Not all writers agree with the statement "Brevity is the sister of talent." In today's selection we offer longest novels in literary history... The authors have spent years creating them. But reading them will take a lot of time.
By the way, Leo Tolstoy's novel War and Peace was in the top ten, so every Russian schoolchild can proudly declare that he is familiar with one of the longest books firsthand.
10. "Tokugawa Ieyasu", S. Yamaoka
This novel was published in parts in Japanese newspapers. If you collect all the parts into a single work, then you get at least 40 volumes. The plot of the novel is dedicated to the first shogun of the Tokugawa clan, who united the country and established peace in it.
9. "Quiet Don", M. Sholokhov
All four books that make up the novel are about 1,500 pages long. There are 982 heroes in the novel, of which 363 are real historical characters. For "Quiet Don" Sholokhov was awarded the Nobel Prize with Stalin's consent.
8. "Les Miserables", V. Hugo
One of his main works Hugo created over eighteen years - from 1834 to 1852. Then the author revised the text several times, adding and removing various fragments.
7. "In Search of Lost Time", M. Proust
This is a whole cycle of 7 novels, in which there are more than two thousand characters. The books are replete with emotional outbursts, quirky narrative twists. In total, "In Search of Lost Time" has more than one and a half million words, which occupy about 3,200 pages.
6. "The Forsyte Saga" by D. Galsworthy
The novel of the Nobel laureate amazes with clearly defined images of heroes. The work covers the history of the family from the 1680s to the 1930s. "Saga" formed the basis of 6 film adaptations, the most recent of which has a duration of 11.5 hours.
5. "War and Peace", L. Tolstoy
Everyone who has read War and Peace can be divided into two categories. Some of the novel are in complete delight, others - cannot stand it. But the epoch-making work in three volumes does not leave anyone indifferent.
4. "Quincunx", C. Palliser
This work is a modern stylization of the Victorian novel. Each of the two volumes has a volume of 800 pages, depending on the edition. The plot is full of mysteries, symbolism and unexpected turns.
3. "Ulysses", J. Joy
The novel is considered one of the best works of English-language prose. Ulysses was written over seven long years, while it tells the story of one day of the Dublin Jew Leopold Bloom. The novel was first published in parts from 1918 to 1920.
2. "Astrea", O. d'Urfe
The novel was written in 21 years of hard work. The work in the first edition fits into 5 399 pages. Published in 1607, the novel tells about the love between the shepherd Astrea and the shepherd Celadon. The book contains a lot of inserted short stories and poetic inclusions.
1. "People of Goodwill", R. Jules
The novel by the French playwright, writer and poet was published in 27 volumes. The work has over two million words on 4,959 pages. The table of contents for the longest novel in the world is about 50 pages.It is noteworthy that the book does not have a single and clear storyline, and the number of characters exceeds four hundred.