Endings in the Novel, from Austen and Dickens to Edward St Aubyn and Rachel Cusk

More than anything else, the end matters to the novel reader. Novelists, including Austen and Dickens, sometimes changed their minds about their endings, using these changes of mind to explore how an ending satisfies, or fails to satisfy, our expectations.
The lecture will explore the rise of the indeterminate ending, from Henry James on. And it will suggest how an ending can, for worse as well as for better, retrospectively change our experience of a novel.
A lecture by John Mullan recorded on 5 April 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/e...
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: gresham.ac.uk/support/
Website: gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: / greshamcollege
Facebook: / greshamcollege
Instagram: / greshamcollege

[@rogernobbs6559]

A fantastic end to a great series of lectures. If I thought I would end up with a lecturer like Prof Mullan, I might have studied harder at school and made it to UCL! Great to have a lecture about endings as it pointed up time and time again just how ruinous most adaptations are. And the modern penchant for writing ‘sequels’ to other author’s novels just reveals a lack of imagination in so many modern writers as well as an immaturity in modern readers. To me, an ambiguous ending allows me, the reader, to spin my own web and not rely on being led by the author’s hand. I don’t need someone to come along years later to give me their imagined version.

[@MatthewMcVeagh]

I've not loved a Gresham College series more, nor so eagerly anticipated this final lecture. I wish John could just keep going for months and years with ever more talks on literature, if only such topics could be found and space in the Gresham schedule too. Alas I will have to be content with these nine, and hope another series can be found that is as gripping.

[@kaeten838]

Charming! So glad Jane Austen had second thoughts about the ending of Persuasion.

[@SlightlySusan]

The captain sounds like a distant relative of Mr. Darcy. Both men straighten out their situations and make themselves clear by writing! Perhaps, Jane's "dream man" would have been a novelist!

[@ShaizaShamim]

Such a great lecture, thank you!

[@ellie698]

Jane Austen is talked about from 22:48

[@daydays12]

Oh dear

[@jasongray4517]

Meaning?

[@jasonchambers4495]

Yes darling?

[@JJONNYREPP]

Endings in the Novel, from Austen and Dickens to Edward St Aubyn and Rachel Cusk 21.4.23 1152am how to end your rambling narrative. end it leaving the reader perplexed, bemused... seeing as they seem to have exhausted most routes to literary cessation. leaving your reader unsatisfied may also see the reader clamour for more of your lit wit. unsated lovers might relate to that frustration...