# Best Closing Line / Paragraph of A Book



## lorezskyline (Apr 19, 2010)

Been following a thread on here for a while of the best opening line of a book, but what about the best closing sentences of a book?  
It could be a shock, or a real happy moment or whatever one that springs to mine for me is Animal Farm George Orwell:

"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."

Any other favorites out there?


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## Thalia the Muse (Jan 20, 2010)

the last paragraph of James Joyce's The Dead is about as good as it gets, IMO.



> A few light taps upon the pane made him turn to the window. It had begun to snow again. He watched sleepily the flakes, silver and dark, falling obliquely against the lamplight. The time had come for him to set out on his journey westward. Yes, the newspapers were right: snow was general all over Ireland. It was falling on every part of the dark central plain, on the treeless hills, falling softly upon the Bog of Allen and, farther westward, softly falling into the dark mutinous Shannon waves. It was falling, too, upon every part of the lonely churchyard on the hill where Michael Furey lay buried. It lay thickly drifted on the crooked crosses and headstones, on the spears of the little gate, on the barren thorns. His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead.


I like the end of Gatsby too, with the boats beating on against the current, born into the past.


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## Tatiana (Aug 20, 2010)

This was mentioned in another thread but it remains on of my favourite closing lines.

It's from _The Fiery Cross_ by Diana Gabaldon who attributes it in the Acknowledgments to her husband Doug Watkins.

Jamie Fraser is speaking to his wife Claire:

"When the day shall come, that we do part," he said softly, and turned to look at me, "if my last words are not 'I love you' - ye'll ken it was because I didna have time."


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

Perhaps the "Call me Ishmael" of endings?

"Poo-tee-weet?"

_Slaughterhouse Five_ ~ Kurt Vonnegut

Another short but sweet one:

"Goodbye and hello, as always."

_The Courts of Chaos_ ~ Roger Zelazny

And a longer one (which may require reading in context to be as effective as I find it):



> King Rhys turned in his seat, leaned across the two empty places and said to the Diamond King: 'Do you think something has happened to them? It's past six o'clock!'
> 
> Shine smiled, filling the hall with light. 'I suspect they've been delayed by matters of great importance.'
> 
> ...


_Thud!_ ~ Terry Pratchett


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## DYB (Aug 8, 2009)

I've always loved Edith Wharton's "The House of Mirth."

_"He knelt by the bed and bent over her, draining their last moment to its lees; and in the silence there passed between them the word which made all clear."_

And Emily Brontë's "Wuthering Heights" - such a peaceful end to such a violent novel.

_"I lingered round them, under that benign sky; watched the moths fluttering among the heath, and hare-bells; 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."_


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## Victorine (Apr 23, 2010)

Great closing lines!  Pride and Prejudice's closing line is good too... although I don't have it in front of me.

Vicki


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## DYB (Aug 8, 2009)

I also love the ending of E.M. Forster's "A Passage to India." It's a novel about racism in India. In it an Indian doctor, Aziz, is falsely accused of sexually assaulting an English woman - and all hell breaks loose. Only one Englishman, Fielding, stands by him through the ordeal

_And Aziz in an awful rage danced this way and that, not knowing what to do, and cried: "Down with the English anyhow. That's certain. Clear out, you fellows, double quick, I say. We may hate one another, but we hate you most. If I don't make you go, Ahmed will, Karim will, if it's fifty-five hundred years we shall get rid of you, yes, we shall drive every blasted Englishman into the sea, and then" - he rode against him furiously - "and then," he concluded, half kissing him, "you and I shall be friends."

"Why can't we be friends now?" said the other, holding him affectionately. "It's what I want. It's what you want."

But the horses didn't want it - they swerved apart; the earth didn't want it; sending up rocks through which riders must pass single file; the temples, the tank, the jail, the palace, the birds, the carrion, the Guest House, that came into view as they issued from the gap and saw Mau beneath: they didn't want it, they said in their hundred voices, "No, not yet," and the sky said, "No, not there."_


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## 4Katie (Jun 27, 2009)

I don't know about books, but my favorite closing line from a movie is from Life as a House: _My father built you a house._

Gets me every time.


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## Harry Shannon (Jul 30, 2010)

I am legend


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## NickSpalding (Apr 21, 2010)

"The man in black fled across the desert and the gunslinger followed..."

is a great last line...even if the climax it stems from was pretty bad.

and of course...

"He drew a deep breath. "Well, I'm back," he said.".


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## Margaret (Jan 1, 2010)

The ending of Robert Bolt's _A Man for All Seasons_ has stayed with me since I read the play in high school, many years ago - "If you must make trouble, make the kind that is expected."


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## barryem (Oct 19, 2010)

It's not the last line and I'm not sure it's even the last paragraph but it's very close to it.  The ending of John Steinbeck's "Grapes of Wrath" is one of the most poignant I've ever encountered.  But it would spoil it to tell what it is.

Another final line that comes to mind is the last line of "The Name of the Rose", where the title is finally explained.  It's astounding and unexpected and quite beautiful.

Barry


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## ReeseReed (Dec 5, 2009)

It's not the ending of the book, but I've always been a sucker for "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn."


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## Mike D. aka jmiked (Oct 28, 2008)

"It was going to be fun to play God."
-Frank M. Robinson, _The Power_


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## Pinworms (Oct 20, 2010)

I like Orwell too...but I thought the end of 1984 was the best.  

"He loved Big Brother"


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## metal134 (Sep 2, 2010)

Now, everybody-


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## Cliff Ball (Apr 10, 2010)

THE END


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## Jason in MA (Apr 28, 2009)

NickSpalding said:


> "The man in black fled across the desert and the gunslinger followed..."
> 
> is a great last line...even if the climax it stems from was pretty bad.


One of my favorites too. Although I have to say I found the climax fitting, with the recurring theme of Ka as a Wheel, etc. I feel it'd be hard to have any other ending. Besides, King gives us some hope that it would be Roland's last journey.


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## Terrence OBrien (Oct 21, 2010)

I'd say Charles Dickens has both the best opening and closing lines in Tale of Two Cities.

Opening: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times."

Closing: "It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to, than I have ever known."


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## Martel47 (Jun 14, 2010)

Terrence OBrien said:


> I'd say Charles Dickens has both the best opening and closing lines in Tale of Two Cities.
> 
> Opening: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times."
> 
> Closing: "It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to, than I have ever known."


I saw this thread and was just planning on posting this closing line. I'm not a big Dickens fan, but what a great way to bookend a story!


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## warobison (Aug 29, 2010)

> I'd say Charles Dickens has both the best opening and closing lines in Tale of Two Cities.
> 
> Opening: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times."
> 
> Closing: "It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to, than I have ever known."


Best opening, best closing, best Dickens!

What makes the closing even better for me is the fact that Sidney Carton doesn't say it. Dickens prefaces all of Carton's last "words" with: "If he had given utterance to his [thoughts], and they were prophetic, they would have been these:


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## Guest (Oct 28, 2010)

4Katie said:


> I don't know about books, but my favorite closing line from a movie is from Life as a House: _My father built you a house._
> 
> Gets me every time.


I LOVE this movie!


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## Laurensaga (Sep 29, 2010)

This completely cliche'd and I would never use it, but it is the best even though it is not the least bit accurate.

_And they lived happily ever after._

From I can't even remember how many fairy tales.


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## Indy (Jun 7, 2010)

The last verse of Malachi, Old Testament:
"And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse."

I don't know if it was necessary, but that just kind of slams the door on the old testament for me.  I feel the clang and the jolt of it each time I read it.  And yes, I'm freaky, malachi is comforting to me.  All except the last line.


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## Martel47 (Jun 14, 2010)

Indy said:


> The last verse of Malachi, Old Testament:
> "And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse."
> 
> I don't know if it was necessary, but that just kind of slams the door on the old testament for me. I feel the clang and the jolt of it each time I read it. And yes, I'm freaky, malachi is comforting to me. All except the last line.


Gotta love some Minor Prophets.

Of course, in any Hebrew Bible, the last words would be from 2 Chronicles, not Malachi: "Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, All the kingdoms of the earth hath the LORD God of heaven given me; and he hath charged me to build him an house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Who is there among you of all his people? The LORD his God be with him, and let him go up."

That makes a pretty good ending, too.


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## Neil_Plakcy (Mar 28, 2010)

I still remember the closing line of The Far Pavillions, by MM Kaye.

The two lovers have been separated for much of this massive book, and then we get the last line:

"The curtain opened. And it was Ash."

That appealed so much to the romantic in me that I memorized it.


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