List of longest novels

This is a list of the novels over 500,000 words published through a mainstream publisher. Traditionally, Artamène ou le Grand Cyrus, has been considered the longest novel, but has lately been surpassed by at least one novel, or two depending on the criterion used to determine the length. Originally published (1649–54) in ten parts, each part in three volumes, Artamène is generally attributed to Madeleine de Scudéry.[1]

Compiling a list of longest novels yields different results depending on whether pages, words, or characters are counted. Length of a book is typically associated with its size—specifically page count—leading many to assume the largest and thickest book equates to its length. Word count is a direct way to measure the length of a novel in a manner unaffected by variations of format and page size; however, different languages have words of varying average lengths.

Comparison of methods

There are at least three ways to determine length:

  • Character count is at the best estimation of spaces, written characters, and punctuation; Guinness World Records uses this criterion.[2]
  • Word count (omitting punctuation) is another method. Using computer software to count words is the current preferred method for academia and publications.[3] However it is not very meaningful when comparing different languages, for instance, because some languages use more words to express a given idea than others. A rough way to count words in an English language text is to assume that a standard formatted page with 12 pt Courier font and double-spaced lines is 250 words.[4]
  • Due to formatting, the page count is subject to change from font, style, formatting, or paper size of the published work and cannot be considered a reliable measure of length, despite it being the easiest physical indicator of length.

For the purposes of this list, word count is ideal. Page count is a rough indicator of length; for completeness, the page size will be included.

A particular difficulty is created when comparing word counts across different writing systems. The logographic Chinese characters used to write East Asian languages each represent one morpheme and are not separated by spaces. The same character may at times stand for one word, and other times form part of a larger word. For instance, the characters Zhong 中 and Guo 国 can be used independently to mean "middle" and "kingdom", respectively, but can also be combined into Zhongguo 中国, "China" (i.e. "The Middle Kingdom"). One could theoretically construct a noun phrase Zhongguo Zhong Guo 中国中国 meaning "kingdoms in the middle of China". The absence of any formal marking of word boundaries means that it would be difficult to mechanically determine if such a phrase consists of two, three, or four words without knowing Chinese. East Asian bibliographies therefore generally give only the character count without attempting any word count.

A rough approximation can sometimes be obtained by citing the word count of a translation into a Latin alphabet language like English (if such a translation exists), but this will vary to some extent depending on the style of English adopted by the translator. However citing a translation has the advantage that it indicates how many words are required to convey the same meaning in the target text, not how many "words" the source text actually contains.

Definitions

What counts as a novel is another variable. For the purposes of the list, a "novel" is defined as a single work in print or electronic form that has been published through a mainstream publisher and that has acquired publishing rights from authors. A "single work" includes works thought of as one novel by the author but published in multiple volumes for reasons of convenience.

Excluded are self-published, printed-on-demand, vanity works, unpublished novels like Henry Darger's, novel sequences like the Chronicles of Barsetshire, novel cycles such as those set in the James Bond universe, and record-grabbing stunts written solely for the title of the longest work.

List
Book title Author Edition/publisher Page
count		 Volumes Page size Word count Language Notes
Venmurasu Jeyamohan Natrinai/Kizhakku 22,400 26[5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18] 8.25 inches (21.0 cm) x 5.85 inches (14.9 cm) 3,640,000 (as of June 2020) Tamil A novel based on Mahabaratham, approximately 25,000 pages, completed in July 2020 in 26 volumes.
Devta Muhiyyu-d-Deen Nawaab Suspense Digest 8,128 Pages 56 3,206,310 words Urdu Started in 1977 and ended in 2010 (33 years)
A Chronicle of Ancient Sunlight Henry Williamson Macdonald, 1951–1969 6,062 15 2,436,924 English
Les Hommes de bonne volonté Jules Romains Groupe Flammarion 7,892 27 2,070,000 French English title: Men of Good Will
Artamène ou le Grand Cyrus Georges and/or[19] Madeleine de Scudéry Augustin Courbé, 1649–53 13,095 10[20] 1,954,300[21] French
Het Bureau J. J. Voskuil Van Oorschot, 1996-2000 5,058 7 7.85 inches (19.9 cm) x 4.95 inches (12.6 cm) 1,590,000[22] Dutch
Gordana Marija Jurić Zagorka Školska knjiga, 2007 8,768 12[23][24][25] 1,400,000 (estimated) Croatian The longest Croatian novel.
À la recherche du temps perdu Marcel Proust Gallimard (Collection Folio edition, 1988–1990) 3,031 7[26] 7 inches (17.8 cm) x 5 inches (12.7 cm)[27] 1,267,069[28] French Guinness World Record holder for longest novel. Uses estimated character count of 9,609,000 characters.[29]
Zettels Traum Arno Schmidt Suhrkamp Verlag (2010 edition) 1,536 1 14.1 inches (35.8 cm) x 10.8 inches (27.4 cm)[30] 1,100,000 (estimated) German 6,800,000 characters;[31] longest novel published in one volume
A Dance to the Music of Time Anthony Powell Arrow 3,024 12 1,000,000 English
Kelidar Mahmoud Dowlatabadi Farhang Moaaser 2,836 10[32] 950,000[32] Persian The longest Persian novel
Clarissa, or, the History of a Young Lady Samuel Richardson Penguin Classics (1987) 1,534 7 9.2 inches (23.4 cm) x 5.8 inches (14.7 cm)[33] 943,000 and 984,870 English Word count obtained through Project Gutenberg digitization and 1964 estimate by The New York Times[34]
Ponniyin Selvan Kalki Krishnamurthy (1950 edition) 2,400 5 900,000 Tamil Released in five volumes, this historical novel, originally written in Tamil, tells the story of Arulmozhivarman (Raja Raja Chola I), one of the kings of the Chola Dynasty
Poor Fellow My Country Xavier Herbert HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) 1,466
hardcover		 1 8.1 inches (20.6 cm) x 5.6 inches (14.2 cm)[35] 852,000[36] English 1975 winner of the Miles Franklin Award[37]
Women and Men Joseph McElroy Knopf (1987) 1,192
hardcover		 1 9 inches (22.9 cm) x 6 inches (15.2 cm)[38] 850,000 (estimated[39])

700,000 (estimated[40])

 English
Dream of the Red Chamber (紅樓夢) Cao Xueqin Penguin Classics 2,339 5 7.75 inches (19.7 cm) x 5 inches (13 cm) 845,000 (estimated) English translation from Chinese
The Plum in the Golden Vase (1610 version)/The Golden Lotus (1695 version) (Jin Ping Mei) (金瓶梅) The Scoffing Scholar of Lanling Princeton University Press (1610 version)/Tuttle Publishing (1695 version) 3,884 (1610 version) 1,280 (1695 version) 5 (1610 version)/2 (1695 version) 7.75 inches (19.7 cm) x 5 inches (13 cm) English translation from Chinese
Water Margin (水滸傳) Shi Nai'an and Luo Guanzhong The Chinese University Press (120-chapter version, slightly abridged)/Foreign Languages Press (A combination of the 70 and the 100-chapter version, unabridged) 2,304 (120-chapter version, slightly abridged)/2,149 (A combination of the 70 and the 100-chapter version, unabridged) 5 (120-chapter version, slightly abridged)/4 (A combination of the 70 and the 100-chapter version, unabridged) 7.75 inches (19.7 cm) x 5 inches (13 cm) English translation from Chinese
Romance of the Three Kingdoms (三國演義) Luo Guanzhong Foreign Languages Press (1995) 2,340 4 7.2 inches (18.3 cm) x 4.5 inches (11.4 cm)[41] 800,000 (estimate[42]) English translation from Chinese
Sironia, Texas Madison Cooper Houghton Mifflin (1952) 1,731 2[43] 840,000 (estimated[44][45]) English
Shanghai David Rotenberg Penguin Canada (2008) 1,156 1 800,000 (estimated)[46] English Written as a trilogy by the author but published in one volume.[47]
Miss MacIntosh, My Darling Marguerite Young Scribners (1965) 1,198 1 750,000 (estimated[48]) 576,000 (estimated[49]) English
Sir Charles Grandison Samuel Richardson Oxford World's Classics (1986) 1,647 1 7.2 inches (18.3 cm) x 4.6 inches (11.7 cm) 750,000 (estimated) English
Varney the Vampire James Malcolm Rymer and Thomas Peckett Prest Edward Lloyd (1845–47) 866 1 667,000[50] English Originally published anonymously, in serial "penny dreadful" pamphlets. Present-day opinions are divided regarding its authorship.
Anniversaries. From the Life of Gesine Cresspahl Uwe Johnson New York Review of Books Classics (2018) 1,720
(Damion Searls
translation)		 2 665,441 English translation from German Word count obtained from eBook digitization of Searles translation.
Les Misérables Victor Hugo Signet Classics edition 1,462 1 655,478[51] French
Atlas Shrugged Ayn Rand Signet Books (1996 edition) 1,088
paperback		 1 6.9 inches (17.5 cm) x 4.1 inches (10.4 cm)[52] 645,000 (estimate by the publisher and by The New York Times[53] and by the author herself quoting printer's word count[54]) English
Jean-Christophe Romain Rolland Henry Holt (1910,1911,1913) 1,666 3 610,000 (estimated) French to English translation Author received the 1915 Nobel Prize for Literature.
Jerusalem Alan Moore Knockabout (2016) 1,266 1 9.6 inches (24.4 cm) x 6.6 inches (16.8 cm) 600,000 (estimated[55]) English
"...And Ladies of the Club" Helen Hooven Santmyer Ohio State University Press (1982) 1,344 1 600,000 (newspaper estimate)[56] English 1984 surprise bestseller
A Suitable Boy Vikram Seth Penguin Books 1,368
paperback		 1 8 inches (20.3 cm) x 5.5 inches (14 cm)[57] 593,674[57] English Word count obtained from Amazon digitization (eBook) word count.
Война и мир (War and Peace) Leo Tolstoy Oxford World's Classics 1,440
paperback		 1 7.6 inches (19.3 cm) x 5.1 inches (13.0 cm)[58] 587,287 New American Library Version[59] and 561,093 Oxford World's Classics[60] Russian to English translation Edition and translation largely account for differences in word count.
F. L. Věk Alois Jirásek Československý spisovatel (last printed edition, 1976–1977) 1,870
(1972 ed.)		 1 571,350 Czech Word count obtained from 2011 eBook.[61]
Il mulino del Po Riccardo Bacchelli Arnoldo Mondadori Editore 2,113
paperback		 3 8 inches (20.3 cm) x 5.4 inches (13.7 cm)[62] 559,830 Italian
Infinite Jest David Foster Wallace Back Bay Books 1,104
paperback		 1 9.2 inches (23.4 cm) x 6 inches (15.2 cm)[63] 543,709 English
Remembrance Rock Carl Sandburg Mariner Books 1,088
paperback		 1 9 inches (22.9 cm) x 6 inches (15.2 cm)[64] 532,030[64] and 673,000[65] English Word counts obtained from Amazon digitization (eBook) word count, and author's own count.
To Green Angel Tower Tad Williams DAW Books 1,083
hardcover		 1 520,000[66] English Word counts obtained from Amazon digitization (eBook) word count.
Horcynus Orca Stefano D'Arrigo Arnoldo Mondadori Editore 1,257
hardcover		 1 8.2 inches (20.8 cm) x 5.6 inches (14.2 cm)[67] 508,751 Italian
Chłopi (The Peasants) Władysław Reymont Naklad Gebethnera i Wolffa /Alfred A. Knopf 1156 (English translation by Michael Henry Dziewicki) 4 Translation from Polish to English The author received the 1924 Nobel Prize in Literature for this novel.

Other list (non-Latin and Cyrillic)

Malayalam
  • Avakasikal by Vilasini: This book in Malayalam is known as the second longest written in an Indian language. It contains 3,958 pages in four volumes and took 10 years to complete.[68]

Japanese
  • Tokugawa Ieyasu by Sohachi Yamaoka: The 40 volumes of this historical novel were published serially between 1950 and 1967. The complete text includes more than 10 million Japanese characters. It is the longest Japanese novel and also one of the longest ever written.[69]
  • Daibosatsu Toge by Nakazato Kaizan: Published in 41 volumes and 1533 chapters, this historical novel includes 5.7 million Japanese characters.[70]

Chinese
  • Qin Empire by Sun Haohui: Published in 6 volumes, this historical novel includes 5 million Chinese characters.[71]
  • The Popular Romance of Chinese Dynasties by Cai Dongfan: Published in 11 volumes and 1080 chapters (1040 chapters by Cai Dongfan, the last 40 chapters by Xu Jinfu), this historical novel includes 6 million Chinese characters.[72]
  • On the Plateau by Zhang Wei: Scheduled to include 4.5 million Chinese characters, the ten volume fully published in 2010 and became the longest Chinese novel in prose.[73]
  • Li Zicheng by Yao Xueyin: This historical novel completed in 1999 includes 3.4 million Chinese characters. It has been published in 9 volumes over a period of 40 years. It is currently the longest novel published in modern Chinese.[74]
  • The Swordspeople from Shu Mountains by Huanzhulouzhu: Published in 309 chapters, although unfinished, this Wuxia novel includes 4.1 million Chinese characters.[75]
  • The Chinese wuxia novelist Jin Yong wrote a number of long novels, of which the longest are The Deer and the Cauldron (1,230,000 characters) and Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils (1,211,000 characters).
  • The Chinese wuxia novelist Huang Yi wrote a number of long novels, of which the longest is The Legend of the Twin Dragons of the Tang Dynasty (approximately 50,000,000 characters), consisting of 63 volumes (794 chapters) and the revised version is 20 volumes.

See also

References
  1. The name of her brother Georges appeared on the title page, and he is sometimes credited as a co-author.
  2. "Longest novel". Guinnessworldrecords.com. 1912-01-01. Retrieved 2012-10-31.
  3. "Find the Agent Who Will Find You a Publisher". AgentQuery. Retrieved 2012-10-31.
  4. "Hitting the Target Word Count in Your College Admission Essay – For Dummies". Dummies.com. 2008-11-07. Retrieved 2012-10-31.
  5. Jeyamohan. Mutharkanal. Amazon.in. ISBN 9789384149093.
  6. Jeyamohan. Malaipaadal. Amazon.in. ISBN 9789384149192.
  7. Jeyamohan. Vannakadal. Amazon.in. ISBN 9789384149215.
  8. Jeyamohan. Neelam. Amazon.in. ISBN 9789384149246.
  9. Jeyamohan. Venmugil nagaram. Amazon.in. ISBN 9789384149321.
  10. Jeyamohan. Indraneelam. Amazon.in. ISBN 9789384149710.
  11. Jeyamohan. Prayaagai. Amazon.in. ISBN 9789384149161.
  12. Jeyamohan. Veyyon. Amazon.in. ISBN 9789384149970.
  13. Jeyamohan. Kandeepam. Amazon.in. ISBN 9789384149765.
  14. Jeyamohan. Panniru padaikkalam. Amazon.in. ISBN 9788184937152.
  15. Jeyamohan. Solvalarkaadu. Amazon.in. ISBN 9788184937398.
  16. Jeyamohan. Kiratham. Amazon.in. ISBN 9788184938098.
  17. Jeyamohan. Maamalar. Amazon.in. ISBN 9788184938203.
  18. "மகாபாரதத்தை பிரமாண்டமாக மறு ஆக்கம் செய்திருக்கிறார் ஜெயமோகன்! - Kungumam Tamil Weekly Magazine". www.kungumam.co.in. Retrieved 2020-07-02.
  19. Scholarly consensus does not exist: Georges' name is on the original editions, it is commonly believed his sister Madeleine was the true author, yet no close textual analysis has been attempted. See the summary at "œuvre". Artamène ou le Grand Cyrus. Archived from the original on 2017-01-03. Retrieved 2013-12-30.
  20. "accueil". Artamène ou le Grand Cyrus. Archived from the original on 2005-05-11. Retrieved 2013-12-30.
  21. Word count of the online edition, using Artamène ou le Grand Cyrus
  22. source: Loads o' Lists: 21 Longest Novels (by word count)
  23. "Gordana – Kraljica Hrvata". Školska knjiga. Archived from the original on 2015-05-18. Retrieved 2015-05-09.
  24. "Gordana kraljica Hrvata". Goodreads.
  25. "Gordana kraljica Hrvata". Najbolje knjige – Hrvatski portal za knjige.
  26. See Éditions d'À la recherche du temps perdu#Tableau de correspondance, French Wikipedia.
  27. Bibliothéque Nationale de France catalogue. Retrieved 2013-11-15.
  28. Christophe Vignat. "Sur le Vocabulaire dans La Recherche". Université Paris-Est, Laboratoire d'Informatique de l'Institut Gaspard Monge, Equipe Signal et Communications. Retrieved 2013-11-14.
  29. "Longest novel". Guinnessworldrecords.com. 1912-01-01. Retrieved 2012-10-31.
  30. Arno Schmidt. Zettel's Traum. Amazon.de. ISBN 9783518803103.
  31. Günter Jürgensmeier (2013), "Das verfluchte Buch. Über das gefahrvolle Wagnis, Zettel's Traum zu setzen", Zettelkasten 27. Aufsätze und Arbeiten zum Werk Arno Schmidts (in German), Wiesenbach: Bangert & Metzler, p. 42, ISBN 978-3-924147-64-8
  32. "The 10 longest novels ever written". 6 June 2018. Retrieved 5 August 2018.
  33. Samuel Richardson. Clarissa: Or the History of a Young Lady. Penguin Classics. ISBN 9780140432152.
  34. Hal Boyle Genius isn't all thumbs, writer Boyle confides Florence, Alabama:Times Daily 23 April 1962 (via Google news archive)
  35. Xavier Herbert. Poor Fellow My Country. Amazon.com. ISBN 9780006160298.
  36. Poor fellow my ears The Age 29 December 1987 (via Google news archive)
  37. Top award to Xavier Herbert Sydney Morning Herald 28 April 1976 (via Google news archive)
  38. Joseph McElroy. Women and Men. Amazon.com. ISBN 9781564780232.
  39. Karl, Frederick (Spring 1990). "Women and Men: More than a novel". Review of Contemporary Fiction. p. 181.
  40. Garth Risk Hallberg (2009-07-07). "The lost postmodernist: Joseph McElroy". Latimesblogs.latimes.com. Retrieved 2012-10-31.
  41. Luo Guanzhong. Three Kingdoms. Amazon.com. ISBN 9787119005904.
  42. "Movie Review: Red Cliff". Arkansasonline.com. 2009-12-25. Retrieved 2012-10-31.
  43. Nichols, Lewis (1952-11-09). "Talk with Madison Cooper – Review". nytimes.com. Retrieved 2012-10-31.
  44. "Author a bachelor; so he has time to write longest novel". Chicago Tribune. 1952-11-16. Retrieved 2012-10-31. (via Pqasb.pqarchiver.com)
  45. Author of 1,800 page novel in New York looking after plans for publication of big book The Times-News 27 October 1952 (via Google news archive)
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  47. Rotenberg, David. "At the Desk: David Rotenberg". Open Book Toronto. Retrieved 11 April 2019.
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  49. Walters, Raymond, Jr (12 September 1965). "In and out of books". The New York Times. p. BR8.
  50. Calculated from "Varney the Vampire". Internet Archive, Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia Library. the complete text at the University of Virginia. Note that some on-line editions are incomplete.
  51. Victor Hugo. "Les misérables, Tome I". Retrieved 2015-04-23.
  52. Ayn Rand. Atlas Shrugged. Amazon.com. ISBN 9780451191144.
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  57. Vikram Seth. A Suitable Boy. Amazon.com. ISBN 9780060925000.
  58. Leo Tolstoy. War and Peace. Louise and Aylmer Maude, Amy Mandelker. Oxford World's Classics. ISBN 9780199232765.
  59. Tolstoy, Leo; Dunnigan, Ann. "War and Peace". Perma-bound.com. Retrieved 2012-10-31.
  60. Leo Tolstoy. War and Peace. Henry Gifford, Louise Maude, Aylmer Maude. Oxford World's Classics. ISBN 9780192833983.
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  62. "14: Teatro". 14: Teatro. 5 August 1964. Retrieved 5 August 2018 – via sbn.it.
  63. David Foster Wallace. Infinite Jest. Amazon. ISBN 9780316066525.
  64. Carl Sandburg. Remembrance Rock. Amazon. ISBN 9780156763905.
  65. author, quoted in Corwin, Norman (1961). The World of Carl Sandburg. Harcourt, Brace & World. p. 8.
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  68. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2007-06-03. Retrieved 2009-06-29.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
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  70. 検索結, 果. "ザ・大菩薩峠―『大菩薩峠』全編全一冊". 第三書館. Retrieved 5 August 2018 – via Amazon.
  72. "历朝通俗演义 - 图书". Retrieved 5 August 2018.
  73. "张炜写就史上最长纯文学小说_手机网易网". 3g.163.com. 19 March 2010. Archived from the original on 6 August 2018. Retrieved 5 August 2018.
  74. "中国姚雪垠:《李自成》". t.icesmall.cn. Retrieved 5 August 2018.
  75. "蜀山剑侠传_还珠楼主_九九藏书网_手机版". m.99lib.net. Retrieved 5 August 2018.
  76. Jenny Turner, "The Secret Sharer. Elena Ferrante's existential fiction", Harper's Magazine, October 2014.
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