# Which is the longest trilogy? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 14, 2001, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-the-longest-trilogy/87315 "2001-10-14T01:41:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![FloChi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/58956e/32.png) [@FloChi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FloChi)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2001, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-the-longest-trilogy/87315/1 "2001-10-14T01:41:27Z")
I was just wondering while re-reading **Spike Milligan’s** 6th book in his autobiographical trilogy. Is there a seventh one out? I know the **Hitchhikers Guide** has 5 books in its trilogy. Are there any other authors who feel they have to do this? Or you could take this as the number of pages. Though **Lord of the Rings** is going to be dwarfed by some of those Sci-Fi ones out there (is it Hamilton who does The Neutronium Chemist? I’ve probably spelt it wrong, sorry, just a bloody big book which I have never bothered to read) I know that **Star Wars** is going to have 6, possibly 9, but in that case it is going to be a trilogy of trilogies, so I don’t know if that will count. Thank you for your time FloChi ---
**Author:** ![Kat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b19c9b/32.png) [@Kat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kat)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2001, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-the-longest-trilogy/87315/2 "2001-10-14T02:01:55Z")
Piers Anthony had nine books in the first Xanth trilogy. (I know other series that are longer, but most authors start calling them “series” after the fourth book comes out. I’m assuming you’re limiting this to series that were still referred to as “trilogies” after that.) ---
**Author:** ![Kat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b19c9b/32.png) [@Kat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kat)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2001, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-the-longest-trilogy/87315/3 "2001-10-14T02:05:41Z")
Damn. I think that’s my first double post… _snaps fingers__Oh, Moderatooooooooor._ ---
**Author:** ![Erroneous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/71c47a/32.png) [@Erroneous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Erroneous)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2001, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-the-longest-trilogy/87315/4 "2001-10-14T03:28:24Z")
As far as movies go, I think The Godfather trilogy has the longest combined running time. Peter Jackson wanted to top this with Lord of The Rings, making each film 3 hours and 20 minutes long, giving a total of 10 hours. But the final theatrical cut of The Fellowship of the Ring has since been confirmed (I think) at being only 2 hours 45 minutes. But the buzz is that the DVD will be the full 3:20 (but I’m pretty sure that _hasn’t_ been confirmed by anyone offical). ---
**Author:** ![Bartman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@Bartman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bartman)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2001, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-the-longest-trilogy/87315/5 "2001-10-14T14:14:43Z")
Just an FYI, Lord of the Rings is not a trilogy. It is a single book which the publisher divided into 3 parts in order to make it seem smaller and less expensive. Unlike say Star Wars, each “book” in LotR does not have an individual story arc. In Star Wars each movie/book stands on its own and offers a complete story, with a larger story arc completed by seeing all three. LotR just cuts off at the end of each book, they do not have individual stories and certainly do not stand alone. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2001, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-the-longest-trilogy/87315/6 "2001-10-14T15:32:12Z")
While fantasy has some very long candidates, the Guiness Book of World Records gives the record to Marcel Proust’s _A la Recherche du temps perdu_ – 13 volumns, over 9 million characters At publishing standards of six characters per word, that’s 1.6 million words. If an average book is 100,000 words (it’s usually less) that’s 16 volumes worth. The book itself is 13 volumes. [fixed coding] [Edited by bibliophage on 10-14-2001 at 11:25 AM] ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2001, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-the-longest-trilogy/87315/7 "2001-10-14T16:27:01Z")
Off to Cafe Society. bibliophage moderator GQ ---
**Author:** ![Qwertyasdfg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/ecc23a/32.png) [@Qwertyasdfg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qwertyasdfg)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2001, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-the-longest-trilogy/87315/8 "2001-10-14T21:31:03Z")
Aren’t trilogys (or is it trilogies) a series of 3? How can there be a 9 part trilogy? ---
**Author:** ![Cliffy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/59ef9b/32.png) [@Cliffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cliffy)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2001, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-the-longest-trilogy/87315/9 "2001-10-15T14:42:58Z")
Well, there can’t. But people (including authors and publishers) still refer to series that have passed the three-book stage as trilogies, especially if the original plan wasn’t to continue them after the third book. –Cliffy ---
**Author:** ![Legomancer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/779978/32.png) [@Legomancer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Legomancer)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2001, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-the-longest-trilogy/87315/10 "2001-10-15T15:20:26Z")
Just a question: why trilogies? Especially in the sci-fi/fantasy genres, why has the trilogy become the standard unit of bookage? Why is it just assumed that most sf/fantasy books are parts of trilogies? (At LEAST…thanks to the Wheel of Time and others, having only a trilogy is starting to look unambitious.) Most authors barely have one good book in them, yet in these genres a new author is expected to have THREE? ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2001, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-the-longest-trilogy/87315/11 "2001-10-15T17:40:15Z")
Well, send props out to Harry Turtledove. A man who’s willing to call his 4-book series a ‘tetralogy’. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2001, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-the-longest-trilogy/87315/12 "2001-10-15T23:36:59Z")
> [@](#): > > Especially in the sci-fi/fantasy genres, why has the trilogy become the standard unit of bookage? It isn’t. There are many more stand alone novels than trilogies. However, trilogies are popular for a variety of reasons: 1. It becomes a brand name. (e.g., “Wheel of Time”). Readers know what they can expect and are willing to buy another. 2. Easier for the authors. Once you create a fantasy world, it’s easier to continue to write in that world than to create a new one (especially when #1 above works). 3. Publishers and bookstores like them. See #1 – they know roughly how well the next book will sell, making planning easier. 4. Occasionally, the story is just too long for a single book (e.g., Gene Wolfe’s “Book of the New Sun”). ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2001, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-the-longest-trilogy/87315/13 "2001-10-16T00:35:18Z")
Well, if you refer to this thread [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=92133](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=92133) To Kill A Mockingbird might be the longest trilogy. ---
**Author:** ![Ferggie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e99b99/32.png) [@Ferggie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferggie)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2001, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-the-longest-trilogy/87315/14 "2001-10-16T05:11:54Z")
Champions of the Danans is going to be the longest trilogy, because it has already consumed nearly half my life in the writing and will likely take more. (What can I say? I demand perfection in my fiction, and that takes 17,000 drafts.) Whether anyone outside my own circle of friends will ever see the finished product (assuming I live long enough to finish it) remains to be seen. ---
**Author:** ![Rillian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bcef8e/32.png) [@Rillian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rillian)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2001, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-the-longest-trilogy/87315/15 "2001-10-16T16:34:14Z")
Trilogies (as part of a longer series or as a three-book complete story) seem to be structured along the following lines: **Book 1** : Introduce environment, characters, bad guys, and the quest. At the end, the good guys win a minor battle. **Book 2** : More of the quest is revealed, secrets are discovered that change the meaning/importance of information from Book 1. The bad guys win some battles and by the end, things look tough for the good guys. **Book 3** : The quest is completed, the good guys win, everyone lives happily ever after (except for the hints about a second trilogy). Also know as: Exposition, rising action, falling action. Some examples that fit this style - Star Wars IV, V and VI. The first Deryni trilogy by Kurtz, the Thomas Covenant trilogies, the Bablyon 5 series (Book 1 = Seasons 1 and 2, Book 2 is Season 3, Book 3 = Season 4, Epilogue = Season 5) ---
**Author:** ![Legomancer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/779978/32.png) [@Legomancer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Legomancer)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2001, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-the-longest-trilogy/87315/16 "2001-10-16T18:11:07Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Rillian \* > **Trilogies (as part of a longer series or as a three-book complete story) seem to be structured along the following lines:** True, but once upon a time, you had exposition, rising action, climax, and resolution _all in the same book_. ---
**Author:** ![obfusciatrist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/4af34b/32.png) [@obfusciatrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/obfusciatrist)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2001, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-the-longest-trilogy/87315/17 "2001-10-16T18:32:51Z")
I think that covering those three elements requires more books in Fantasy (and to a degree in science fiction) because of the misguided tendency of authors to explicitly detail every little minor point of the world they have created. If you took the pure exposition out of most fantasy stories you would have a 12-page short story. ---
**Author:** ![Rillian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bcef8e/32.png) [@Rillian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rillian)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2001, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-the-longest-trilogy/87315/18 "2001-10-17T14:09:36Z")
> [@](#): > > True, but once upon a time, you had exposition, rising action, climax, and resolution all in the same book. I would argue that you still do in these fantasy trilogies. You have it within each book, the micro-theme and across the trilogies (or series), the macro-theme. In the Babylon 5 TV series, you had it within each episode, within each season, and across the five seasons. ---
**Author:** ![johncole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5f9b8f/32.png) [@johncole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johncole)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2001, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-the-longest-trilogy/87315/19 "2001-10-21T08:06:22Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Legomancer \* > \*\*True, but once upon a time, you had exposition, rising action, climax, and resolution _all in the same book_. \*\* The trilogy, or “three volume novel”, is not a new form. It was common in the nineteenth century when the idea of romantic fiction became established (along with the vehicle of mass publishing to make it economically viable). For a generalised plot-summary see here [http://www.everypoet.com/archive/poetry/Rudyard\_Kipling/kipling\_the\_three\_decker.htm](http://www.everypoet.com/archive/poetry/Rudyard_Kipling/kipling_the_three_decker.htm) which he wrote at the time he was abandoning the novel in favour of the short story. I can see the advantages of the form (even when three becomes 4 or more) after the success of a “first”: - the publisher knows he has an established customer base - the author knows he has done the hard work (building characters and scenes) - the reader knows he will be returning to familiar surroundings By way of a contrast I am reminded of the quote **“I apologize for the length of this letter, I did not have time to write a short one”**. (aside: i have heard this attributed to Twain, Shaw, Kipling, Pascal, … Can anybody give me a cite?) ---
**Author:** ![johncole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5f9b8f/32.png) [@johncole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johncole)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2001, 8:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-the-longest-trilogy/87315/20 "2001-10-21T08:59:10Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by johncole \* > \*\* > By way of a contrast I am reminded of the quote **“I apologize for the length of this letter, I did not have time to write a short one”**. > > (aside: i have heard this attributed to Twain, Shaw, Kipling, Pascal, … Can anybody give me a cite?) \*\* I gave up too soon. In **Lettres Provinciales** _Blaise Pascal_ wrote (in translation) “I have made this letter longer than usual, only because I have not had the time to make it shorter.”