I think it's a modern problem - the problem with ending novels....so many really great modern novels - Oscar and Lucinda, A Fine Balance, The Guide - had, to my mind, unsatisfactory endings. The writers wanted to reach a 'conclusion', to have a denouement, to end with something profound, and to me it seems unnecessary.
That's the thing with the novel in particular....it's the body of the text that you get the real value from. It doesn't need to finish with a profound conclusion.
Somehow, 19th century writers seem to do this well and end in ways that don't feel like the end.
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