Where the last lines came from



Again walking in the footsteps of the Alien Onions (and I confess to having read many more books on their list than the meagre few whose last lines I was able to identify), here are the books that the last lines in my list belong to:

1. Riders in the Chariot, Patrick White.

2. The Glass Canoe, David Ireland (though this is from memory -- much is made in the book about a last line that, if this isn't it exactly, comes very close to it)

3. Apologia Pro Vita Sua, John Henry Newman

4. Emma, Jane A

5. An Unfinished Woman, Lillian Hellman

6. The Fortunes of Richard Mahony, Henry Handel Richardson

7. Carpentaria, Alexis Wright

8. For Love Alone, Christina Stead

9. Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll

10. The Colour of Magic, Terry Pratchett

11. Franny & Zooey, J D Salinger

12. The Truce, Primo Levi

13. Cries Unheard, Gitta Sereny

14. The Sandman series of comics, Neil Gaiman

15. Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neal Hurston

16. Clair de Lune, Cassandra Golds

17. The Spare Room, Helen Garner

18. The Years with Ross, James Thurber

19. Paradise Lost, John MIlton. Oddly, no one who emailed me their guesses got this, which I thought was the only glaringly obvious one. I included it because of the allusion in CArpentaria.

20. Murder in the Cathedral, T S Eliot

I hope you realise that I know that this was hardly a fair quiz. But it was such fun compiling it, and threw an interesting light on quite a number of the books.

Posted: Wed - March 4, 2009 at 10:11 PM           |

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