The count of monte cristo at 375,695 words and 1,276 pages in the penguin classics english translation is one of the longest books ive read. Originally published between 1649 and 1653, the novel is known to be the longest french novel ever written,095 pages in the original. Greta garbo in anna karenina greta garbo in anna karenina 1935, directed by clarence brown. Not wellknown authors, just random regular people you run across. As of june 2017, the series has been translated into 80 languages, 10 placing harry potter among historys most translated literary works.
The 25 most challenging books you will ever read if youve made it all the way through any of these, give yourself a pat on the back. Otto longest human tunnel travelled through by a skateboarding dog. And while this fantasy master has passed away, discworld will always remain to pay homage to his greatness. Were working on a commission for a client right now. Dec, 2016 the 9 strangest books of all time for readers unafraid of taking a risk. These forms of lists are comprised of books that leave a burning trail of fear in our hearts. Proust is no match for these two fanfics the daily dot. Top 10 longest novels in the english languagetop 10 longest novels in the english languagei love a long book that i can really get into, so i decided to compile a list of the longest novels ever written. It was published in two volumes to accommodate the 1,700 pages and told the story of a small town in texas called sironia at the turn of the century. Scholars can debate endlessly over which book is the best of all time, but finding out which ones have enjoyed the most commercial success should be a more concrete endeavor.
In this list ive added all the books that i could think of that everyone has read at least once. Kings latest, under the dome, is his third longest novel ever. But id like to take this time to thank the 2 and 12 people in the entire universe who have bothered to read this entire thing. There have been some truly massive books written over the years. Anthony powell, a dance to the music of timepublished from 1951 to 1975, as a partial tribute to proust. Nov 17, 2007 conventionally regarded as the longest novel in the english language. The bible is easily one of the bestselling books of all time, but exact sales numbers are hard to nail down.
Nigel tomm fearlessly continues his abstract novel the blah story probably the blah story is one of the best example of the abstract novel. My leisure time was spent either gallivanting ahorseback through the rocky mountains. The list is fascinating in its own right, even without the dominance of the big writers. A story written for the nineyearold daughter of an oxford don that still baffles most kids. The longest novel is artamene ou le grand cyrus, originally published 164954 in ten parts, each part in three volumes. Not wellknown authors, just random regular people you run across online who post their works for free. I realize that this longest text ever must be very boring and not worth anyones time.
A sentence often claimed to be the longest sentence ever written is in molly blooms soliloquy in the james joyce novel ulysses 1922, which contains a sentence of 3,687 words. The longest book ever written is called yongle dadian. It took up,095 pages spread over 10 volumes, with over two million words, and a french name which is the reason why were not even bothering to write it out for you. It is a guinness world record, therefore you can see the original title sorry for not including it here, but come on. Now you can read the worst novel ever written for free. All records listed on our website are current and uptodate.
The first novel in the series, harry potter and the philosophers stone, has sold in excess of 120 million copies, making it one of the bestselling books of all time. With the running time of 154 hours and 1 minute, the book romans. You can learn who your family is in this recap of mankinds history. The popular romance of chinese dynasties by cai dongfan. There is no scientific proof with which to bolster our claims.
Set in the postcivil war american south, the novel follows a young african. While a classic, i feel it could probably have done with a bit of an edit in some of the middle sections. Worlds first noveland the winner is late last night books. The longest novel in a single volume that i have ever read is a suitable boy by vikram seth. Miss macintosh, my darling by marguerite young 750,000 words, 1198 pages. The 15,145page, singlespaced fantasy manuscript called the story of the vivian girls, in what is known as the realms of the unreal, of the glandecoangelinian war storm, caused by the child slave rebellion by henry joseph darger jr. Saddest books ever basically, which books made you cry the most. It is the longest japanese novel and also one of the longest ever written. According to crichton, after he started the novel and wrote a part of it, he couldnt come up with a good ending, so he stopped writing. The 10 greatest books ever, according to 125 top authors. So this was the list of 16 of the longest books on audible.
The history behind irene iddesleigh will no doubt remind you of the aforementioned fifty shades. None of hemingways novels are particularly difficult, but his last one has the distinction of being the shortest novel ever to win the pulitzer prize. Jul 10, 20 hands down, the greatest american novel is catch22. Whats the longest novel not a encyclopedia ever written. Polgara the sorceress is the longest book i have read in english at 754 pages. In this post we will provide 10 of the longest novels ever written, so if you want to embark on one of these long journeys which will take your mind onto twisting and turning paths be sure to keep reading. Though the epistolary novel a novel in the form of letters written by one or more characters was most popular before the 19th century, alice walker became a champion of the style with her 1982 pulitzer prize and national book awardwinning novel the color purple. At over 1 million words, it is a contender for the longest englishlanguage novel ever written.
Writers pick their favorite books, and then prefaced by one uber list, the top top ten. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but how much is a million words worth. Jun 04, 2014 the longest novel ever published was written in the 1600s. Now, to be honest, we all love for our favorite book series to go on and on. He studies computer science and computer maintenance. No doubt frank, the number one proust scholar in america from little miss sunshine would have read this even though its 1. If youve ever made a foray into the land of special collections, you.
Leveraction rifles stood in corners, holstered peacemakers hung from pegs, and not a tv was to be found. This page provides lists of bestselling individual books and book series to date and. I am still rereading it 50 years after buying it as a year old. Conventionally regarded as the longest novel in the english language. The 21 bestselling books of all time howstuffworks. In this vein, her lone novel irene iddesleigh is also considered one of the worst books ever written, and now you can download it for free over at project gutenberg. Much of the writing is, in grossmans words, differentiated and obfuscated.
Poor fellow my country xavier herbert regarded as the longest novel ever written in australia, this book consists of over 850,000 words in total, many times more than even the large compendiums written by such authors as j. Women and men by joseph mcelroy 850,000 words, 1192 pages. Proust produced the first volume of his volume masterpiece in 1912 it was first published in 19. Top 10 longest novels in the english language listverse. It was published in two volumes to accommodate the 1,700 pages and told the story of a small town in texas called sironia at. Yep, that is my summer reading, he replied, glancing down at the 1,088page behemoth of a novel.
We can just look at the sales numbers and rank them. The lists were all compiled in an edited collection, the top ten. It is supposedly the worlds longest published novel in english at 2. Among other things i run the paigeturner project, a methodology i devised that lets a team of five writers create a 100,000word novel in ten daysin other words 10,000 words a day. Top 10 longest books in the world 2018 update articles. Its the only book of this list that i have read a little from. An enclyclopedia with 11,095 volumes and 22,877 chapters.
The greatest book ever written, the old testament oursler. Sirona, texas by madison cooper 840,000 words, 1,731 pages. Jul 18, 2017 an audacious and daring black comedy that was the first debut novel ever to be shortlisted for the booker prize, under the frog tells the dark but surprisingly funny story of two hungarian basketball players, pataki and gyuri, between the end of world war ii and the antisoviet uprising of 1956. As i did more research, i realized that there were many issues i had to take into consideration when deciding what to include on this list. During terry pratchetts prolific writing career, he wrote 45 discworld novels spreading across 15,497 pages.
Once youre done reading about the worlds longest novel, check out some. Meet your creator learn about his love and power in this easy to understand recap of the bible. The 7 longest books in american history america fun fact of. However, the greatest american novel for a book club discussion is the little known replay by ken grimwood. The subspace emissarys worlds conquest is currently over. Ten of the worlds longest books for reading addicts. The 9 strangest books of all time for readers unafraid of. Once youre done reading about the worlds longest novel, check out some of our more recent articles or have a look at our notable posts, listed in the right sidebar. So i maintain that every book ever written is just a. The 9 strangest books of all time for readers unafraid of taking a risk.
And in his spare time, he writes the longest work of fan fiction ever composed. The shortest novels written by 20 authors you shouldve. The seven novels the reading order of which is a little controversial are shorter than standard fantasy books, and written for younger readers, so. Jan 16, 2014 supposedly the fifth largest novel written in the english language, young began writing this book that has fallen out of popular conversation in 1947 and ended up finishing it in 1964. Written as an homage to homers epic poem the odyssey, ulysses follows its hero, leopold bloom, through the streets of dublin. Bonus points if you actually understood what you were reading. This old book by fulton oursler, the greatest book ever written will make your heart so glad that you feel like a new person. Published in 12 volumes, it is sometimes regarded as a novel sequence. Overflowing with puns, references to classical literature, and streamofconsciousness writing, this is a complex, multilayered novel about one day in the life of an ordinary man.
Thus begins the longest work of fiction ever written. Meet the college junior behind the longest fan fiction ever. If taken as a single piece of fiction, it would be a strong contender for the longest novel ever written. I guess the hardy boys would count, but those books tend to be one off books and not a continuing series of books. Twenty years later he resumed his writing and completed it in only two months. An audacious and daring black comedy that was the first debut novel ever to be shortlisted for the booker prize, under the frog tells the dark but surprisingly funny story of two hungarian basketball players, pataki and gyuri, between the end of world war ii and the antisoviet uprising of 1956.
Three thousand books lined the walls of my childhood home. We will start at number 10 and work our way up to the longest novel, which should keep your intellect stimulated for a good number of weeks. Poor fellow my country by xavier herbert this is the longest australian novel ever written at. Its recorded by guinness as the longest book ever written. If we ever get more work than we can handle ill launch the paigeturner project methodology 2. At 840,000 words, this novel was declared the longest novel by an american when it was released on new years day 1952. However, it is his novel sphere that took the longest to complete. The title translates to remembrance of things past. It, however, isnt even close to being the longest book ever written.
Ever written may be something else, but there is one literary work currently in progress which when finished would be the longest. The list of books and their page counts was supplied by kings office and refers to the american hardcover editions. If you set out to find the worlds shortest novel, as i recently did, youll run into a crazy pile of misinformation, unsourced quora and yahoo answers pages, ethnic slurs disguised as jokes, and general confusion about the difference between a novel, a novella, and a short story. Dec 11, 2008 the twentyfirst volume of the blah story by nigel tomm was published in 2008. Most of the longest novels ive ever read were written by regular people in their spare time. The 7 longest books in american history america fun fact. And i thought the stand was long its only 1168 pages. 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. Some people criticize the concept, claiming that novels written in under a month arent going to be worth. Read this and have an exquisite spiritual experience. According to a 1983 guinness book of records, this monster once qualified as literatures longest at 1,288 words, but that record has long been surpassed, in english at least, by jonathan coes the rotters club, which ends with a 33pagelong,955 word sentence. Aug 17, 2015 the 100 best novels written in english. King talked to time about his top 10 biggest books, reflecting on the circumstances under which they were written and the critical reception that they received. It is available online if you have enough time to read it.
Isolating the 10 scariest novels of all time is essentially impossible. It is expected to be completed in another 9 years and would contain nearly 30 thousand pages. The author who wrote the most novels ever also is a women. King on king stephen king on his 10 longest novels. What is the longest literary work ever written in terms of.
At the average 3220 char per single spaced page, thats about 49 million characters. The name of the novel is venmurasu being written in tamil language. The greatest letter ever written, narrated by john piper is the longest book on audible. My french edition of harry potter and the order of the phoenix is the longest book i. Dame barbara cartland 711901 5212000 completed a novel every two weeks, publishing more than 723 novels, which sold more than 1 billion copies in 36 languages, making her the bestselling novelist of all time. Don quixote by miguel cervantes early 17 th this novel has also been called the first modern novel, the founding work of modern western literature, one of the earliest novels in the western canon, and even the best literary work ever written.
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