The longest novel The longest works in the history of literature Samuel Richardson "Clarissa, or the story of a young lady"
Not all writers agree with the statement "Brevity is the sister of talent." In today's selection, we offer the longest novels in the history of literature. The authors spent years on their creation. But it will take a lot of time to read them.
By the way, the novel "War and Peace" by Leo Tolstoy hit the top ten, so every Russian schoolboy can proudly say that he is familiar with one of the longest books firsthand.
10. "Tokugawa Ieyasu", S. Yamaoka
This novel was published piecemeal in Japanese newspapers. If you collect all the parts into a single work, you get at least 40 volumes. The plot of the novel is dedicated to the first shogun of the Tokugawa clan, who united the country and established peace in it.
9. Quiet Flows the Don, M. Sholokhov
All four books that make up the novel are about 1,500 pages long. There are 982 characters in the novel, of which 363 are real historical characters. For "Quiet Don" Sholokhov was awarded the Nobel Prize with the consent of Stalin.
8. Les Misérables, V. Hugo
Hugo created one of his main works over the course of eighteen years - from 1834 to 1852. Then the author revised the text several times, adding and removing various fragments.
7. "In Search of Lost Time", M. Proust
This is a whole cycle of 7 novels, in which there are more than two thousand characters. Books abound with emotional outbursts, bizarre twists in the story. In total, "In Search of Lost Time" has more than one and a half million words, which occupy about 3,200 pages.
6. The Forsyte Saga, D. Galsworthy
The novel of the Nobel laureate strikes with clearly defined images of the characters. The work covers the history of the family from 1680 to the 1930s. "Saga" formed the basis of 6 adaptations, the most recent of which has a duration of 11.5 hours.
5. "War and Peace", L. Tolstoy
Anyone who has read War and Peace can be divided into two categories. Some are completely delighted with the novel, others cannot stand it. But the landmark work in three volumes does not leave anyone indifferent.
4. Quincanx, C. Palliser
This work is a modern pastiche of a Victorian novel. Each of the two volumes has a volume of 800 pages, depending on the edition. The plot is full of mysteries, symbolism and unexpected twists.
3. "Ulysses", J. Joyce
The novel is considered one of the finest works of English-language prose. Ulysses was written over the course of seven long years, and tells of one day in Dublin, a Jew, Leopold Bloom. The novel was first published in installments between 1918 and 1920.
2. "Astrea", O. d'Urfe
The novel was written in 21 years of hard work. The work in the first edition fit on 5,399 pages. Published in 1607, the novel tells about the love between the shepherdess Astrea and the shepherd Celadon. The book contains a lot of false novels and poetic inclusions.
1. "People of good will", R. Jules
The novel by the French playwright, writer and poet has been published in 27 volumes. The work has more than two million words on 4,959 pages. The table of contents of the longest novel in the world has about 50 pages. It is noteworthy that the book does not have a single and clear storyline, and the number of characters exceeds four hundred.
Not all writers agree with the statement "Brevity is the sister of talent." In addition, many of us prefer that our favorite book or story never ends. Below is a list of the ten longest novels in the world, based on estimated word count.
Sironia, Texas is a novel by American author Madison Cooper that describes life in the fictional city of Sironia, Texas, at the beginning of the 20th century. The book contains about 840,000 words and over 1700 pages, making it one of the longest novels in the English language. It was written over 11 years and published in 1952. Received the Houghton Mifflin Literary Prize.
Women and Men is a 1987 novel by Joseph McElroy. Has 1,192 pages and 850,000 words. It is considered the most difficult novel in the world.
Poor Fellow My Country is a novel by Australian writer Xavier Herbert that won the Miles Franklin Award for it. Was published in 1975. Consists of 1,463 pages and 852,000 words. It is the longest Australian fiction ever written. The theme of the novel includes questions about Aboriginal rights, and also describes the life and problems of Northern Australia.
Son of Ponni (Ponniyin Selvan) is a Tamil historical novel written by Kalki Krishnamurthy. It is one of the greatest works of Tamil literature. Tells the story of Prince Arulmozhivarman (later crowned as Rajaraja Chola I), one of the prominent kings of the Chola dynasty who ruled in the 10th-11th centuries. The novel was published in the 1950s. Has 2,400 pages and 900,000 words.
Kelidar is a monumental novel by Mahmud Doulatabadi. One of the most famous Persian novels and definitely one of the best. It has 2,836 pages in five volumes, consists of ten books and 950,000 words. Describes the life of a Kurdish family from an Iranian village in the province of Khorasan between 1946-1949, which faces the hostility of their neighbors, despite the similarity of their cultures.
Clarissa, or, the History of a Young Lady is a 1748 epistolary novel by the English writer Samuel Richardson. Consists of 1,534 pages and 984,870 words. Included in the list of the 100 best novels of all time. It tells the tragic story of a heroine whose pursuit of virtue is constantly thwarted by her family.
Zettel's Dream (Zettels Traum) is a work by the West German writer Arno Schmidt, published in 1970. Has 1,536 pages and 1,100,000 words. The story is told here in the form of notes, collages and typewritten pages.
Venmurasu is a Tamil novel written by Jayamohan. This is the author's most ambitious work, which he started in January 2014 and later announced that he would write every day for ten years. The total volume of the novel is expected to be 25,000 pages. As of December 2017, 15 books have been published online and in print. So far they have 11,159 pages and 1,556,028 words.
In Search of Lost Time (À la recherche du temps perdu) is a French epic novel, the main work of the writer Marcel Proust, created by him during 1908/1909–1922 and published in seven parts from 1913 to 1927. Describes the author's childhood memories and teenage experiences in aristocratic France in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, examines the waste of time and the lack of meaning in the world. The novel consists of 3,031 pages and 1,267,069 words.
Artamène ou le Grand Cyrus (Artamène ou le Grand Cyrus) is a French river novel originally published in ten volumes in the 17th century by Madeleine de Scudiri and her brother Georges de Scuderi. In total, the original edition has 13,095 pages and 1,954,300 words. It is considered the longest novel in the history of world literature. It is of the type of secular novels (with a key), where modern people and events are thinly disguised as classical characters from Roman, Greek or Persian mythology.
It's amazing how much time an author spends writing the longest novel of his life. Most likely, writing a novel takes many years of the author's life: separate passages and parts of the book need to be put together, then published and presented to the public.
However, no one blames the authors for such a protracted process of creating a book, since everyone is well aware that not every story can be put into a couple of chapters, moreover, the author must take into account all the details in order to convey his idea to the reader. Many of us prefer our favorite book or story to never end. Below are the longest novels in the world. You will be interested in this list.1. Vikram Seth "A Suitable Groom"
If you had to choose the longest novel in the world based on the number of words, surely Vikram Seth's A Suitable Groom would be in the top ten, as it has a whopping 593,674 words! The book describes the life of four families, and, in parallel with this description, the author highlights the historical and social events that took place in that era. The novel is rich in many different details and rich in bright, colorful, lively descriptions, which helped the author to carefully and thoroughly convey to the reader the atmosphere of the time in which the events of this story unfolded.
2. Ayn Rand Atlas Shrugged
In the novel "Atlas Shrugged" there is a story about Dagny Taggart - this is the main character who is trying with all her might to save her transcontinental railway from crisis and death. Against the backdrop of unfolding events, Dagny learns to think and act regardless of the foundations of the time. There are 565,223 words in the book! This is truly a story that should be read, as it perfectly describes how to fight for what is dear to you and for what you believe in.
3. Carl Sandburg "Stone of Memory"
The 532,030-word historical novel The Memory Stone by American writer Carl Sandburg. The author tells the reader about the long development of the American Dream, which lasted more than three centuries. The book covers a very long period: it describes the colonization of America, the events of the Revolution in America, the Civil War, as well as the Second World War. The novel itself meant a lot to Carl Sandburg, given the fact that even the red tombstone of Sandburg's grave is named the Stone of Remembrance. 
4. James Clavell "Gaijin"
"Gaijin" tells about the events of 1862 that took place in Japan. It was a time when foreigners traveled to Japan in search of new markets for trade, but eventually everything turned into the Opium Wars (two 19th century wars initiated by Britain and France against imperial China). The novel has romance, history, and drama, the total number of words is 478,700. The only logical explanation for such a large volume of pages is that the author had to describe the material that was too difficult to understand.
5. Hubbard L. Ron "Mission Earth"
Believe it or not, there are a whopping 1.2 million words in Mission Earth! Many people think that in fact this is not one novel, but a collection of short stories, but the author still insisted that "Mission Earth" is one holistic novel published in ten volumes. The plot of the book is based on a story about an alien invasion and a war between planets; events unfold either on Earth or on the planet Voltar. 
6. Madison Cooper "Sironia, Texas"
"Sironia, Texas" by Madison Cooper is not far from "Mission Earth" at 1,100,000 words! The author describes the life of the most ordinary American town in the first twenty years of the 20th century, in the novel thirty main characters! The book is not easy to read, as it is difficult for a modern reader to perceive the style of the author. 
7. Samuel Richardson "Clarissa, or the story of a young lady"
This novel by the English writer Samuel Richardson contains 969,000 words. It tells about the unfortunate fate of a girl named Clarissa Harlow, whom her parents forcibly, solely in their own interests, want to marry a man she does not love. Having guessed their intentions, Clarissa runs away from the house with a man who promises to protect her, but the girl does not even suspect what he really intended. This is a very heavy book with a long, sad, dramatic plot. 
It seems that there are some similarities between these long novels. All books reveal topics that are very difficult to perceive, which is why the authors of these novels had to describe the events so carefully and in detail in order to convey to the reader the whole meaning of the stories.
