Powerful closing lines from literature

Fans of literature may be familiar with a few of these powerful closing lines curated by the Readplot review team.

"The white floodlight shines through the wispy tule and makes thin shadows. A sudden breeze over the Tigris forms a tiny whirlwind. It floats through the balcony doors and makes the curtains dance."

A Hundred and One Days: A Baghdad Journal, Asne Seierstad

"It was then that I began to sit on my bed and stare out at the nibbling squirrels, and to make up powems from intense abstraction, hour after unmarked hour, imagination scarcely faltering once, rhythm hardly skipping a beat, while sisters called me, suns rose and fell, and the poems I made, which I never remembered, were the first and last of that time…"

Cider with Rosie, Laurie Lee

"And presently, like a circling typhoon, the sounds of battle began to return."

Vile Bodies, Evelyn Waugh

"It begins like this: Barrabás came to us by sea…"

The House Of The Spirits, Isabel Allende

"He now has more patients than the devil himself could handle; the authorities treat him with deference and public opinion supports him. He has just been awarded the Cross of the Legion of Honor."

Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert

"But the naming game involves only male names, because if it's a girl, Laila has already named her."

A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini

"But this is how Paris was in the early days when we were very poor and very happy."

A Moveable Feast, Ernest Hemingway

"He turned away to give them time to pull themselves together; and waited, allowing his eyes to rest on the trim cruiser in the distance."

Lord of the Flies, William Golding

"And then we continued blissfully into this small but perfect piece of our forever."

Breaking Dawn, Stephenie Meyer

"She looked up and across the barn, and her lips came together and smiled mysteriously."

The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck

"Of course, it's only superstition, just for fun. But see how fast the smoke rises--oh, even faster when we laugh, lifting our hopes, higher and higher."

The Kitchen God's Wife, Amy Tan

"And here she is, herself, Clarissa, not Mrs. Dalloway anymore; there is no one now to call her that. Here she is with another hour before her. 'Come in, Mrs. Brown,' she says. 'Everything's ready.'"

The Hours, Michael Cunningham

"The broken flower drooped over Ben's fist and his eyes were empty and blue and serene again as cornice and facade flowed smoothly once more from left to right, post and tree, window and doorway and signboard each in its ordered place."

The Sound and the Fury, William Faulkner

"'Rest assured, our father, rest assured. The land is not to be sold.' But over the old man's head they looked at each other and smiled."

The Good Earth, Pearl S. Buck

"This stone is entirely blank. The only thought in cutting it was of the essentials of the grave, and there was no other care than to make this stone long enough and narrow enough to cover a man. No name can be read there."

Les Miserables, Victor Hugo

"Slowly, very slowly, like two unhurried compass needles, the feet turned towards the right; north, north-east, south-east, south, south-south-west; then paused, and, after a few seconds, turned as unhurriedly back towards the left. South-south-west, south, south-east, east ... "

Brave New World, Aldous Huxley

"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."

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain

"But now I must sleep."

Atonement, Ian McEwan

"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

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