Last lines from famous books

[PaulB]

We all have our favourite opening lines but which books are these the last lines from?

1. 'He loved Big Brother.'
2. 'The eyes and the faces all turned themselves towards me, and guiding myself by them, as by a magical threat, I stepped into the room.'
3. 'Come, children, let us shut up the box and the puppets, for our play is played out.'
4. 'They, hand in hand, with wandering steps and slow, through Eden took their solitary way.'
5. 'Tomorrow, I'll think of some way to get him back. After all, tomorrow is another day!'
6. 'The worst dreams that I ever have are when I hear the surf booming about its coasts, or start upright in bed, with the sharp voice of Captain Flint still ringing in my ears: "Pieces of eight! Pieces of eight!"'
7. 'The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.'
8. 'Happiness was but the occasional episode in a general drama of pain.'
9. 'But wherever they go, and whatever happens to them on the way, in that enchanted place on the top of the Forest a little boy and his Bear will always be playing.'
10. 'To us - and snails, God bless them.'

 

[numbnuts]

THE END

 

[longers]

Was there ever a book that ended "and they all live happily ever after"?

 

[hambones]

Cut and pasted from Daily Mail no less!!!

 

[marinyork]

As this can be deemed on topic, one of my favourites is

I lingered round them, under that benign sky: watched the moths fluttering among the heath and harebells, listened to the soft wind breathing through the grass, and wondered how any one could ever imagine unquiet slumbers for the sleepers in that quiet earth.

 

[accountantpete]

This is how the world ends
This is how the world ends
This is how the world ends
Not with a bang but a wimpy burger.

 

[Will1985]

I'm so bad at literature! The first one isn't hard...I've read the book enough times. Think I know 6 and 9.

Is there a connection between 1 and 7 by any chance?

 

[PaulB]

Yeah but there's no point to it all now, is there? Not now Smile-a-while, Headbone above has given the game away. the reason I wanted to do it that way is the Mail's quiz gives the answers immediately beneath the questions whereas this way you get a stab at having a go. I bet he's a right laugh at parties.

 

[swee'pea99]

Not quite the last line - I think it may be the last-but-one - but I've never forgotten this, from the Great Gatsby (tho' yes, obviously I had to google to find it complete...):

Most of the big shore places were closed now and there were hardly any lights except the shadowy, moving glow of a ferryboat across the Sound. And as the moon rose higher the inessential houses began to melt away until gradually I became aware of the old island here that flowered once for Dutch sailors' eyes-a fresh, green breast of the new world. Its vanished trees, the trees that had made way for Gatsby's house, had once pandered in whispers to the last and greatest of all human dreams; for a transitory enchanted moment man must have held his breath in the presence of this continent, compelled into an aesthetic contemplation he neither understood nor desired, face to face for the last time in history with something commensurate to his capacity for wonder.

 

[derall]

The best closing lines IMHO are in dystopian novels, but unlike Orwell, it's the ones that leave just a glimmer of hope. Where's the hope in 'He loved Big Brother'?

Instead, how about:

"...yet in the single-mindedness of their intent, the purity of their anger, and their lack of choice, they were taking with them everything that mattered" (Life During Wartime)

"But across the city on fortieth avenue they have managed to construct a wall of high voltage wires. And I hope we will win. More than that. I know we will win. Because Reason should win" (We)

"'That the world may be clean': I remember my father's words. Clean indeed it was and most intricate, fiercer than tigers, wonderful and infinitely forgiving" (The Aerodrome)

 

[661-Pete]

Well I recognised a few of those but not all. Depends how well-read one is, I suppose.

Is this anything to do with that "It was a dark and stormy night.." competition that's been running for some years now I believe?

Anyway, it's easy enough to compile a list of one's own. Not so easy to answer someone else's list. Anyone care to place these? (not in the DM's list). I have censored out some obvious names. No googling!

• ...but now there was a sombre satisfaction on the round and ruddy face of ********* - First Speaker.
• So the ascetic Ebionites used to turn towards Jerusalem when they prayed. Paul made a note of it. Quite right to suppress them. Then he turned out the light and went to his bedroom to sleep.
• The gun, ********** had finally convinced himself, was after all a dream.
• ...together they slipped away, running easily down through the wood, where the first primroses were beginning to bloom.
• And ***********, standing on his hind legs, before the window, peering out into the night, gave a short bark of decided concurrence with the toast.

 

[661-Pete]

As this can be deemed on topic, one of my favourites is

I lingered round them, under that benign sky: watched the moths fluttering among the heath and harebells, listened to the soft wind breathing through the grass, and wondered how any one could ever imagine unquiet slumbers for the sleepers in that quiet earth.

Were you watching TV last night by any chance, marinyork?

Spoiler

I don't really get this Heathcliff in his Yorkshire accent. Sorry. But maybe my view is clouded by memories of the 1930s Hollywood edition (Olivier/Oberon) where everybody - but everybody - speaks with US accents...

 

[ComedyPilot]

Thats my Santa - His beard is SO soft.

From the 'That's Not My....' line of kids books.

 

[tordis]

The second one's from Sylvia Plath's "The Bell Jar" - I've read it a dozen times and will probably read again, although I know it almost by heart. The first one is Orwell's "1984" - very memorable.

 

[hambones]

Er.... hardly gave the game away - over-reaction and the Daily Mail...hmmm?


(Lots of fun at parties - but depends on the type of party...)