Comments on: The Quick 10: The 10 Longest Novels Ever

By: Mark L.

Mark L. — Mon, 26 May 2008 02:14:02 +0000

I’ve posted an updated version of “Marienbad My Love” at marienbadmylove.com. The word count is now 10.1 million.

By: Mark L.

Mark L. — Mon, 19 May 2008 17:20:35 +0000

Interesting story. One of the comments suggests that these works were “merely written for the sake of writing something really long.” I can tell you that is not the case for at least two of the works on the list. Waco novelist Madison Cooper made news in 1952 when Time magazine declared his 1.1-million-word Sironia, Texas to be “the longest novel by an American writer ever to be published.” As a Waco-born writer, I was inspired by Cooper throughout the 20-year process of writing “Marienbad My Love,” a 2.5-million-word love story about the end of the world. “Sironia, Texas” was a complex work that Cooper produced in secret over a period of years, keeping it hidden from everyone in town. I grew up hearing stories about how he kept track of the many characters and plots of the novel by writing his notes on a paper window shade. If someone entered the room while he was writing, he’d raise the shade to hide his work. My novel features several tributes to “Sironia, Texas” and Waco. I incorporated a mention of the Waco Horror, an early 20th-century lynching that appears in Cooper’s book; references to a rash of UFO reports in Waco and Central Texas the early 1950s; and the famous Waco tornado in 1953. A recurring element in “Marienbad My Love” is a photography-based time travel machine created by a fictional version of my grandfather, Jewell Poe Rowan, a professional photographer who operated a studio in downtown Waco that was destroyed in the 1953 tornado.

By: kyle

kyle — Mon, 19 May 2008 17:03:06 +0000

Each word in Ulysses should be counted at least three times.

By: Stick

Stick — Sun, 18 May 2008 08:13:32 +0000

“Atlas Shrugged” has always been the longest book I have ever encountered (but not read…too long), but at 645,000 words it doesn’t make this list either. Whoa!

By: dejah

dejah — Sun, 18 May 2008 01:31:17 +0000

GWTW is only 419K words?

Wow, my serial novel is longer than that, I think.

By: jack

jack — Sat, 17 May 2008 07:08:59 +0000

Posted this link in http://www.surfurls.com. its a social bookmarking site.

By: Mitch

Mitch — Sat, 17 May 2008 05:25:54 +0000

Two pages of Richardson would have been excessive. The only reason to read him is to enhance your enjoyment of Fielding’s merciless pwnage in Shamela, Joseph Andrews, and Tom Jones. That list is in descending order, as Fielding gradually realized it was not really worthwhile to drop an anvil on an ant.

By: Nick

Nick — Sat, 17 May 2008 03:29:15 +0000

I’m in agreement that Mission Earth should not be counted as one novel. It was one long story but published in 10 books the same way the Wheel of Time or many other scifi/fantasy series. It does have a decent story with much social and political commentary. While not a single novel it is an entertaining read.

By: brent

brent — Sat, 17 May 2008 03:22:17 +0000

Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan – 11 of 12 books are published and I don’t believe any of the books are less than 500 pages each. Good SF/Fantasy series to sink your teeth into.

By: redavenger

redavenger — Sat, 17 May 2008 02:47:02 +0000

Bonfire of the Vanities is trash—enjoy!