100 Best Last Lines from Novels

By John Farrier in Book & Literature on Mar 17, 2008 at 4:57 pm

Neatorama author's bookshelf The scholarly journal The American Book Review has a list what it considers to be the best last lines from novels. A few samples:

7. He loved Big Brother. –George Orwell, 1984 (1949)

21. If I were a younger man, I would write a history of human stupidity; and I would climb to the top of Mount McCabe and lie down on my back with my history for a pillow; and I would take from the ground some of the blue-white poison that makes statues of men; and I would make a statue of myself, lying on my back, grinning horribly, and thumbing my nose at You Know Who. –Kurt Vonnegut, Cat’s Cradle (1963)

37. P.S.
Sorry I forgot to give you the mayonnaise.
–Richard Brautigan, Trout Fishing in America (1967)

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fraz
Mar 17th, 2008 at 5:18 pm
There is no “I am Legend” which I think is one best last lines of any novel I have read.
R.S
Mar 17th, 2008 at 5:21 pm
Good read, would like to see them compile a bigger list though.
bean
Mar 17th, 2008 at 5:35 pm
No. 12 was my favorite, but a bunch of those weren’t last lines. They were last paragraphs.
bean
Mar 17th, 2008 at 5:45 pm
And no Grapes of Wrath?
emptyminded
Mar 17th, 2008 at 6:57 pm
I’m glad to see that Grendel made the list. I would have placed it higher than 50. And I would have put in a couple more of Raymond Chandler’s.

I agree with R.S., I would enjoy a longer list.
Stacy
Mar 17th, 2008 at 7:26 pm
They’re all good lines, but they’re also better in context.
FetishForPerception
Mar 17th, 2008 at 7:58 pm
God dammit, I’m halfway through reading 1984…
Jsahko
Mar 17th, 2008 at 11:29 pm
@Stacy,

I totally agree. I was hoping for lines that stood alone, as a great first line can do, though some are truly great on their own.

I wish I could read more and faster.
lepton
Mar 18th, 2008 at 12:34 am
Please don’t put spoilers at the beginning of the post
lepton
Mar 18th, 2008 at 12:34 am
Please don’t put spoilers in the beginning of the post
ByronW
Mar 18th, 2008 at 2:58 am
“The skipper remarked to me the other day, ‘There are things you fing nothing about in books’. I think that he got out of it very well for such a stupid man.”

“Typhoon”, by Joeseph Conrad
Rosi
Mar 19th, 2008 at 12:15 pm
I know this is cheesy and cliche, but I loved the last line of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows:
“All was well”.

Also, the last line of Roald Dahl’s last book, the Minpins:
“And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it.”
Okay I added in the line before it as well, but that’s because it’s just as fantastic.

Also I know I’m always plugging this book, but that’s just because it’s incredible (has in my opinion the best first line and last line ever):
“Only the margin to write in now. I love you, I love you, I love you.”
I Capture the Castle
Dave A
Mar 19th, 2008 at 12:48 pm
They should have included a few from Tom Robbins:

“It’s never too late to have a happy childhood” – Still Life with Woodpecker.

“Indigo, Indigoing, Indigone” – Jitterbug Perfume.

The whole books are even better.

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