# What is the longest novel?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-longest-novel/85466>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 4, 2001, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-longest-novel/85466 "2001-10-04T23:39:16Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Chickenhead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7cd45c/32.png) [@Chickenhead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chickenhead)\
**Post date:** [October 4, 2001, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-longest-novel/85466/1 "2001-10-04T23:39:16Z")

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Remembrances of Things Past? (Is that more a novel or a memoir? I’ve never read it.) Les Miserables? War and Peace?  
I don’t mean works in a series (like some of Stephen King’s), just the longest single novel.

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**Author:** ![Chickenhead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7cd45c/32.png) [@Chickenhead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chickenhead)\
**Post date:** [October 4, 2001, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-longest-novel/85466/2 "2001-10-04T23:43:51Z")

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Oops, strike that “s.”

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**Author:** ![Arjuna34](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Arjuna34](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arjuna34)\
**Post date:** [October 5, 2001, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-longest-novel/85466/3 "2001-10-05T00:03:41Z")

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According to the [Guiness Book of World Records](http://www.thunderstone.com/texis/site/demos/gbwr/?):

> [@](#):
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> The longest novel of note ever published is Les hommes de bonne volonte by Louis-Henri-Jean Farigoule (1885-1972), alias Jules Romains, of France, in 27 volumes in 1932-46. The English version Men of Good Will was published in 14 volumes in 1933-46 as a ‘novel-cycle.’ The 4,959-page edition published by Peter Davies Ltd has an estimated 2,070,000 words, excluding the 100-page index. The novel Tokuga-Wa Ieyasu by Sohachi Yamaoka has been serialized in Japanese daily newspapers since 1951. Now completed, it will require nearly 40 volumes

Arjuna34

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**Author:** ![Arjuna34](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Arjuna34](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arjuna34)\
**Post date:** [October 5, 2001, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-longest-novel/85466/4 "2001-10-05T00:05:19Z")

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Here’s a link directly to that entry: [Literature : Longest novel](http://www.thunderstone.com/texis/site/demos/gbwr/+Yre+fpU_xBmMeO93MeSdwww/record.html)

Arjuna34