What's the longest book you've ever read?

[Bernadette]

I've just come across a 1500 page novel (A Suitable Boy, by Vikram Seth). I had no idea publishers would even agree to print a book that long! So what's the longest book you've read? Was it worth the time you invested in it?

[Maximilian]

Remembrance of Things Past
by Marcel Proust

Approx 3,300 pages

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/190576.Remembrance_of_Things_Past

Proust is unquestionably brilliant, although not for the lightminded reader by any means. I had no idea what I was getting into when I decided I needed to read this novel. It is made up of six enormously dense volumes. I've only made it through the first two, and honestly, I'm taking a break for a while. Each sentence is so well crafted and so full it takes minutes just to digest what it is you've finished reading. The minutest details of a split-second thought can have you reading for fifteen pages. You find yourself saying, "Yes, that's exactly what it feels like in my mind when I've thought through or felt something similar." It is as if Proust articulates every nuance of the physical, chemical, emotional, intellectual aspect of the generation and propogation of thoughts and feelings, things we never think through ourselves in words. In all the remarkable detail, unsurprisingly, there is very little plot, few events, and a fluid chrononlogy that erases the importance of distinction between the past, present, and future. Proust does not limit himself to the intricacies of emotion and thought. Music, it's essence and how and why it affects our minds, hearts, bodies, souls; Nature's landscape, in particular, flowers and their scent, shape, hue and relationship with humanity; Art and architecture; High society and low; Literature; Politics; Drama; Opera. With each detail as an entrance into the mind of man and woman, Proust dissects the interstices of human existence. Fascinating, but very slow and often overwhelming, this translation is said to be one of the best. Regretably but most deliberately, I didn't even attempt Proust in the original french.

[Bernadette]

I bought that for kindle years ago but haven't tried it yet. My aunt read Les Miserables in French when she was in high school.

[The Curt Jester]

Don Quixote, first and second parts together.

[Kaesekopf]

Count of Monte Cristo

[drummerboy]

Don Quixote, first and second parts together.

Couldn't finish it.  I struggle reading fiction to begin with, and I just couldn't get into it.  I have a copy in Spanish as an incentive to learn the language, doubtless the original would be better.

Count of Monte Cristo

How'd you like it?  I find Dumas to be a masterful storyteller, but not an exceptional writer.

[drummerboy]

From what I can remember, looking at my bookshelf, it'd be William Thomas Walsh's biography of Philip II, and it was definitely worth it.  I feel I read something longer, but I can't recall.  I tend to drag out reading books so they seem longer than they are; I'm starting to suspect I subconsciously want to prolong the suspense of reading a good book, but it backfires because I take way too long to read it and it seems like a chore to finish it.

[maryslittlegarden]

Count of Monte Cristo

How'd you like it?  I find Dumas to be a masterful storyteller, but not an exceptional writer.

Les Mis and The Count of Monte Cristo are probably the longest that I've read.  Count of Monte Cristo is fantastic - one of my favorite books.

[clau clau]

Probably LOTR - I took it to the USA when I was 21; I started reading it on the plane. I think I finished it over 6 weeks.

edit: I read all the Harry Potter books as well.  I think cumulatively that is more words than LOTR.

[clau clau]

Count of Monte Cristo

How'd you like it?  I find Dumas to be a masterful storyteller, but not an exceptional writer.

Les Mis and The Count of Monte Cristo are probably the longest that I've read.  Count of Monte Cristo is fantastic - one of my favorite books.

Les Mis seems to be number 1; at least according to this ...
                                                                                                 

	Books	Word Count
1	Les Miserables by Victor Hugo	568 751
2	War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy	567 246
3	The Lord of the Rings, the novel written by J. R. R. Tolkien	564 187
4	The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas	464 162
5	Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra	430 269
6	David Copperfield by Charles Dickens	360 231
7	The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky	354 098
8	Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy	353 250
9	The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio	311 155
10	Ulysses by James Joyce	268 170

https://www.anycount.com/word-count-of-books/word-count-of-top-100-books/

edit: I think the Proust novel is more words though (it is not on that list).  Blimey, what a monster!

À la recherche du temps perdu (In Search of Lost Time, first translated into English as Remembrance of Things Past) by Marcel Proust (1,267,069 words)

[Bernadette]

I was just looking at Le Mis on my bookshelf, and thanking God that I also have it for kindle so I don't have to haul that monster anywhere. Lol.

[Antonius]

The complete Father Brown Stories, G. K. Chesterton.

[Bernadette]

The complete Father Brown Stories, G. K. Chesterton.

I have those on my reading list!

[Melkor]

Curious as to what people think about Count of Monte Cristo being on the Index. I'm sure it was brought up before on here.

I've read LoTR multiple times. Didn't feel that long to read. I read a book on Napoleon that was over 1000 pages. Felt like forever to finish. Well worth it though. The man was a singular individual, to say the least.

[Bernadette]

I thought the Count of Monte Cristo was his only work NOT on the Index?