# Novels that end with their own beginning -- Any examples? (Open spoilers) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 11, 2012, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-that-end-with-their-own-beginning-any-examples-open-spoilers/637393 "2012-10-11T05:02:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![janis\_and\_c0](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/janis_and_c0/32/21_2.png) [@janis\_and\_c0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/janis_and_c0)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2012, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-that-end-with-their-own-beginning-any-examples-open-spoilers/637393/21 "2012-10-12T05:16:02Z")
Daphne du Maurier’s **My Cousin Rachel** begins & ends with the line “They used to hang men at Four Turnings in the old days. Not any more, though”. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2012, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-that-end-with-their-own-beginning-any-examples-open-spoilers/637393/22 "2012-10-12T05:37:31Z")
> [@fiddlesticks](#): > > 100 Years of Solitude? Not what the OP is asking for. The Colonel is only the second generation of the Buendia family in Macondo; the book ends with the story of Aureliano Babilonia in the sixth generation. ---
**Author:** ![SeldomSeen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7ba0ec/32.png) [@SeldomSeen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeldomSeen)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2012, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-that-end-with-their-own-beginning-any-examples-open-spoilers/637393/23 "2012-10-12T17:01:00Z")
Stephen King; \* The Dead Zone\* ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2012, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-that-end-with-their-own-beginning-any-examples-open-spoilers/637393/24 "2012-10-12T17:35:39Z")
> [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](#): > > Kinda sorta what you are asking for: There is an Asimov short story (can’t remember the title) about mankind trying to figure out how to reverse entropy as the eons go by and the universe slowly expires. A super computer eventually figures it out, and solves the problem by saying: > > Let there be light! > [@Iggins](#): > > The Last Question. I like that story… It makes a good planetarium show, too. I’ve seen two different versions. For anyone scratching their head over the spoiler . . . [do not read the spoilers if you intend to read the story - the story is much better without spoilers] The AI tasked with finding out how to reverse entropy is the last thing left in the fading universe. When it finds the answer, there is no one left to read it out to, so to complete its programming, it answers by demonstration, saying “Let there be light!” as it creates a new universe. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2012, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-that-end-with-their-own-beginning-any-examples-open-spoilers/637393/25 "2012-10-12T17:50:14Z")
_The Man Who Folded Himself_ by David Gerrold is, IMO, the ultimate infinite loop story. ---
**Author:** ![typoink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecb155/32.png) [@typoink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/typoink)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2012, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-that-end-with-their-own-beginning-any-examples-open-spoilers/637393/26 "2012-10-13T03:09:06Z")
_The Haunting of Hill House_ opens and closes with the same (very similar?) lines. There’s no loop; it’s more of an indicator that the house itself remains apart from the events of the novella. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2012, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-that-end-with-their-own-beginning-any-examples-open-spoilers/637393/27 "2012-10-13T03:22:12Z")
There is a nonfiction book that’s sort of like this. It’s Anne R. Dick’s _The Search for Philip K. Dick_. It’s a biography of Dick by his third wife. It starts with her meeting Dick for the first time. It then continues with the rest of his life. She then says that she wanted to find out what his life was like before he met her, so it goes back to her birth. It ends with him meeting her for the first time. ---
**Author:** ![Patch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a183cd/32.png) [@Patch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patch)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2012, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-that-end-with-their-own-beginning-any-examples-open-spoilers/637393/28 "2012-10-13T04:32:36Z")
“A small dusty man in a small dusty room.” Alistair MacLean’s _The Dark Crusader_. ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2012, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-that-end-with-their-own-beginning-any-examples-open-spoilers/637393/29 "2012-10-13T12:38:00Z")
Fantasy work by E.R. Eddison from the 1920s: _The Worm Ouroboros_. Ouroboros is the worm (or dragon) that eats its own tail, and the book ends where it began with the arrival of the delegation from Witchland. WHen I first read it, that came as a complete surprise (although it probably shouldn’t have, given the title of the book. With apologies, I don’t see how one can avoid the spoiler-problem here: if you mention the work outside the spoiler tags. If you don’t mention the work, how will anyone know what’s in the spoiler tags? I’ve taken the liberty of editing the title of the thread. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2012, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-that-end-with-their-own-beginning-any-examples-open-spoilers/637393/30 "2012-10-13T13:10:28Z")
“Knock” by Frederick Brown comes full circle to the beginning, though there is a line before it. There was a story I read years ago with a title something like “A Million Monkeys” which posits a computer spouting random letters and eventually hitting on a literary work, which begins with the first sentence of the story. ---
**Author:** ![TPWombat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbce88/32.png) [@TPWombat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TPWombat)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2012, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-that-end-with-their-own-beginning-any-examples-open-spoilers/637393/31 "2012-10-13T14:24:13Z")
“Walking on Glass” by Iain Banks. ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2012, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-that-end-with-their-own-beginning-any-examples-open-spoilers/637393/32 "2012-10-13T15:36:20Z")
> [@Iggins](#): > > The Last Question. I like that story… The way I interpreted it was that the computer at the end was YHWH, the God of the Bible, meaning that the Bible is effectively the sequel to the story. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2012, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-that-end-with-their-own-beginning-any-examples-open-spoilers/637393/33 "2012-10-13T18:17:36Z")
> [@robert\_columbia](#): > > The way I interpreted it was that the computer at the end was > > YHWH, the God of the Bible, meaning that the Bible is effectively the sequel to the story. That’s true, but, because it had reversed entropy, that means that its effect preceded its cause. With that logic, it makes the most sense that the computer was the First Cause that brought the universe itself into being. The Bible is both a sequel and a prequel. ---
**Author:** ![Cub\_Mistress](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ea666f/32.png) [@Cub\_Mistress](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cub_Mistress)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2012, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-that-end-with-their-own-beginning-any-examples-open-spoilers/637393/34 "2012-10-13T22:27:35Z")
Pink Floyd’s “The Wall” The album is circular, when you listen to it from beginning to end. ---
**Author:** ![arara123](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/41988e/32.png) [@arara123](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/arara123)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2012, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-that-end-with-their-own-beginning-any-examples-open-spoilers/637393/35 "2012-10-14T01:35:57Z")
‘Kamchatka’ - a novel by Marcelo Figueras (made into a film of the same name as well.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-that-end-with-their-own-beginning-any-examples-open-spoilers/637393.md?page=1)