Novel endings?

[F.Emerald]

However many times I get disappointed by the ending of a novel, I always work myself up into thinking it'll end in some fantastic unpredictable genius, even when I'm at the last few paragraphs and it's obvious nothing new or exciting is going to happen. And very few times have I been satisfied by the ending of a novel.

So; which novel endings have been either particularly disappointing or satisfying, thrilling, humbling..etc?

[vili]

The way Laurence Sterne's A Sentimental Journey ends is both a disappointment and a source of satisfaction for me. Not only does it end in the middle of action, but in the middle of a sentence as well. :)

[Scheherazade]

The Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden by Steinbeck.

I cannot say whether I particularly like or dislike them but they are great endings nevertheless.

Also, any ending of Virginia Woolf book... Not that I am keen on them but it is always a pleasure to see the back of her books! :D

[Alexei]

I think the best novel ending was the Perfume's. After I read the last chapter I was just sitting and staring in the book in my hands for a while.
As for the most disappointing one. I am not really sure, but I think it was Pride and prejudies'. I know what will happen in the end after the fifth chapter!

[Demona]

I must say that I was really disappointed how Hugo ended Notre-Dame de Paris. It's just that at some point i thought that everything would be great for Esmeralda and the book ultimately will have some kind of a happy end. But no...alas. Despite that I must confess i enjoyed the book a lot 8)

[ennison]

'Lord of The Flies' has a satisfying ending.
'A Farewell To Arms' has a satisfying ending.
Most of the novels of Patrick White, R C Hutchinson, Dickens Cormac McCarthy

[Schokokeks]

That is an interesting question.
I often find that the endings of plays and short stories tend to surprise me more than the novels' I read, maybe because the latter provide more space to develop the plot towards the end, which makes some of them rather predictable.
One of the best endings I've read recently was the one of The Turn of the Screw by Henry James, as I had never anticipated it the way it finally came - quite a blast :D.
I'm not quite sure why, but the end of Crime and Punishment was somewhat unsatisfying to me. I guess I would have preferred a darker, more pessimistic one to match and crown the rest of the book :D.

[Charles Darnay]

In my opinion, Victor hugo's Toilers on the Sea has the best ending I've read.
Other goods ones:

A Tale of Two Cities
Sirens of Titan
if on a winter's night a traveler


Generally, I find myself disappointed with the ends of all Jane Austen novels (with the possible exception of P&P, which I thought worked faily well).

[F.Emerald]

That is an interesting question.
I often find that the endings of plays and short stories tend to surprise me more than the novels' I read, maybe because the latter provide more space to develop the plot towards the end, which makes some of them rather predictable.

That is absolutely true, which is partly why I admire short stories so much. I particularly like the way Salinger ends his short stories, they tend to linger in my head afterwards, rather than some novels I've dedicated days to reading and seem to forget quicker than something I've read in less than an hour.

This brings up another question; to what extent does the effectiveness of a novel ending effect the overall impression of the novel itself upon the reader?

...hope that makes sense.

[Schokokeks]

This brings up another question; to what extent does the effectiveness of a novel ending effect the overall impression of the novel itself upon the reader?
I think this depends on the complexity of the plot. If there is just a single plot line revolving around one tight thread of action (the "tunnel" kind), and the ending is the point towards which it builds up, I find that in this case it might make up to a large extent for the overall impression of the book, since the reader's expectations were constantly focusing on the end.
In case, however, there are multiple plot lines, and/or a more episodic way of writing, the ending might be of lesser impact, because the suboridinate plots might have reached their solution/end before the final page and before the main plot did.

[dramasnot6]

I'm not quite sure why, but the end of Crime and Punishment was somewhat unsatisfying to me. I guess I would have preferred a darker, more pessimistic one to match and crown the rest of the book :D.

I absolutely adored the entirety of Crime and Punishment UNTIL that dreadful epilogue. It just didnt seem realistic, and sophia annoyd me at the end.

[F.Emerald]

How come my title for this thread changed?

[Annamariah]

I love happy endings. I always hope that somehow everything will turn out to be alright. Even if some of the main (good) characters die, I keep hoping that they'll somehow return... And when they do not, I imagine some alternative ending to the story :D

[NSAM]

I love the ending to Yann Martel's Life of Pi. even though it is quite drawn out the revelation of the animals as a metaphor is extremely thought provoking

[Lioness_Heart]

I thought that the ending of Of Mice and Men was really good, because all the way through the book, you know that their dreams will never succeed, and that there is going to be a sad ending. But the way that Steinbeck does this is so beautiful and poignant, but mainly because he still keeps it on a very human level. When we studied the novel for GCSE, one of our coursework essay choices was to write a 'final chapter' to go on the end of the existing one... I couldn't understand why anyone would want to do that though, because to me it just seemed like sacrilege.

[liesl]

One of the best endings I've read recently was the one of The Turn of the Screw by Henry James, as I had never anticipated it the way it finally came - quite a blast :D.

i would completely agree with this, i read this book at A-level and though i found that the text dragged on the ending itself was satisfying.
I find the ending to 'The Handmaid's Tale' a satisfying puzzle, it encourages me to ask the text questions (which the film completely destroyed! :flare: )

As to endings which i found dissapointing i am afraid i have to list both Orwell's '1984' and Huxley's 'Brave New World', whilst i adore both books (and dystopian literature in general) i am always dissapointed by the character failing to smash the oppressive system and save society. I find this is due to the fact that i become so enraged toward the oppressive government systems being portrayed.

[Redzeppelin]

I thought Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath ending was brilliant. The final 3 chapters of Ernest Gaines A Lesson Before Dying was incredibly moving. On the other side of the coin, I found the final quarter of The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver totally lacking when compared to the first three quarters.

[mS_?]

The "ending" of The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu, if you've ever read this book it is one of the greatest I've ever read but the story just stopped mid sentence. I think that Shikibu wrote this until she died and never really intended to have an ending, kind of a metaphor for how life through the generations goes on.

I actually have never liked reading Steinbeck and I think he is really over rated.

[Matrim Cuathon]

i am not often disspapointed by endings. i understand that authors leave clues to the end and sometimes they leave one too many. when i read a story i treat it as real. i often converse with the characters in my mind and often paly through the same convo in many ways. somtimes the ending is not what i would have done but often it is better and sometimes it is worse. Short stories always have the best endings becuase that is what they are about. the ending is increcibly more important to them than to a novel. i must confess however that i am dissapointed in some endings, but never by sad ones. A good happy ending seems to me to be much more difficult to create.

[grace86]

I love the endings of Crime and Punishment, Precious Bane, King Soloman's Mines, The Hobbit, The Thirteenth tale and Shadow of the Wind...to name a few. They all ended in a pretty good manner.

Endings I didn't care for: Dracula I had hoped with all the hype he would have ended better.

Can't think of any others right now.