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

By: walt brown

walt brown — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 02:00:44 +0000

Now, with 564 chapters, more than 2,200 pages, thousands of illustrations, and nearly 685,000 words as of early December, 2011, far greater in length than the longest widely read novel (Leo Tolstoy’s great War and Peace: 560,000 words in English, 460,000 in the original languages), and now longer as well than Ayn Rand’s controversial, ideological masterpiece, Atlas Shrugged (645.000 words)! More recently exceeded in length (we make no strong claims about quality, but of course we think TBOKAS is wonderful…sometimes) include novels such as never-completed, but fascinating Der Mann ohne Eignschaften (‘The Man without Qualities’: 657,000 words) by Austrian novelist Robert ‘Derr Mann’ Musil, which took 21 years to partially write, leaving his family in dire economic straits due to the novel’s lack of financial payoff . And, right after passing Musil, we blew by James Malcolm Ryder (or, is that Thomas Preskett Prest behind the wheel??… even the experts aren’t sure about this one!) in his (their?) ground-breaking Victorian vampire saga, 667,000 word Varney the Vampire… Up ahead of we are beginning to see the taillights of Marguerite Young, in her Miss McIntosh, My Darling (700,000 words) entry, which I just purchased to see if I can learn a few more novelistic tricks from Margie.
http://forums.delphiforums.com/skunkville

By: jmmt

jmmt — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 11:02:24 +0000

Novelas[1] con mayor número de palabras[2] en alfabetos occidentales[3].

1º Mark Leach, Marienbad My Love (contiene aproximadamente 17.000.000 palabras/words)

2º Nigel Tomm, The Blah Story (contiene aproximadamente 11.300.000 palabras/words).

3º Mohiuddin Nawab, Devta (contiene aproximadamente 11.200.000 palabras/words escrita en urdu).

4º H. Balzac, La comedia humana (contiene 95 partes más 48 partes inacabadas, contiene aproximadamente 11.000.000 palabras/words).

5º Henry Darger, The Story of The Vivian Girls, in […][4] (contiene aproximadamente 11.000.000 de palabras/words).

6º J.M.M. Caminero, Soliloquios o Enciclopedia Filosofía[5] (15 volúmenes o tomos, 15.000 páginas, contiene aproximadamente 11.000.000 palabras/words).

7º Robert Jordan completado por Brandon Sanderson, Wheel of Time fantasy series (contiene aproximadamente 3.400.000 palabras/words).

8º Marija Jurić Zagorka, Gordana (contiene aproximadamente 5.700 páginas, aproximadamente 2.300.000 palabras).

9º Benito Pérez Galdós, Episodios Nacionales (46 tomos, contiene aproximadamente 2.200.000 palabras).

10º Madeleine y Georges de Scudéry, Artamène o El gran Ciro[6] (contiene aproximadamente 2.100.000 palabras).

By: Stephen H

Stephen H — Thu, 13 May 2010 09:40:56 +0000

You’re missing a novel of significant length: “Dessen Sprache du nicht verstehest” by Marianne Fritz, which weighs in at 3,300 pages… I believe the first printing had 12 volumes, not sure about subsequent ones…

the below links to an article about it. I have to say, thoguh, I’m not surprised you missed it; I’ve never seen it outside of large university libraries, and I’ve certainly never talked to anyone who has actually read the whole thing.
http://www.jstor.org/pss/40145051

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 â€œMarienbad My Love,” a 2.5-million-word love story about the end of the world. “Sironia, Texasâ€ 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 â€œSironia, Texasâ€ 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 â€œMarienbad My Loveâ€ 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.