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jediknight1234Aug 5, 2010
Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
Now what the hell ya suppose is eating’ them two guys?’
gypsylibrarianAug 5, 2010
And they forgot the best one of all time: One Hundred Years of Solitude? Check this out:
>>Before reaching the final line, however, he had already understood that he would never leave that room, for it was foreseen that the city of mirrors (or mirages) would be wiped out by the wind and exiled from the memory of men at the precise moment when Aureliano Babilonia would finish deciphering the parchments, and that everything written on them was unrepeatable since time immemorial and forever more, because races condemned to one hundred years of solitude did not have a second opportunity on earth<<
newerakbAug 6, 2010
run-on much?
juliusthecatAug 6, 2010
This account has been closed by the user
newerakbAug 6, 2010
except he wrote the book in Spanish, not English, so how about you shut it?
17999Aug 6, 2010
sesame street is that - a - way >>>
newerakbAug 6, 2010
I'm not saying it's bad prose, or a bad book. I'm sure it's incredible. But there is no need for that sentence to be that long. It could be split easily at 'parchments' and retain all of its character.Comment is buried, click here to see the rest.
juliusthecatAug 6, 2010
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thebadwolfAug 6, 2010
It's part of the style. It's part of what makes the book as good as it is. Admittedly, out of context, it might seem poorly written. If you read the book and got into the pace and the rhythm, though, you'd understand.
newerakbAug 6, 2010
I don't doubt that at all. I wasn't making any sort of statement about the book or the author in general.
sindexAug 6, 2010
Pff.. that doesn't matter in literature. Look at anything by Cormac McCarthy. He would fail any English class with his writing, but win the Pulitzer Prize and you can do whatever you want.
17999Aug 6, 2010
Logged on just to post this, thanks.
fungowskiAug 7, 2010
I prefer the Timothy Zahn classic, "Tin Man":
"It always amazes me, Mr. Data," Picard paused for a belt of earl gray, "Just how human you really are."
jameslowellAug 5, 2010
Catch 22 is best. Nice list.
eastwood24Aug 5, 2010
"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." –George Orwell, Animal Farm (1945)
hetmanAug 5, 2010
I agree 100%. I like the ending to 1984 however that line was scortched into my memory the first time I read it. It still kind of freaks me out to this day.
joeparanoidAug 5, 2010
Of that list, Chandler's was the best: “I never saw any of them again — except the cops. No way has yet been invented to say goodbye to them.”
benjaminsumnerAug 5, 2010
#21:
Life was such a wheel that no man could stand upon it for long. And it always, at the end, came round to the same place again.
- Stephen King, The Stand
effoffpunkAug 6, 2010
Ugh the beginning of that book was so good but it all went downhill when the fat evil kid died.
fungowskiAug 7, 2010
It seems hard for writers to do end-of-the-world stuff without resorting to allegory. Even "The Road" dipped into that territory a little, although not too bad. I must admit I loved the whole mother Abagail thing when I was a kid.
killthepopularAug 6, 2010
Glad they had double indemnity. I always thought that was one of the most astonishing final paragraphs in the history of literature. I even put it in a song i wrote: http://www.last.fm/music/Quick+escape+Gammon/2008/say
Also, gotta have Tale of two cities, amazing ending. If it's good enough for Captain Kirk it's good enough for me.
All time fave novel ending has to be Fante's Ask the Dust.Comment is buried, click here to see the rest.
runner5Aug 6, 2010
The Great Gatsby...nuff said.
masterspy7Aug 6, 2010
'Goodnight, sweet prince' or 'The rest is silence'
dmorinAug 6, 2010
Unfortunately not the last line, by a good amount. After somebody did a "Best Opening Lines" article the other day, we started doing endings over on my Shakespeare site:
http://blog.shakespearegeek.com/2010/08/best-ending-lines.html
Dated several days before this post, so hopefully I don't look like I'm spamming. But you brought up Hamlet :)
Closed AccountAug 6, 2010
I always liked the closing line from "So Long And Thanks For All The Fish" by Douglas Adams:
"There was a point to this story, but it has temporarily escaped the chronicler's mind."
danj484Aug 6, 2010
#4 is the first line.
effoffpunkAug 6, 2010
Yep, the last line of the Divine Comedy is
The Love which moves the sun and the other stars.
cerebronAug 6, 2010
Here vigour fail'd the tow'ring fantasy:
But yet the will roll'd onward, like a wheel
In even motion, by the Love impell'd,
That moves the sun in heav'n and all the stars.
nmanguyAug 6, 2010
No "I am Legend"? I'm not asking for #1, but it at least belongs somewhere on that list.
dawsy380Aug 6, 2010
"Poo-tee-weet?"
-Slaughterhouse Five
greatgatAug 6, 2010
I'm fairly sure any of Vonnegut's books could be on that list.
danisthAug 6, 2010
ahh I logged in to post that one.
camaroz06Aug 6, 2010
I have to read Catch-22 again, it was my favorite book in high school and I cant remember most of it. I remember the premise but not he actual story.
smokeydabearAug 6, 2010
"And with the Star Wars over, they could all rest in peace....or could they? The End?"
Novelization of of the film Star Wars, written by George LucasComment is buried, click here to see the rest.
zomgondoAug 6, 2010
Frankenstein was a happy-go-lucky romp in the sunshine compared to Shelley's next novel, The Last Man:
"Thus around the shores of the deserted Earth, while the sun is high, and the moon waxes or wanes, angels, the spirits of the dead, and the ever-open eye of the Supreme will behold the tiny bark, freighted with Verney - THE LAST MAN."
bovilexiaAug 6, 2010
Pretty sure that's the opening line to Divine Comedy
pradaaddictAug 6, 2010
It was from there
that we emerged, to see once more the stars.
Is the closing line of Inferno. You are correct sir, I caught that as well.
texasshivAug 6, 2010
God damn the last line of 1984 was just always so defeating to me. I've read that book at least 5x over, and EVER TIME, that last line just gets me.
falldogAug 6, 2010
I like the one that ends, "f**k it."
cerebronAug 6, 2010
Voltaire's Candide:
"All that is very well," answered Candide, "but let us cultivate our garden."
isaacandAug 6, 2010
Probably one of the better lists Ive seen on Dugg in quite some time....thought a "Tale of Two Cities" deserved to be #1. Probably the most famous and most recognizable to people outside Old Man and the Sea.
On a side note, would have been nice to include the birds chirping at the end of Vonnegut's "Slaughterhouse Five"
mccuneAug 6, 2010
"...thought a "Tale of Two Cities" deserved to be #1."
FTA: Just so you know, they are in no particular order.
ct0189Aug 6, 2010
Everytime I pick up a book, I like reading the very last sentence. It usually never gives too much away, and its fun to have it in the back of your mind.
cajungator3Aug 6, 2010
but the shopkeeper and his son that's a different story altogether.....I had to beat them to death with their own shoes.
keysersozeAug 6, 2010
My favorite: In the world according to Garp, we are all terminal cases.
ipoodAug 6, 2010
American Psycho: "This is not an exit."
Fixed.
idbjoshmAug 6, 2010
It was the best of times, it was the BLURST of times.
pradaaddictAug 6, 2010
I had only to wish that there be a large crowd of spectators the day of my execution and that they greet me with cries of hate.
- Camus, The Stranger
Closed AccountAug 6, 2010
A Tale of Two Cities also has the distinction of having one of the best opening lines in literature. "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times."
Charles Dickens FTW.
level4Aug 6, 2010
*observation* Why did he number them if they are in no particular order? It's not like we couldn't reference them by name.
grolschAug 6, 2010
Weird list but dugg for Hemingway and Dostoevsky, surprisingly making top 2
jabbrwockeyAug 6, 2010
God damn American Psycho was awesome - just like the movie but way more intense.
Also, 1984's closing line was the cincher. He spent the entire book avoiding what was in the very last sentence.
mip10110100Aug 6, 2010
"And when he came back to, he was flat on his back on the beach in the freezing sand, and it was raining out of a low sky, and the tide was way out." Infinite Jest - David Foster Wallace
Closed AccountAug 6, 2010
Spoilers.
smithraAug 7, 2010
"And this is the only immortality you and I may share, my Lolita." -- Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita.
junior612Aug 7, 2010
He raised his hand and over the desolate earth he traced in space the sign of the dollar.
Atlas Shrugged
fungowskiAug 7, 2010
"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". - Scary last line of Old Testament