This sounded interesting so I checked the public library - nothing by this guy, at all. The CPL kills me sometimes.
First, I always appreciate it when someone provides a link, so thanks. Second, I’ve read this, and it’s a weird, wonderful book. I’m also a fan of his Declare.
Taken as a whole, the Smiley stuff definitely counts as a long and literary thriller.
Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose is worth a look for you, I think.
Ugh. No - at least not his historical fiction ones. I really didn’t like… Hang on… WHAT?
NO! NOOOO!! NOOOOOOOOO!!!
Please for the love of all that is good and right in the world, DO NOT READ THAT SERIES!! It is the literary equivalent of The Human Centipede. Not the movie “The Human Centipede”, but the actual, literal human centipede. If you extended it out to fourteen thousand people, and took what came out of person #14,000, and smeared it onto a wad of poor unsuspecting paper, I’d much rather cuddle up with that than a single paragraph of Mission Earth.
I liked the first half of Pillars of the Earth. The second half just turned into melodramatic, soap opera claptrap. Who’d have guessed Medieval men and women could be so thoroughly enlightened and modern.
Ooh, good one. John Le Carre writes excellent literary thrillers, as long as you’re okay with the fact that when you finish the last chapter you’re going to crawl under your bed and whimper for like two days before you can face the world again.
Y’know, I love me some Tim Powers, so it pains me to hear you set him against Dumas. It’s like, Muhammad Ali is a great fighter, until you compare him to a velociraptor.
Declare isn’t 600 pages long, but it’s far and away my favorite work by Powers. The last quarter of the book was among the most exciting things I’ve ever read.
I thought Les Miserables was a page-turner and it certainly was long. YMMV.
“Declare” is my favorite work by Powers, too. And while it’s not 600 pages long, it’s plenty long enough, and it’s kind of dense in the sense that there’s a lot to it. It’s Powers’ masterwork IMHO. The reason I nominated “Stress” and not "Declare’ is that “Declare” does not strike me as all that “literary” in tone … it’s got a Cold War spy thriller edge with supernatural overtones … what literary qualities it has are purely the quality of the writing, which is topnotch by any standard.
As for the Dumas/Powers comparison … come on, not a serious comparison. It’s like I’m saying that “Count” would have been better if Dumas had made Shakespeare the protagonist.
Hmmmmm …
I’m hoping the OP is spotting the trend here…
Another classic suspense novel is An American Tragedy; just don’t expect it to be all smiles and rainbows. 
Sorry, I got whooshed (I was telling my wife derisively about the comparison earlier today, when I was suddenly all, “Hey, waitaminnit…”)
Edit: That said, I just looked up Declare, and realized I was remembering the wrong book. Not only is it not my favorite, it’s probably my least favorite Powers book, for reasons I don’t entirely remember right now. Last Call was his work that I adored so much.
His countship was Italian and his nationality French.
Tease.
Stephen King’s The Stand. The unexpurgated version. One of my favorite books.
You want sprawling? I highly recommend the Masters of Rome series by Maureen McCullough, best known as the author of The Thorn Birds, which I haven’t read. But her seven Rome novels, of around a thousand pages each, cover the century of ancient Rome that gave us Marius, Sulla, Pompey, Julius Caesar, Marc Antony, and Augustus Caesar, along with non-Romans like Mithridates, Vercingetorix, Herod, Jugurtha, and Cleopatra. Lots of wars, lots of political intrigue, and lots of mostly accurate history.
Details, details!
Speaking of Eco, what about Foucault’s Pendulum? I recommend reading it through, even if you feel confused at times, and then if you require a second reading, taking your time.
The work of Iain Pears may interest you. Both An Instance of the Fingerpost and Stone’s Fall are long, involving stories cleverly told. Similarly The Dream of Scipio covers 3 historical periods but is not as long. His Jonathan Argyll series are of more conventional length.
I’ll second that and toss in Jenning’s The Journeyer as well. Marco Polo’s journey, and Elendil’s Heir’s description above pretty well covers this one as well.