Literary notes about last (AI summary)
The word “last” weaves finality, sequence, and climax into literary works. It can pinpoint the terminal element of a series—as when a rosary reaches its “last bead” ([1]) or when the narrative centers on the final remaining character ([2]). Authors often employ “last” in temporal phrases like “at last” to signal long-awaited conclusions, marking turning points where tension dissipates or resolutions emerge ([3], [4], [5]). In other instances, it evokes the ultimate moment in a process—for example, a life ending with its “last gasp” ([6]) or actions unfolding in the sequence of fate ([7]). Whether used to indicate the final season of an event ([8]) or to highlight the culminative effect of preceding details ([9], [10]), “last” helps shape the flow of time and the progression of events, imbuing the narrative with an inevitable sense of closure and transformation.
- THE FRIAR I thank you, and, in your intention Will tell my rosary to its last bead.
— from Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand - I take the venerable patriarch to be Bradstreet, the last of the Puritans, who was governor at ninety or thereabouts.
— from Twice-told tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne - “I have no doubt you are perfectly right,” he said at last, getting to his feet.
— from The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson - But the children got to the station at last.
— from The Railway Children by E. Nesbit - At last we went booming through the Golden Gate, and my pulses leaped for joy.
— from Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain - He gradually declined, and finally gave his last gasp about thirty years since.
— from The Sketch-Book of Geoffrey Crayon by Washington Irving - As soon as he had given up his last breath, the same scene was re-enacted, only this time the wailing was still louder, and
— from The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life by Émile Durkheim - Her ugly sister, Manon, married M. Duvillard, the rich banker, last autumn.
— from Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley - With its departure, the Divine finds at last an unobstructed channel.
— from Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda - The last time we were together, Philintus , you gave me a melancholy account of your misfortunes.
— from Letters of Abelard and Heloise by Peter Abelard and Héloïse
