IT WAS NIGHT AGAIN. The Waystone Inn lay in silence, and it was a silence of three parts. The most obvious part was a hollow, echoing quiet, made by things tha

IT WAS NIGHT AGAIN. The Waystone Inn lay in silence, and it was a silence of three parts. The most obvious part was a hollow, echoing quiet, made by things that were lacking. If there had been a wind it would have sighed through the trees, set the inn’s sign creaking on its hooks, and brushed the silence down the road like trailing autumn leaves. If there had been a crowd, even a handful of men inside the inn, they would have filled the silence with conversation and laughter, the clatter and clamor one expects from a drinking house during the dark hours of night. If there had been music . . . but no, of course there was no music. In fact there were none of these things, and so the silence remained. ... (93 chapters later) IT WAS NIGHT AGAIN. The Waystone Inn lay in silence, and it was a silence of three parts. ... --- --- That isn't a "first and last line are the same" but rather "the prologue and the epilogue are the same". For my favorite self reference, however, is part of the Jhereg / Taltos series by Burst. He does it a couple times, though the one that sticks in my mind the most is a prologue that is a cleaning / clothing repair list. "Tear on left sleeve" type thing. Then each chapter, that issue happens to the clothes.