Friday, May 30, 2008

Friday's Quiz - Last Lines from Novels

[I'm on my own tonight as Mrs. BA has headed off to her 20th College Reunion. Just me and the boys. But it's movie night here in Cheverly so we're doing OK. But I did write this post some time ago and auto-posted it, so I wouldn't forget about you, my faithful readers. In fact, tonight's, tomorrow's, and Sunday's posts are all scheduled, so I won't have to lift a finger - a child definitely, but fingers, no.]

Here's a quiz where you don't have to wait a week for the answers, but no cheating. Clusterflock has provided us with a list (their list) of the 100 best last lines from novels. The list comes from the American Book Review, so it's got some literary chops.

Of the 100, here are the ones I knew. Surely you can you do better than I (12, that's just awful - well there was no Stephen King . . . )?
  1. "So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past."
  2. "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."
  3. "He loved Big Brother."
  4. "'It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.’"
  5. "‘I shall feel proud and satisfied to have been the first author to enjoy the full fruit of his writings, as I desired, because my only desire has been to make men hate those false, absurd histories in books of chivalry, which thanks to the exploits of my real Don Quixote are even now tottering, and without any doubt will soon tumble to the ground. Farewell.’" (hey, the CDs in the car, what can I say?)
  6. "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."
  7. "And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God bless Us, Every One!"
  8. "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."
  9. "After a while I went out and left the hospital and walked back to the hotel in the rain."
  10. "But wherever they go, and whatever happens to them on the way, in that enchanted place on the top of the Forest, a little boy and his Bear will always be playing."
  11. "The old man was dreaming about the lions."
  12. "“Tomorrow, I’ll think of some way to get him back. After all, tomorrow is another day.”"

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