First (and last) lines
I’m seeing the American Book Review’s list of the greatest fictional first lines linked everywhere (it keeps popping up in my del.icio.us inbox and all over the blogosphere). I suppose 1 and 2 were the inevitable choices for the 1 and 2 spots. But I was happiest to see numbers 30, 37, 79, 82, 87, and 98. Oh, yes, and 14 too.
By the way, why are great last lines harder to think of than great first lines? Is it that they’re not as easily lifted from the context of the rest of the novel? Or is it just that we’re more likely to remember the beginning of something than the ending of it? Over to you, Reader.
(The honor for Best Movie Last Line Ever goes, in my opinion, to Some Like It Hot, hands down. Somehow it’s easier to think of great final movie lines than great endings of novels. Odd. Also, great last lines of poems are harder to think of than I’d have expected.)
The only really memorable last lines I can think of are the end of A Tale of Two Cities, which ought to take the prize, I think, and the end of Return of the King, which is rather sweet.