# Post great last lines of stories you love. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 29, 2010, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-great-last-lines-of-stories-you-love/537789 "2010-04-29T21:05:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2010, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-great-last-lines-of-stories-you-love/537789/61 "2010-05-01T00:10:48Z")
It’s official. I’m spending the rest of my summer vacation buried in great books. Some of these contributions are stunning. _Lastly, she pictured to herself how this same little sister of hers would, in the after‑time, be herself a grown woman; and how she would keep, through all her riper years, the simple and loving heart of her childhood; and how she would gather about her other little children, and make their eyes bright and eager with many a strange tale, perhaps even with the dream of Wonderland of long ago; and how she would feel with all their simple sorrows, and find a pleasure in all their simple joys, remembering her own child‑life, and the happy summer days._ Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll. Layers and layers of meaning there. ---
**Author:** ![norinew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb9ed0/32.png) [@norinew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/norinew)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2010, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-great-last-lines-of-stories-you-love/537789/62 "2010-05-01T00:27:54Z")
> [@Hazle\_Weatherfield](#): > > “Romance at short notice was her specialty.” From “The Open Window,” by Saki! LOVE IT! > [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](#): > > Saki is awesome in general. Oh, man, I’d forgotten all about that, though I read it several times in school for different classes! But, seconded (on that being an awesome last line) and seconded on Saki in general just being great! ---
**Author:** ![Rysto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecccb3/32.png) [@Rysto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysto)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2010, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-great-last-lines-of-stories-you-love/537789/63 "2010-05-01T00:41:37Z")
> [@Hazle\_Weatherfield](#): > > “Romance at short notice was her specialty.” From “The Open Window,” by Saki! LOVE IT! I’m partial to: "Mrs. Packletide indulges in no more big-game shooting. “The incidental expenses are so heavy,” she confides to inquiring friends." Mrs. Packletide’s Tiger, Saki ---
**Author:** ![whitetho](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whitetho/32/1059_2.png) [@whitetho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whitetho)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2010, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-great-last-lines-of-stories-you-love/537789/64 "2010-05-01T00:55:36Z")
> [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](#): > > “…he had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother.” I also think of this one as double-plus good. (By Eric Blair, book originally to be called “The Last Man in Europe” if I remember correctly.) ---
**Author:** ![fachverwirrt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/94ad74/32.png) [@fachverwirrt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fachverwirrt)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2010, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-great-last-lines-of-stories-you-love/537789/65 "2010-05-01T01:36:15Z")
_Moby Dick_: It was the devious-cruising Rachel, that in her retracing search after her missing children, only found another orphan. ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2010, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-great-last-lines-of-stories-you-love/537789/66 "2010-05-01T03:21:01Z")
She gathered her strength and plunged the point of the blade deep into her throat. - Yukio Mishima, “Patriotism” ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2010, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-great-last-lines-of-stories-you-love/537789/67 "2010-05-01T03:43:48Z")
When he entered his department he had slowed down to his customary gait, and he walked quietly across the room to the W20 file, wearing a look of studious concentration. - James Thurber, “The Catbird Seat” ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2010, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-great-last-lines-of-stories-you-love/537789/68 "2010-05-01T03:46:12Z")
“Goodbye Dopes!” I shouted. They turned to me and shouted back, “Goodbye, you big fuckin’ idiot!” - Steve Martin, “The Day the Dopes Came Over” ---
**Author:** ![Nzinga\_Seated](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5ac83/32.png) [@Nzinga\_Seated](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nzinga_Seated)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2010, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-great-last-lines-of-stories-you-love/537789/69 "2010-05-01T04:27:23Z")
> [@Hazle\_Weatherfield](#): > > “Romance at short notice was her specialty.” From “The Open Window,” by Saki! LOVE IT! Bernie, why do you bound? Loved that story to death! I mean, he really knew how to set a\* mood \*in a story. Stories like that made me know that I had absolutely zero skill as a writer. The way great poetry let me know I had zero skill as a poet. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2010, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-great-last-lines-of-stories-you-love/537789/70 "2010-05-01T04:33:17Z")
‘There’s a shark. Following the ship.’ I tried not to look, but couldn’t help it. I saw a flash of dirty white down in the green. We walked back to the deck chairs. ‘Walter, we’ll have to wait. Till the moon comes up.’ ‘I guess we better have a moon.’ I want to see that fin. That black fin. Cutting the water in the moonlight. …The moon." - James Cain (_Double Indemnity_) ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2010, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-great-last-lines-of-stories-you-love/537789/71 "2010-05-01T04:54:27Z")
> [@Hazle\_Weatherfield](#): > > “Romance at short notice was her specialty.” From “The Open Window,” by Saki! LOVE IT! Oh, my gosh! I just remembered the entire story from that line! And it’s SO MUCH FUN! Oh, just go read it! And, those of you who’ve read it will be amused by the fact that I read it (nearly forty years ago as a kid) in an Alfred Hitchcock collection of ghost stories! 😃 ! ---
**Author:** ![Loopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loopus/32/15343_2.png) [@Loopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loopus)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2010, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-great-last-lines-of-stories-you-love/537789/72 "2010-05-01T05:34:07Z")
> [@](#): > > “The offing was barred by a black bank of clouds, and the tranquil waterway leading to the uttermost ends of the earth flowed sombre under an overcast sky—seemed to lead into the heart of an immense darkness.” –Joseph Conrad, _Heart of Darkness_ (my favorite book) > [@](#): > > “He was getting up his last ‘effect’; but he never finished it.” –Mark Twain, _A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court_ > [@](#): > > “‘For me,’ said Sherlock Holmes, ‘there still remains the cocaine-bottle.’ And he stretched his long white hand up for it.” –Arthur Conan Doyle, _The Sign of the Four_ ---
**Author:** ![Boulter\_s\_Canary](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e79b87/32.png) [@Boulter\_s\_Canary](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boulter_s_Canary)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2010, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-great-last-lines-of-stories-you-love/537789/73 "2010-05-01T23:27:24Z")
There is really nothing more to tell, but, as you may imagine, the Professor’s views on certain points are less clear cut than they used to be. His nerves, too, have suffered: he cannot even now see a surplice hanging on a door quite unmoved, and the spectacle of a scarecrow in a field late on a winter afternoon has cost him more than one sleepless night. - _Oh, Whistle and I’ll Come to You, My Lad_ - M R James Not a story but a narrative poem: The beech wood grey rose dim in the night With moonlight fallen in pools of light, The long dead leaves on the ground were rimed. A clock struck twelve and the church-bells chimed. - _Reynard the Fox: Or, the Ghost Heath Run_ - John Masefield ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2010, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-great-last-lines-of-stories-you-love/537789/74 "2010-05-02T00:24:12Z")
“Damn! It’s _cold._” – Larry Niven, "Wait It Our “The God you invented has nothing to say to me; but I hear my friend say that any anner of love is good if there’s kindness in it. Take heed of me. I am the night wind and the quiet morning light; take heed of me.” – Edgar Pangborn, “The Night Wind” ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2010, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-great-last-lines-of-stories-you-love/537789/75 "2010-05-02T04:19:17Z")
Here are two favorites of my students’, here in Korea: “Then, with that faint, fleeting smile playing about his lips, he faced the firing squad; erect and motionless, proud and disdainful, Walter Mitty the Undefeated, inscrutable to the last.” “And if I ever have a son, I think I’ll name him…George! Or Bill! Any damn thing but Sue! I still hate that name!” ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2010, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-great-last-lines-of-stories-you-love/537789/76 "2010-05-02T04:21:45Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > I mean _written_ stories of course. My hatred of film is venomous, deep, and as hot as Natalie Portman. And yet, the hottie you cite is a film actress, not Jane Austen or Sylvia Plath or Elizabeth Wurtzel… ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2010, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-great-last-lines-of-stories-you-love/537789/77 "2010-05-02T18:58:04Z")
> [@Krokodil](#): > > And yet, the hottie you cite is a film actress, not Jane Austen or Sylvia Plath or Elizabeth Wurtzel… 😕 You can’t seriously think there’s a contradiction between my carnal appreciation of Natalie Portman’s and my dislike of most movies. ---
**Author:** ![drm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e57/32.png) [@drm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drm)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2010, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-great-last-lines-of-stories-you-love/537789/78 "2010-05-02T21:47:32Z")
King Lear: > [@](#): > > The weight of this sad time we must obey; > Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say. > The oldest hath borne most; we that are young > Shall never see so much, nor live so long Hey Nostradamus!: > [@](#): > > “Everyone listen, there has been a miracle - my son who once was dead is now alive. Rejoice! All of you! Rejoice! You must! My son is coming home!” Huckleberry Finn: > [@](#): > > Tom’s most well now, and got his bullet around his neck on a watch-guard for a watch, and is always seeing what time it is, and so there ain’t nothing more > to write about, and I am rotten glad of it, because if I’d a knowed what a trouble it was to make a book I wouldn’t a tackled it, and ain’t a-going to no more. But I reckon I got to light out for the Territory ahead of the rest, because Aunt Sally she’s going to adopt me and sivilize me, and I can’t stand it. I been there before. My personal favorite being King Lear. ---
**Author:** ![MHaye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/bbe5ce/32.png) [@MHaye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MHaye)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2010, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-great-last-lines-of-stories-you-love/537789/79 "2010-05-02T23:35:58Z")
“… and the swordsmen, the damned stupid swordsmen, would win after all.” - _Not Long before the End_, Larry Niven. Arutha grinned openly as he said. “Get some sleep, Admiral.” Amos fell back heavily on the bunk. “Ah Arutha, you _still_ take all the fun out of life.” - _A Darkness at Sethanon_, Raymond E. Feist. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2010, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-great-last-lines-of-stories-you-love/537789/80 "2010-05-02T23:49:56Z")
“And so we will all be together.” - Margaret Atwood, _Alias Grace_ “But they never heard what it was that Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who, and Mrs. Which had to do, for there was a gust or wind, and they were gone.” - Madeleine L’Engle, _A Wrinkle in Time_ “Il lui avait rendu son bec – plus sec et plus discret – et lui avait dit, excité, en étendant les deux bras vers elle, les doigts des deux mains bien écartés : « Moi là, des mamans, là, j’en ai… tiens… comme ça! »” - Michel Tremblay, _Le Coeur découvert_ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-great-last-lines-of-stories-you-love/537789.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-great-last-lines-of-stories-you-love/537789.md?page=5)