(51) j (rh)
klaw-couple weeks ago you answered favorite literary first lines. how bout favorite last lines?
I have to say nothing came to mind right away, but I was reminded of it by the last line of my daughter’s new favorite movie, Mary Poppins, spoken by Bert: “Goodbye, Mary Poppins, don’t stay away too long.”
Anyway, two of my nominees:
Catch-22: The knife came down, missing him by inches, and he took off.
1984: He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother. (Yes, technically two lines.)
So I’ll open the thread to everyone. Need help? I did, and found this list of 100 “best” last lines.
“He never saw Molly again.”
Neuromancer — William Gibson
Wow people, this is a ton of failure.
“For never was a story of more woe
Than this of Juliet and her Romeo.”
Blah – the question was about novels, which I’m sure is why no one mentioned anything by Shakespeare.
less famous Vonnegut:
“Elliot fell silent, raised his tennis racket as though it were a magic wand. ‘And tell them,’ he began again, ‘to be fruithful and multiply.’
– God Bless You Mr. Rosewater
Surprised this epic last sentence didn’t make it on here:
So in America when the sun goes down and I sit on the old broken-down river pier watching the long, long skies over New Jersey and sense all that raw land that rolls in one unbelievable huge bulge over to the West Coast, and all that road going, all the people dreaming in the immensity of it, and in Iowa I know by now the children must be crying in the land where they let the children cry, and tonight the stars’ll be out, and don;t you know that God is Pooh Bear? the evening star must be drooping and shedding her sparkler dims on the praire, which is just before the coming of cmplete night that blesses the earth, darkens all rivers, cups the peaks and folds the final shore in, and nobody, nobody knows what’s going to happen to anybody besides the forlorn rags of growing old, I think of Dean Moriarty, I even think of Old Dean Moriarty the father we never found, I think of Dean Moriarty.
One of my personal fave’s. BTW if anyone is interested this is a cool clip of Kerouac–during his more stable days–reading excerpts from “On the Road” on the Steve Allen Show.
“He took off his hat and placed it on the tarmac before him and he bowed his head and held his face in his hands and wept. He sat there for a long time and after a while the right and godmade sun did rise, once again, for all and without distinction.”
From Cormac McCarthy’s “The Crossing”
“He raised his hand and over the desolate earth he traced in space the sign of the dollar.”
-Atlas Shrugged; Ayn Rand.