Rosefolly, Ron Charles's "23 most unforgettable last sentences in fiction" are interesting. Some of them I recall after being reminded of them, but only one -- After all, tomorrow is another day. (from Gone with the Wind) -- came to me without prompting.

Some of the books he listed I have never read. Thus, the last sentences of those don't click with me at all -- and actually don't seem particularly memorable in and of themselves (unlike the GWTW last sentence which can -- and does -- stand alone or come in handy to apply to other situations in real life. . . making it very quotable, I think).

I have remembered these last two sentences for almost fifty-nine years, but I suspect they wouldn't much impress someone who hasn't read the book and wouldn't necessarily know what they signify:

He turned out the light and went into Jem's room. He would be there all night, and he would be there when Jem waked up in the morning.

I bet a lot of people could guess which book ends with those sentences. I haven't watched the film adaptation in a long time, so I don't recall if the film ends with the same lines -- it might not. But, really, why should it? It's a bookish ending, after all, not a movie-type ending.

Frieda, I think that quote from GWTW would probably be the only last line I could quote, too. :)

Donna

Remembering last lines ? I'm lucky if I can recall the title of a book I've read, or the entire storyline !

" And so the ranch was saved . " - Snoopy

It Was a Dark and Stormy Night

by Snoopy

Part I

It was a dark and stormy night. Suddenly, a shot rang out! A door slammed. The maid screamed.

Suddenly, a pirate ship appeared on the horizon! While millions of people were starving, the king lived in luxury. Meanwhile, on a small farm in Kansas, a boy was growing up.

Part II

A light snow was falling, and the little girl with the tattered shawl had not sold a violet all day.

At that very moment, a young intern at City Hospital was making an important discovery. The mysterious patient in Room 213 had finally awakened. She moaned softly. Could it be that she was the sister of the boy in Kansas who loved the girl with the tattered shawl who was the daughter of the maid who had escaped from the pirates?

And so the ranch was saved.

THE END

Haha, Bon, that sounds like the Danielle Steele book I recently gave up on! Maybe she has Snoopy writing for her.

Donna

I had remembered the last lines from Huck Finn, the Wild Things, 1984, and of course GWTW. I had also read but not especially remembered the last lines from The Lovely Bones, The Handmaid's Tale, or The Road. And I recognized the lines from The Sun Also Rises, though I have never read the book. It is often quoted by those who wish to appear too clever to fall for optimism.

GWTW for me, too, and I remembered the Huck Finn after reading it. I would have recognized it without the book title.

The only one I could have quoted other than GWTW is from The Great Gatsby, although I'm not sure I could have remembered it accurately. I know I was stunned by the end of The Grapes of Wrath when I read it, but I couldn't have remembered the last line.