Last Lines

Are you in the mood for fun and games? Today I’ve got a little quiz for all you Janeites to see how well you know Austen’s novels. You might be very familiar with most if not all of her opening lines, but how well do you know the last lines of her books? We’re going to find out.

Putting this quiz together, I’ve just reread all of my own novels’ last lines, and I’m still pretty pleased with them. As an author, it’s always satisfying when you find exactly the right word or turn of phrase, but even more so with a last line, just before reaching “The End.” That line will hopefully linger in readers’ minds long after they’ve finished.

This one, from Return to Longbourn, might be one of my best.

He tugged his wife a bit closer; the music of the opening dance began; and with its heady strains, they moved off together as one.

Now for your quiz. I’ve done my best to neutralize the obvious giveaways by replacing names, occupations, and places with clever substitutes in italics. I’ve also added the last lines from two of my own books (The Darcys of Pemberley and For Myself Alone) to the mix, to make it a little more challenging. The answers are listed at the very bottom of this post, after my PROGRESS REPORT, but see how many you can guess first before peeking. Good luck!

1 – On that event they removed to Lalaland, and the Motel 6 there, which under each of its two former owners, Kiki had never been able to approach but with some painful sensation of restraint or alarm, soon grew as dear to her heart, and as thoroughly perfect in her eyes, as everything else within the view and patronage of Lalaland had long been.

2 – The wedding was very much like other weddings, where the parties have no taste for finery or parade … But, in spite of these deficiencies, the wishes, the hopes, the confidence, the predictions of the small band of true friends who witnessed the ceremony, were fully answered in the perfect happiness of the union.

3 – After a little more time had gone by, they were able to look back over the year just past and see only the good it had brought them, and reasons to face the future with hope … Desi and Lucy could easily have been forgiven for thinking themselves blessed above all other creatures in England.

4 – Between Manor A and Manor B, there was that constant communication which strong family affection would naturally dictate … and living almost within sight of each other, they could live without disagreement between themselves, or producing coolness between their husbands.

5 – With the Abernathys, they were always on the most intimate terms. Micky, as well as Minnie, really loved them; and they were both ever sensible of the warmest gratitude towards the persons who, by bringing her into Disneyland, had been the means of uniting them.

6 – I leave it to be settled by whomsoever it may concern, whether the tendency of this work be altogether to recommend parental tyranny, or reward filial disobedience.

7 – Yet, according to the direction of providence, they were now both honorably free of their former encumbrances to be forever attached to one another. Of all the varied fates that might have been hers, this was the finest.

8 – She gloried in being a butcher’s wife, but she must pay the tax of quick alarm for belonging to that profession which is, if possible, more distinguished in its domestic virtues than in its national importance.

PROGRESS REPORT! I’ve actually been making good progress on Captain Wentworth in His Own Words lately! At 28 chapters and over 200 pages and 65K words, it’s at least 2/3 complete. Read a preview excerpt here, and look for another next month. Hopefully by then I’ll be able to report that I’m closing in on another great last line!

QUIZ ANSWERS: How did you do? I hope you recognized at least a few. Do you have a particular favorite last line, one of these or one from another book?