Best final lines
March 31, 2008 · 6 Comments
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- I write thrillers. Both my Jo Beckett and Evan Delaney series take place in California, where I’ve spent most of my life. Now I live near London, England, and earn my living inventing stories about the place I came from. Read here about the writing life and the lies that pay my bills.
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6 responses so far ↓
Sharon K // March 31, 2008 at 2:03 pm
Who comes up with such a bizarre list as this? James Joyce TWICE? But thanks for reminding me why I’m never able to progress beyond the first forty pages of Middlemarch (despite it commonly being described as the “definitive English novel”).
The best? Well, a Tale Of Two Cities for its quotability, but for chill factor….
1984 - no question.
Don // March 31, 2008 at 4:13 pm
Uhm. The first line for 1984 is much better than the last line. Mind you I still haven’t read what’s in-between.
My favorite is this one:
75. “We shall never be again as we were!” –Henry James, The Wings of the Dove (1902)
It’s simple and to the point. And really true of any novel. You don’t have to think too hard to justify it.
Snart // March 31, 2008 at 8:01 pm
I had to reread the title, BEST last lines?
4. …I was a Flower of the mountain yes when I put the rose in my hair like the Andalusian girls used or shall I wear a red yes and how he kissed me under the Moorish wall and I thought well as well him as another and then I asked him with my eyes to ask again yes and then he asked me would I yes to say yes my mountain flower and first I put my arms around him yes and drew him down to me so he could feel my breasts all perfume yes and his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes. –James Joyce, Ulysses (1922)
No, this can’t be one of the best no and I defy anyone to tell me what it means No and why it is classed with the best No I don’t think it’s possible and do I ultimately care No.
Dan // March 31, 2008 at 11:56 pm
Snart, I totally agree….because I just had a mental picture of Rodney Dangerfield yelling “YES!” after Sally Kellerman read that passage in the movie “Back to School”.
daveg // April 1, 2008 at 10:06 am
If we’re gonna get technical, isn’ t the very last line of Ulysses actually the entire third part of the book?
I think the best closing line I’ve read is from the short story More Tomorrow by Michael Marshall Smith. Real shivers down the spine time. I think it’s more expected of short stories to pack a punch in the last line, whereas novels usually have more concluding passages than single sentences.
swimanog // April 28, 2008 at 6:55 pm
Agree with Daveg’s last line. Try the end of ‘Uncorrected Proof’..one word.
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