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''Note that some [[Book Ends]] can be a spoiler, so beware.''
== Subpages ==
* ''[[Finnegans Wake]]'' ends with a half-finished sentence that is completed by the book's ''first'' sentence, so it's more of a loop. Samuel Delany does the same thing in ''[[Dhalgren (Literature)|Dhalgren]]''.▼
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== Other Works ==
▲* ''[[Finnegans Wake]]'' ends with a half-finished sentence that is completed by the book's ''first'' sentence, so it's more of a loop. Samuel Delany does the same thing in ''[[
* ''[[Lolita]]'' begins (in both the foreword and the novel proper) and later ends on the eponym; the forward begins, "''Lolita, or the Confession of a White Widowed Male'', such were the two titles under which the writer of the present note received ..."; the novel proper begins, "Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul." and ends "And this is the only immortality you and I may share, my Lolita."
* The first and last conversations Aziraphale and Crowley have in ''[[
* The first and last sentences of Isabel Allende's novel ''[[The House of the Spirits]]'' are exactly the same: ''"Barrabás came to us by sea...."''
* The ''[[Warhammer
* Near the climax of Inheritance, Eragon impales {{spoiler|Galbatorix}} on his sword, much like he did {{spoiler|Durza}} at the end of the first book. The phrasing itself is nearly identical.
* ''[[
** Then, after a years-long timeskip, {{spoiler|young Potter leaves to attend the same school as his parents.}}
** ''Harry Potter
** At the start of the first book, Hagrid carries baby Harry to his relatives' home. Near the end of the last book, {{spoiler|Voldemort forces Hagrid to carry the seemingly-dead Harry back to Hogwarts.}}
** ''[[Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (novel)|Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban]]'' begins with a lot of owls giving post to Harry. It ends with more owl post for Harry (and a bit for Ron). The chapters are even called "Owl Post" and "Owl Post Again."
** Ginny Weasley's first appearance in ''[[Harry Potter and
** Also literally: if you look at the American first-edition book covers for Sorcerer's Stone and Deathly Hallows, they've both got curtains surrounding the images, for beginning act and ending act.
* ''[[Watership Down]]'' opens with "The primroses were over," and ends with "where the first primroses were beginning to bloom."
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* At the beginning of ''[[Number the Stars]]'' by Lois Lowry, Annemarie is running playfully with her friend on the street. At the end, she's running to deliver a package that will allow the friend's family to escape the Nazis.
* The book ''The Heart of Valor'' by Tanya Huff has scenes at the beginning and ending that are introduced almost exactly the same way: the main character, a Marine, is on a balcony in a space station looking down at the new recruits.
* ''[[The Acts of Caine
* ''[[The Hobbit]]'' begins and ends with Gandalf visiting Bilbo in his home at Bag End.
** Also, both ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings'' start with a party (with correspondingly-similar chapter titles), and if you have one of the printings where the first chapter of LOTR is stuck onto the end of ''The Hobbit'', that's at least one more right there.
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* ''[[Romance of the Three Kingdoms]]'' begins and ends with the same song about the futility of war.
* ''A Darkling Plain'' ends with {{spoiler|Shrike}} recounting the opening sentence of the first book in [[Mortal Engines|the series]] word-for-word.
* ''[[Starship Troopers (
* ''[[The Outsiders]]'' end reveals that the book is an nonfiction essay the protagoinst wrote for school; it ends with the same sentence as the beginning as he reports that he wrote down "[the first sentence...]".
{{quote|
* ''[[The Pillars of the Earth]]'': The book begins with a hanging, and the second-last scene in the book is another hanging. The first sentence in both scenes is the exact same.
* The second ''[[Sherlock Holmes]]'' novel, ''The Sign of Four'', begins and ends with Holmes bored and taking cocaine. This is used to emphasize the fact that although, as Watson says, Holmes is the one who "did all the work in this business," he's also the only one who doesn't seem to get anything out of it.
* ''Baltimore'', a novel by [[Hellboy (
* [[James Swallow]]'s ''[[Warhammer
* The British publication of ''[[A Clockwork Orange (
** Just a note, not every publication of this book includes Chapter 21 (at least, not in America). In other words, it doesn't end with a similar passage to the beginning. However, most, if not all, recent publications generally include it.
* ''[[The Shadow of the Wind]]'' begins and ends with almost identical scenes where a man takes his young son to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books.
* The last books of ''[[The Thrawn Trilogy]]'' and the ''[[Hand of Thrawn]]'' duology end with the same line spoken by Mara Jade to Luke Skywalker. "[[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|Hang on, I'll come with you.]]"
* The ''Deltora'' series ended, with a [[Where Are They Now? Epilogue]], in which the description of Leif's reign uses most of the same wording as the description of King Adin's reign in the first chapter of the first book. The final chapter in the series is even called "Full Circle".
* Nick Kyme's ''[[Warhammer
* In [[Stephen King]]'s ''[[The Green Mile]]'', Paul Edgecombe originally bookends the manuscript he's writing, starting and ending with, "This happened in 1932, when the state penitentiary was still at Cold Mountain. And the electric chair, of course." However, the events of the book conspire to have him write of the mouse and his [[Blessed
* ''[[Beyond the Western Sea]]'' begins "Just before dawn - that moment when time itself seems to stand still, when the whole world teeters on the edge of possibilites. . ." and ends with {{spoiler|"She felt herself teetering on the edge of possibilites."}}
* In [[Neil Gaiman]]'s ''[[Neverwhere]]'', the book begins and ends with Richard going out to a bar with friends, disliking it, going outside, a friend coming out to see him, and something uncanny happening, though the sequence of the last two are reversed.
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* Katharine Kerr's ''[[Deverry]]'' series, in the prologue of the first and the epilogue of the last (15th) book.
* ''[[American Psycho]]'' begins and ends with the color red and the protagonist reading a sign.
* At the beginning of ''[[
* ''[[The Diamond Age]]'' begins and ends with the sounds of bells ringing from New Chusan.
* [[The Bible]] begins and ends with the Tree of Life.
* ''[[The Da Vinci Code]]'' begins and ends with a dead body in the Louvre. The first time it's Jacques Saunière's. The second time {{spoiler|it's the corpse of Mary Magdalene, whose tomb was hidden under the Louvre by the Priory of Sion}}.
* ''[[Gormenghast|Titus Groan]]'' begins and ends with Mr. Rottcodd's solitude being disturbed, first by Flay's arrival with news of Titus's birth, and again by viewing the aftermath of Titus's [[Awesome Moment of Crowning]] through the window.
* ''[[
* The ''[[Elenium]]'' begins and, except for the epilogue, ends with Sparhawk slinking into Cimmura on a rainy night. The ''Tamuli'' begins the same way.
* A perfect example would be [[The Name of the Wind]], as the epilogue, and the prologue, named The Silence of Three Parts have the very same descriptions in each of them.
** So does its sequel, [[The Wise
* [[The Dresden Files]]: A subtle one, but in Turn Coat, the book begins with Harry saying, "I know what it feels like to have the Wardens on your ass for something you haven't done." The book ends with {{spoiler|Morgan's dying words being, "I knew that you knew how it felt to be an innocent man hounded by the Wardens.}}
* The last section of ''[[The Redemption of Althalus]]'' has Althalus going back in time to replay the adventure that ended with his meeting [[The Dragon|Ghend]] in the first section of the book, and making it end differently this time.
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* ''The Barsoom Project'' opens with a battle scene from the first Fimbulwinter Game, in which a club-wielding Adventurer is killed out by the Terichik. At the end of the book, the second Fimbulwinter Game kicks off its own climactic battle with an identical scene using the same lines of narration, except that this time {{spoiler|it's Max who dies}}.
* The [[His Dark Materials]] cycle begins and ends with the name of the protagonist: ''Lyra and her daemon moved through the darkening hall. [...] "The Republic of Heaven," said Lyra.''
* [[Don Quixote]]: At chapter I of the first part, Don Quixote spends [[Serious Business|four days thinking how to
* ''[[Low Fantasy|Shy Leopardess]]'' by Leslie Barringer opens and closes with the main character pointing out to a guest that from her castle's tower it's easy to see that the nearby lake is shaped like a sword. She uses the exact same sentence on both occasions.
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[[Book Ends|What, you didn't know a book had covers?]]
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