The land is not to be sold.' "From My Antonia by Willa Cather. The Handmaids Tale, by Margaret Atwood (1985), If you havent read Atwoods dystopian novel since it was first published, you may have forgotten what follows the story of Offreds resistance to the Republic of Gilead. I am serious, and dont call me Shirley. Of course, former slaves and historians had described the horrors of slavery before, but nearly 125 years after Emancipation, Morrison made the psychological legacy of the Souths peculiar institution palpable as no other book ever had. The chaos and disappointments of the preceding months have cured him of pointless fantasies, and he dismisses Bretts romantic speculation with this bitter rhetorical question. Ten memorable Shakespeare lines. "From White Noise by Don DeLillo. The really interesting thing, though, is that his parting words also offer a glimpse of hopeand the only one in Seven, for that matter. He has just been awarded the Cross of the Legion of Honor. Its final scene, the culmination of a relentless series of hardships, losses and deaths, offers a moment of startling compassion and intimacy the very milk of human kindness made flesh. Torn between two very different men, Madeleine endures real tragedy before finally correcting her course, which we, her desperate fans, cant know for sure until that very last word. It touches on the passing of youth and of more innocent times in life, but it also offers hope by pointing out that sharing toys helps keep the magic of play alive. Gillian Anderson quiz: A Streetcar Named Desire or The X Files? Gilead is not only one of the finest novels of the 21st century, its also one of the most theological. Scholars of Elizabethan drama believe that William Shakespeare wrote at least 38 plays between 1590 and 1612. But, for movies, the opposite is often true. A Christmas Carol, After all, tomorrow is another day. Although it inspired considerable condemnation at the time, its now recognized as one of the earliest modernist novels and a foundational feminist text. Hamlet ponders life, death, and the merits . by Mark Twain (1884). Ames describes adventures both historical and spiritual. Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince by J.K. Rowling "Severus. Snow fell from the darkening, leaden sky. Others enter into the language, take on a life of their own, and eclipse their source. Her parting words are Sunset Boulevard's stinging, darkly funny punchline. Though were of the opinion that you could take any of Nabokovs sentences at random and put them on any best-of list with no problems, this may be the best ending to an impressionistic memoir about perception, memory and the haziness of reality: There, in front of us, where a broken row of houses stood between us and the harbor, and where the eye encountered all sorts of stratagems, such as pale-blue and pink underwear cakewalking on a clothesline, or a ladys bicycle and a striped cat oddly sharing a rudimentary balcony of cast iron, it was most satisfying to make out among the jumbled angles of roofs and walls, a splendid ships finnel, showing from behind the clothesline as something in a scrambled picture Find What the Sailor Has Hidden that the finder cannot unsee once it has been seen. Caddyshack takes place at Bushwood Country Club, an establishment filled with rich uptight socialites, most notably Judge Elihu Smails (Ted Knight). Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston (1937), The fact that there is no demand for incisive and full-dress stories around Negroes above the servant class is indicative of something of vast importance to this nation, Hurston wrote in 1950. ", "But that is the beginning of a new story - the story of the gradual renewal of a man, the story of his gradual regeneration, of his passing from one world into another, of his initiation into a new unknown life. Not love, necessarily, but a protective form of kinship. ", The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway, "Whatever our struggles and triumphs, however we may suffer them, all too soon they bleed into a wash, just like watery ink on paper. That this time the wind will not hear. Isnt it pretty to think so?From The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway. After a near-catastrophic experience that nearly erases his own existence, Marty McFly (Michael J. I am haunted by humans. E.T. ", "'From the Land of Oz,' said Dorothy gravely. The Finish Line - 10 questions - 3 mins. Anyone who has ever seen Se7en cannot forget its harrowing ending. The book ends with an epilogue that takes place at an academic conference in the year 2195. ", "He turned away to give them time to pull themselves together; and waited, allowing his eyes to rest on the trim cruiser in the distance. During its initial release in 1999, Fight Club was widely misunderstood. Then after a 15 year hiatus came A Gate at the Stairs, about a witty young woman trying to figure out adult life in the face of two unspeakable tragedies. This writers personal favorite. Dont ever tell anybody anything. In the final pages, the narrator knows some readers will continue to ignore the relevance of his life: Youll fail to see how any principle that applies to you could apply to me. But he knows thats not true. TV, Film & Music. ", "'Rest assured, our father, rest assured. Ellisons masterpiece, which won the 1953 National Book Award, remade the terrain of African American fiction and American fiction. The quoted lines occur in a voiceover as people enter and exit a hotel's revolving door. ", "She watched as Sandy Forsyth walked across the talmac towards them, smiling like an eager curious schoolboy as he lifted his face to the sunny English afternoon. by Charles Dickens (1843). All that remained of the German regiment was a little cloud of dust. Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, Helen came and embraced me. ", The Hound of the Baskervilles, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, "My personal rollercoaster. And all that cal. It's the next breath we all take. The light of a single lamp brought into his dark parlor arrives like a foretaste of grace. Roman Polanski's Chinatown provides Jack Nicholson with one of his most iconic roles, that of private investigator Jake Gittis. An entire novel can be ruined by a disappointing ending, but by the same token, an entire novel can be made by a wonderful one. Although two centuries have passed since Dr. Victor Frankenstein turned loose into the world a depraved wretch, his creatures plaintive cry still moves anyone who has a beating heart. Everyone is now free to have a good time at the club no matter who they are, where they come from, or how much money they have. And oh, Aunt Em! Here are 23 final lines that I have never forgotten. Lorrie Moore, one of the best short story writers alive, once said, The end of a story is really everything, and for many years it seemed she had abandoned novel writing altogether. Darcy, as well as Elizabeth, really loved them; and they were both ever sensible of the warmest gratitude towards the persons who, by bringing her into Derbyshire, had been the means of uniting them. At the end of Henrik Ibsens play Hedda Gabler (1891), a trapped and passionate woman shoots herself in the head, and her old friend exclaims, Good God! Following our massively popular and lovingly selected list of the 100 best opening lines from books, its now time for the closing lines to shine. Im a man of my, 6. Together, they attempt to assemble a "phone" that E.T. Kong takes one of the planes down, but he ultimately loses his balance after being shot, leading him to fall to his death. ", "I went on my way. For a time, Hill enjoys the flash, the cash, and the fear-driven respect that comes from being a mobster. Salinger. It's dusty and desolate, and there's not much to do. h'd. Now my spirit is going; Lapsing into the bland objectivity of academia, the professor warns his fellow scholars to be cautious about passing moral judgment upon the Gileadean. In response to that challenge, 18-year-old Mary Shelley conceived of the worlds most famous monster. He convinces Lt. Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman) to let him take responsibility for the murders to avoid the dispiriting consequences. ", Half of a Yellow Sun, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, "Light falls through the window, falls onto me, into me. See if you recognise these closing lines of 10 great plays, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning, 'You bull's pizzle': match Shakespeare's insults to his plays quiz. This is the very famous last line of "Casablanca" which starred Humphrey Bogart, Paul Henreid and Ingrid Bergman. The last chapter of Ulysses is Molly Bloom's stream of consciousness, and it's simply amazing. "But that is another tale, and as I said in the beginning, this is just a story meant to be read in bed in an old house on a rainy night. The first readers were shocked by His final advice, not to tell anybody anything, could have run anywhere in the novel, but it sounds especially poignant at the end of his journey. Mitchell's famous last lines are at once heartbreaking and hopeful. "In a place far away from anyone or anywhere, I drifted off for a moment. Indeed, the Western image of the poetyouthful, idealistic, inspired . The dreaminess of this entire novel is punctuated with this final sentence, which is more of an ellipses than a stark period. Best pessimistic diagnosis of a resigned and wistful generation: Yes, I said. Like Fitzgerald's final lines, Cather's provide a poignant thesis statement. In the movie's final minutes, the limping Verbal exits the police station, and viewers see his disability immediately disappear. But it was another girl, young and new to the city, fiddling with her keys. Were you paying attention before the curtain fell? Here are 21 of our favorite last lines in literature: "So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past." From The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald 4 min. The elitist snobs are no longer in charge. Hazel followed; and together they slipped away, running easily down through the wood, where the first primroses were beginning to bloom. Goodfellas ends with him stuck in the kind of lifestyle he always hoped to avoid. Go on my son! '"From Candide by Voltaire. "Up out of the lampshade, startled by the overhead light, flew a large nocturnal butterfly that began circling the room. We follow them across hundreds of thousands of words, but the final line can make or break a book. The right parting words help to drive the story's theme home in a meaningful way, encapsulating its entire point. ", "He didn't think about it, he went straight to a seat facing forwards, so that he could see where he was going. He's asked what it is, to which he replies "the stuff that dreams are made of.". ", "Yukiko's diarrhoea persisted through the twenty-sixth, and was a problem on the train to Tokyo. Most dearly held last line for moody and secretive teenagers everywhere: Dont ever tell anybody anything. Then, Doc arrives in the DeLorean, informing him that there's a personal crisis in his future. ", RELATED: 13 Best Shark Movies To Watch This Summer (That Aren't Jaws). ", Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood, Alexandra Fuller, "Yes, they will trample me underfoot, the numbers marching one two three, four hundred million five hundred six, reducing me to specks of voiceless dust, just as, in all good time, they will trample my son who is not my son, and his son who will not be his, and his who will not be his, until the thousand and first generation, until a thousand and one midnights have bestowed their terrible gifts and a thousand and one children have died, because it is the privilege and the curse of midnights children to be both masters and victims of their times, to forsake privacy and be sucked into the annihilating whirlpool of the multitudes, and to be unable to live or die in peace. 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