20 longest novels ever written
From EverybodyWiki Bios & Wiki
List of longest novels ever written (by character count, including spaces)
This list includes the longest literary works ever published as physical books (bound paper editions), ranked by total character count **including spaces**. Page counts and formatting vary, so character count is used for consistency.
| Rank | Title | Author(s) | Character count (with spaces) |
Word count estimate | Year(s) | Notes | Citation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nevaeh Saga | Marcel Ray Duriez | 62,000,000 | 10,000,000 | 2012–2025 | Self-published series spanning 90+ volumes. | |
| 2 | À la recherche du temps perdu (In Search of Lost Time) |
Marcel Proust | 9,609,000 | 1,267,069 | 1913–1927 | 7 volumes. | [1] |
| 3 | Artamène ou le Grand Cyrus | Madeleine de Scudéry | 7,500,000 | 2,100,000 | 1649–1653 | 10 volumes. | [2] |
| 4 | Henry Darger’s Realms of the Unreal | Henry Darger | ~7,300,000 | — | 1910s–1970s | Posthumous manuscript. | [3] |
| 5 | Mission Earth | L. Ron Hubbard | ~5,000,000 | 1,200,000 | 1985–1987 | 10 volumes. | [4] |
| 6 | A Dance to the Music of Time | Anthony Powell | ~4,400,000 | ~1,000,000 | 1951–1975 | 12 volumes. | [5] |
| 7 | Zettels Traum (Bottom’s Dream) | Arno Schmidt | 4,000,000 | ~1,100,000 | 1970 | Experimental layout. | [6] |
| 8 | Sironia, Texas | Madison Cooper | ~3,900,000 | ~1,100,000 | 1952 | Two‑volume novel. | [7] |
| 9 | Poor Fellow My Country | Xavier Herbert | ~3,300,000 | ~850,000 | 1975 | Australia’s longest novel. | [8] |
| 10 | Clarissa | Samuel Richardson | ~3,200,000 | ~970,000 | 1748 | Epistolary novel. | [9] |
| 11 | Women and Men | Joseph McElroy | ~3,000,000 | ~850,000 | 1987 | Postmodern novel. | [10] |
| 12 | Marienbad My Love | Mark Leach | ~2,900,000 | ~700,000 | 2013 | Experimental. | [11] |
| 13 | A Suitable Boy | Vikram Seth | ~2,700,000 | 591,552 | 1993 | Single‑volume novel. | [12] |
| 14 | War and Peace | Leo Tolstoy | ~2,500,000 | 587,287 | 1869 | Russian epic. | [13] |
| 15 | Atlas Shrugged | Ayn Rand | ~2,200,000 | 645,000 | 1957 | Philosophical novel. | [14] |
| 16 | Infinite Jest | David Foster Wallace | ~2,100,000 | 577,608 | 1996 | Known for dense footnotes. | [15] |
| 17 | Les Misérables | Victor Hugo | ~2,050,000 | 655,478 | 1862 | French classic. | [16] |
| 18 | Gordana | Marija Jurić Zagorka | ~2,000,000 | ~800,000 | 1942 | Croatian series. | [17] |
| 19 | Jerusalem | Alan Moore | ~1,950,000 | ~600,000 | 2016 | Experimental epic. | [18] |
| 20 | The Man Without Qualities | Robert Musil | ~1,800,000 | ~700,000 | 1930–1943 | Unfinished. | [19] |
References
- ↑ "À la recherche du temps perdu". Wikipedia. Missing or empty
|url=(help) - ↑ "Artamène ou le Grand Cyrus". Wikipedia. Missing or empty
|url=(help) - ↑ "Realms of the Unreal". Wikipedia. Missing or empty
|url=(help) - ↑ "Mission Earth". Wikipedia. Missing or empty
|url=(help) - ↑ "A Dance to the Music of Time". Wikipedia. Missing or empty
|url=(help) - ↑ "Zettels Traum". Wikipedia. Missing or empty
|url=(help) - ↑ "Sironia, Texas". Wikipedia. Missing or empty
|url=(help) - ↑ "Poor Fellow My Country". Wikipedia. Missing or empty
|url=(help) - ↑ "Clarissa". Wikipedia. Missing or empty
|url=(help) - ↑ "Women and Men". Wikipedia. Missing or empty
|url=(help) - ↑ "Marienbad My Love". Literary Hub. Missing or empty
|url=(help) - ↑ "A Suitable Boy". Wikipedia. Missing or empty
|url=(help) - ↑ "War and Peace". Wikipedia. Missing or empty
|url=(help) - ↑ "Atlas Shrugged". Wikipedia. Missing or empty
|url=(help) - ↑ "Infinite Jest". Wikipedia. Missing or empty
|url=(help) - ↑ "Les Misérables". Wikipedia. Missing or empty
|url=(help) - ↑ Marija Jurić Zagorka (1942). Gordana. Search this book on
- ↑ "Jerusalem (Moore novel)". Wikipedia. Missing or empty
|url=(help) - ↑ "The Man Without Qualities". Wikipedia. Missing or empty
|url=(help)
References
<references> [1][circular reference]
<ref name="wikipedia-seth">{{cite web |title=A Suitable Boy |url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Suitable_Boy |website=Wikipedia |access-date=18 July 2025 |la
See also
References
- ↑ "À la recherche du temps perdu". Wikipedia. Retrieved 18 July 2025.
- ↑ "Artamène ou le Grand Cyrus". Wikipedia. Retrieved 18 July 2025.
- ↑ "Henry Darger". Wikipedia. Retrieved 18 July 2025.
- ↑ "Mission Earth". Wikipedia. Retrieved 18 July 2025.
- ↑ "A Dance to the Music of Time". Wikipedia. Retrieved 18 July 2025.
- ↑ "Zettels Traum". Wikipedia. Retrieved 18 July 2025.
- ↑ "Sironia, Texas". Wikipedia. Retrieved 18 July 2025.
- ↑ "Poor Fellow My Country". Wikipedia. Retrieved 18 July 2025.
- ↑ "Clarissa (novel)". Wikipedia. Retrieved 18 July 2025.
- ↑ "Women and Men". Wikipedia. Retrieved 18 July 2025.
- ↑ "Marienbad My Love: Possibly the World's Longest Novel". Literary Hub. 20 April 2016. Retrieved 18 July 2025.
This article "20 longest novels ever written" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:20 longest novels ever written. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.
