Whether Inspiring, Incomprehensible, insightful, bleak, or absurd, last words can be spoken by the living as well as the dying. Among the dying, last words are truly final, as was the case with Dylan Thomas, who uttered "I've just had eighteen straight whiskeys. I think that's the record." Famous Last Words records the parting shots of dozens of folks no longer with us, from those dead for political reasons to those who themselves decided to end it all. And it records the words of those who went on with their lives after uttering a memorable farewell but whose reputation was made by their words, often to their lasting frustration, such as the infamous Richard Milhous Nixon: "You won't have me to kick around anymore, because, gentlemen, this is my last press conference." Famous Last Words also preserves the last words of those inhabiting the world of fiction, whether in a book, on the stage, in a movie or on TV. Blanche DuBois's "I have always depended on the kindness of strangers" ranks right alongside Charles Foster Kane's "Rosebud" and Sidney Carton's "It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done. . . ." The mutterings of the imagined are always floating around in our culture's consciousness, kicking lustily. Author Alan Bisbort consulted unimpeachable sources and original texts in compiling this compendium of 140 choice good-byes. But not only the farewells capture our attention: Bisbort's concise, witty, and informative text adds revealing context to the quoted words. Famous Last Words is fascinating, illuminating, and immensely rewarding. Reading through the pages may reveal some unifying impulse behind all those bye-byes; if so, you have truly stumbled uponthe meaning of life.

Nothing focuses the mind more starkly than impending death. Its inevitable spectre greets us all; from princes to paupers and nobility to the needy. Prepare to mount the scaffold and share in the final utterings of the condemned; join the stricken in their death beds and witness unburdened tongues wag their closing, and often remarkable confessions as deeply entrenched secrets are finally unshackled in the wake of imminent death. ‘Fates and Final Words’ collects a fascinating selection of destinies culminating in their often flamboyant yet always captivating, final utterances before shuffling off this mortal coil. Revealed inside are tales of sangfroid bravery, astonishing ironies and overdue confessions often betraying grave miscarriages of justice, throughout British history. Revealed inside are tales of sangfroid bravery, astonishing ironies and overdue confessions often betraying grave miscarriages of justice throughout British history. Writer and poet Sir Walter Raleigh had some typically forthright and urging words for his executioner as the hesitant axeman displayed fear and reluctance to perform his stately duties. Having felt the sharp edge of the tool that would presently be rained down upon him, rather than fearing his impending doom, Raleigh would offer goading encouragement to his maker. Were the final words of convicted murderer Ernest Brown a candid confession to another killing he had committed deep in the Northumberland Moors some two years previously which had lay unsolved? And what of Britain’s first actor to have had a knighthood bestowed upon him? Learn of the staggering irony that saw his final words on stage prophetically turn out to be his last in life…

Famous Last Words traces a broad historical transition- from the 1840s to the 1980s- from the more rigid dichotomy of the Victorian novel, in which good women must marry and fallen women die, to the more open alternatives of twentieth-century fiction, which sometimes permit the independent female protagonist to survive and occasionally allow alternative constructions of gender as well as plot. Each essay treats a narrative- novel, novella, or novel poem- by a single author in light of conventions of closure and of gender in historical context. The contributors recover forgotten texts, revise our understanding of women writers once successful, but now somewhat marginalized, and give voice to cultural "others." Works by the already canonized George Eliot are reassessed, and the representation of women in the canonical novels of male writers William Thackeray and Henry James is explored.

Wisecracks? in the Bible? Times have changed, but people haven't. Human nature is no different today than it was thousands of years ago. In this study we will look at some colorful Bible characters, thier antics and the words that made them famous- or infamous!

Last words can come in all shapes and sizes. From comic quips to profound deathbed wit, shocking and surprising final revelations, delicious puns and too-good turns of phrase, gravestone gags and premature celebrations... or even just awkward and unfortunate quotes the speaker ended up eating. Indeed, this tiny tome is stacked to the rafters with notable people, past, present, who are still very much alive and quipping - though not for long. From the long-time dead to the recently deceased (or simply dying of embarassment; see Liz Truss), Nostradamus to Leonardo da Vinci, Henry VIII to Princess Diana, these famous last words span centuries and continents and will no doubt echo through eternity. If you're look to have the last laugh, The Little Book of Famous Last Words will have you laughing out loud till the very last page. For those about to die, we salute you! 'I'm a fighter, not a quitter,'* Liz Truss, UK Prime Minister, October 19, 2022. *Poor ol' Liz quit the next day. Her calamitous career as PM lasted for just 44 days.

Timothy Findley (1930-2002) is one of the most important contemporary Canadian writers. His novels have been classified as postmodern, exhibiting characteristic features such as parody, historiographic metafiction, and hybrid genres. This classification of Findley as a postmodern writer, however, largely neglects the fact that Findley is deeply committed to the exploration of certain ethical and political themes. Recurring topics in his work are, for instance, fascism, environmental concerns, and the problem of responsibility. Sparked off by the fascinating question of how postmodernism and ethics can be reconciled at all, and inspired by the so-called ethical turn in the literary theory of the 1990s, this study supplies a closer look at Findley's ethics with regard to its postmodern potential. A detailed analysis of five of his novels (The Wars, Famous Last Words, Not Wanted on the Voyage, The Telling of Lies and Headhunter) explores the ethical dimension of Findleys work and its consequences for his categorization as a postmodern writer.

Whether Goethe actually cried "More light!" on his deathbed, or whether Conrad Hilton checked out of this world after uttering "Leave the shower curtain on the inside of the tub," last words, regardless of authenticity, have long captured the imagination of Western society. In this playfully serious investigation based on factual accounts, anecdotes, literary works, and films, Karl Guthke explores the cultural importance of those words spoken at the border between this world and the next. The exit lines of both famous and ordinary people embody for us a sense of drama and truthfulness and reveal much about our thoughts on living and dying. Why this interest in last words? Presenting statements from such figures as Socrates, Nathan Hale, Marie Antoinette, and Oscar Wilde ("I am dying as I have lived, beyond my means"), Guthke examines our fascination in terms of our need for closure, our desire for immortality, and our attraction to the mystique of death scenes. The author considers both authentic and invented final statements as he looks at the formation of symbols and legends and their function in our culture. Last words, handed down from generation to generation like cultural heirlooms, have a good chance of surviving in our collective memory. They are shown to epitomize a life, convey a sense of irony, or play to an audience, as in the case of the assassinated Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa, who is said to have died imploring journalists: "Don't let it end like this. Tell them I said something." Originally published in 1992. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Written for people who are trying to be what theyre wearing but dont have the same taste in clothes that other people would like, Clothes Really Do Make the Man contains more than 2,500 jokes and one-liners that offers readers ways they can fashion their own lives into a stylish ensemble that will make them model citizens to everyone they want to meet or didnt want to, anyway. Willidau has patterned a writing style that sews together all the designs hes modeled for his life. Ken Willidaus philosophy is that looking it is as good as being it if people dont look past that to see the truth that lies within. Willidau fashions himself in a manner that will leave even the most formally dressed person as a casual giggling mess. And youll be put in stitches, too. Chapters attempt to design a whole person from the clothes he has chosen to show off as his interpretation of himself for others to determine what it is for them to be seeing. Among them, Mittens on Strings, Hand-Me-Down Jeans, Tie-Dyed T-shirt, Flood Pants, Balaclava and Thinking Cap are just part of the complete outfit that make the whole man. The walk down the runway is spent with a patchwork of jokes using wit, dark humour, jokes that will knock your socks off, tongue-in-cheek, jokes needling you gentle reader, plays on words and double entendre humour. Spending your day with Ken will make you look at yourself differently no matter what you think others are seeing for themselves. Clothes Really Do Make the Man provides the perfect cover for those days you want to look like someone who, obviously, reads books and not whatever that is youre wrapped up in now that youve made yourself a slave to fashion to just be read like that yourself. Lets wear a book out.