Book Ends - A continued break from politics

In response to Zosimov's Best First Lines thread, I give you a thread for the best book endings.

I shall not limit the discussion to the last line; however, you are more than welcome to go with the last line. This is more along the lines of the best ending to a story. If you want to say why as well . . . then that's also ok.

But as with the post listed above, this is more about a break from nonsense than anything else!

Have at it, and have fun!

*** Oh Yeah, WARNING!!!!, Spoilers may be present!***

a reply to: JDeLattre89
I will repost the Nabokovian endings I mentioned in the other thread (because the first and last lines work together).

Invitation to a Beheading;
First line

In accordance with the law the death sentence was announced to Cincinnatus C. in a whisper

Last line

Cincinnatus made his way in that direction where, to judge by the voices, stood beings akin to him

The Defence;
First line

What struck him most was the fact that from Monday on he would be Luzhin

Last line

The door was burst in. "Alexandr Ivanovich, Alexandr Ivanovish", roared several voices.
But there was no Alexandr Ivanovich

a reply to: JDeLattre89

Awesome. Full circle. And as with the beginning of my thread, I'll leave you with the end of Moby Dick (interesting fact-- the epilogue was mistakingly left out of its first printing-- in England, titled The Whale-- leaving many critics to wonder with consternation just how the book could be narrated by a dead man.)

Bouyed up by that coffin, for almost one whole day and night, I floated on a soft and dirge-like main. The unharming sharks, they glided by as if with padlocks on their mouths; the savage sea-hawks sailed with sheathed beaks. On the second day, a sail drew near, nearer, and picked me up at last. It was with the devious-cruising Rachel, that in her retracing search after her missing children, only found another orphan.

I am not going to quote mine since it is over several chapters, but rather I will explain what happens and why it is my favourite.

My favourite book ending is from Alexandre Dumas' "The Man in the Iron Mask". I like this one because it goes over the deaths of the Musketeers and the values that each of them represented.

Porthos: Strength
Athos: Honor
D'Artanon: Loyalty
Aramis: Cunning (the only survivor)

They, hand in hand, with wandering steps and slow,
Through Eden took their solitary way

Milton, Paradise Lost

Laurence Sterne's Tristram Shandy was never formally completed, but the last published chapter ends in this way;

L--d, said my mother, what is all this story about?---
A COCK and a BULL, said Yorick--- And one of the best of its kind I ever heard

All right.

All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one earth has read: which goes on for ever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.

-- The Last Battle, C.S. Lewis

But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother.

-- 1984, George Orwell

Pasternak's Dr Zhivago has a pretty amazing end:

To the two old friends, as they sat by the window, it seemed that this freedom of the soul was already there, as if that very evening the future had tangibly moved into the streets below them, that they themselved had entered it and were now part of it. Thinking of this holy city and of the entire earth, of the still-living protagonists of this story, and their children, they were filled with tenderness and peace, and they were enveloped by the unheard music of happiness that flowed all about them and into the distance. And the book they held seemed to confirm and encourage their feeling.

Disraeli is talking about book ending between start and finish?

OK

The primroses were over.

-- Watership Down, Richard Adams

"You needn't worry about them," said his companion. "They'll be all right -- and thousands like them. If you'll come along, I'll show you what I mean."

He reached the top of the bank in a single, powerful leap. Hazel followed; and together they slipped away, running easily down through the wood, where the first primroses were just beginning to bloom.

Watership Down, Richard Adams

The first line makes sense in combination with the ending. Full circle.

I'm sure the red fern has grown and has completely covered the two little mounds. I know it is still there, hiding its secret beneath those long, red leaves, but it wouldn't be hidden from me for part of my life is buried there, too.

Yes, I know it is still there, for in my heart I believe the legend of the sacred red fern.

-- Where the Red Fern Grows, Wilson Rawls

"So in America when the sun goes down and I sit on the old broken-down river pier watching the long, long skies over New Jersey and sense all that raw land that rolls in one unbelievable huge bulge over to the West Coast, and all that road going, and all the people dreaming in the immensity of it, and in Iowa I know by now the children must be crying in the land where they let the children cry, and tonight the stars'll be out, and don't you know that God is Pooh Bear?

The evening star must be drooping and shedding her sparkler dims on the prairie, which is just before the coming of complete night that blesses the earth, darkens all the rivers, cups the peaks and folds the final shore in, and nobody, nobody knows what's going to happen to anybody besides the forlorn rags of growing old, I think of Dean Moriarty, I even think of Old Dean Moriarty the father we never found, I think of Dean Moriarty."

Jack Kerouac, On The Road

This one is so disturbing. Based on a true story, no less:

"'My sweet little blue-eyed girl,' he said in a half-sung sigh that had nothing to do with her brown eyes but was taken up just the same by the vast sunlit reaches of the land behind him and on all sides of him--so much land that Connie had never seen before and did not recognize except to know that she was going into it." -Joyce Carol Oates "Where are you going, where have you been?"

Another bleak disturbing end but so excellent nonetheless:

Blood Meridian

"And they are dancing, the board floor slamming under the jackboots and the fiddlers grinning hideously over their canted pieces. Towering over them all is the judge and he is naked dancing, his small feet lively and quick and now in doubletime and bowing to the ladies, huge and pale and hairless like an enourmous infant. He never sleeps, he says. He says that he will never die. He bows to the fiddlers and sashays backwards and throws back his head and laughs deep in his throat and he is a great favorite, the judge. He wafts his hat and the lunar dome of his skull passes palely under the lamps and he swings about and takes possession of one of the fiddles and he pirouettes and makes a pass, two passes, dancing and fiddling at once. His feet are light and nimble. He never sleeps. He says that he will never die. He dances in the light and shadow and he is a great favorite. He never sleeps, the judge. He is dancing, dancing. He says that he will never die."

Mother whispered, "See, you don't have to think
about doing the right thing. If you're for the right thing,
then you do it without even thinking."
She turned out the light and I patted my son's body
lightly and went back to sleep."

Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

What miracle is this? This giant tree. 
It stands ten thousand feet high 
But doesn't reach the ground. Still it stands.
Its roots must hold the sky.


Mark Z. Danielewski "House of Leaves"

Graham Greene "Beauty"

"Such small things ruin our sense of compassion, for surely, if it had not been for that hideous orange toque, I would have felt some pity for the old sterile thing, perched up there, calling for lost Beauty."

a reply to: ketsuko

1984 . . . one of my absolute favourites! Sadly, most people nowadays have not read it.

originally posted by: JDeLattre89
a reply to: ketsuko

1984 . . . one of my absolute favourites! Sadly, most people nowadays have not read it.

I read it in college as a companion to Brave New World. I've read it once or twice again over the years since then.

a reply to: ketsuko

Which did you like more? I've read that brave new world is closer to a vision of the future than 1984.

I liked them both, but there was something more in brave new world, I dunno. I love Aldous Huxley

a reply to: denybedoomed

I think Brave New World inevitably collapses into 1984 frankly.

I just felt that while Brave New World was insidious, it felt unsustainable long term. It was like the first version of the Matrix that was mentioned - we made it a paradise where everyone was happy, but you wouldn't accept it. That's what Brave New World was, a place where the people were kept happy and compliant. But people won't complacently accept that.

In fact, the Wikileaks has an email where they are talking about designing a compliant, complacent citizenry in the education system. They remark that people are unaware/complacent but the compliant bit isn't working out so well for them. In fact, people are less compliant all the time, and we see that on multiple levels don't we?

So, I think Brave New World collapses into either revolution or 1984.