What Is Considered The Longest Novel In The World Today?

Need authoritative sources; what's the actual word count for the top contenders, and do modern web serials count towards the record now?
2026-07-31 23:19:03
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4 Answers

IsaacWest
IsaacWest
Bookworm Analyst
What about combined series where the author considers it one story? 'The Wheel of Time' by Robert Jordan (and finished by Brandon Sanderson) is fourteen massive books. If you glued them all together, it would be a monster. Same with 'The Malazan Book of the Fallen' by Steven Erikson—ten incredibly dense volumes. For fans, these are single, continuous narratives. They may not hold a Guinness record, but in the fantasy genre, they are the benchmarks for epic scale and length.
2026-08-01 15:32:34
8
GentleHub
GentleHub
Spoiler Watcher Pharmacist
What's the longest novel ever written in English? That might be 'The Blah Story' by Nigel Tomm, which is allegedly 11 million words, but I've never met anyone who's actually seen or read it. It seems more like an artistic stunt than something meant for consumption. So there's a distinction between 'longest' as a factual record and 'longest' as a meaningful piece of literature someone would actually read for pleasure.
2026-08-05 22:27:14
10
ZoeyBowen
ZoeyBowen
Active Reader Receptionist
The Chinese classic 'Dream of the Red Chamber' is one of the Four Great Classical Novels and is incredibly long and complex. It's a cornerstone of Chinese literature, with a huge cast and intricate social detail. It's a different tradition of long-form storytelling that deserves a mention in any global discussion of length. Its influence on culture is as massive as its page count.
2026-08-06 15:38:02
15
MaxByrd
MaxByrd
Book Clue Finder Sales
I think the obsession with 'the longest' misses the point of literature. It's not a sporting record. A novel's value isn't in its word count but in what it does with those words. A perfectly crafted 200-page novel can contain more life and truth than a meandering 2,000-page saga. Let's celebrate conciseness and precision as much as we do ambition and scale. Sometimes less is profoundly more.
2026-08-06 15:54:44
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which book holds the guinness world record as the longest novel in history

3 Answers2025-06-10 12:12:08
I've always been fascinated by records and extremes in literature, and the title for the longest novel ever written goes to 'Artamène ou le Grand Cyrus' by Madeleine de Scudéry. This French Baroque novel is a massive 13-volume work with around 2.1 million words. It's a classic example of 17th-century romantic literature, filled with intricate plots and endless subplots. The sheer scale of this novel is mind-boggling, and it’s a testament to the dedication of both the author and the readers who dare to tackle it. While it might not be as widely read today, its historical significance and sheer volume make it a remarkable piece of literary history.

Which author wrote the longest novel in the world and why?

7 Answers2026-07-31 18:57:13
The manga 'Kochira Katsushika-ku Kameari Kōen-mae Hashutsujo' holds the Guinness record for most volumes by a single author for a single manga series. That's a different medium, but the principle is similar: a single creative vision sustained over decades. The 'why' is often a combination of popularity, author stamina, and the serialized magazine format that demands constant output. It becomes a part of national culture. For novels, that kind of longevity is rarer because the publishing model is different. A novelist isn't typically expected to produce a new chapter of the same story every week for 40 years. So the longest narratives are often found in serialized comics or TV soaps, not in traditional literature.

Who is considered the best novel writer in the world today?

6 Answers2026-07-19 07:16:10
My vote goes to Elena Ferrante. The Neapolitan Novels are a monumental achievement in depicting female friendship, intellect, class, and the passage of time. The raw, unfiltered emotion and the sheer scale of the character journey are unmatched in contemporary fiction I've read. There's a power in her anonymity, too—it forces the work itself to be the entire focus. The writing feels so urgent and true that it transcends the page. It's a specific, deeply Italian story that somehow feels universal. That's a magic trick only the very best writers can pull off.

Who is considered the best story writer in the world today?

6 Answers2026-07-22 02:41:07
From a character-driven perspective, it's hard to top the emotional realism of Celeste Ng or Fredrik Backman. Ng's 'Little Fires Everywhere' dissects family and community with surgical precision, making you understand every character's flawed motivations. Backman, in 'A Man Called Ove' or 'Anxious People,' combines heartwarming humor with profound insights into loneliness and human connection. Their 'plots' are often the quiet dramas of everyday life, yet they build tension and payoff that rival any thriller. Making readers care deeply about ordinary people is a monumental skill. If the best stories are the ones that help us understand ourselves and others better, then writers who excel in psychological realism and empathy are strong contenders for that title.
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