Czech and polish novelists have written booklength sentences since. Editors at the american scholar magazine picked the 10 best sentences from fiction and nonfiction, with authors ranging from toni morrison to james joyce. Most book lovers would agree that coming across a very long sentence in a novel can sometimes require multiple reads to comprehend. For example, theres molly blooms 36page, two sentence monologue in ulysses, or victor hugos 800plus line in les miserables. But studying the way that faulkner wrote when he turned to the. Scott fitzgeralds the great gatsby is distinguished as one of the greatest texts for introducing students to the art of reading literature critically which means you may have read it in school. Sep 11, 2017 the piece is inventive and mesmerizing all by itself. Aureliano segundo was not aware of the singsong until the following day after breakfast when he felt himself being bothered by. This 1,288word runon sentence by william faulkner broke. For a full list of record titles, please use our record. This 1,288word runon sentence by william faulkner broke records.
The sentence is composed of 1,288 words in the 1951 random house version. The book gives 100page excerpts from the longest word, sentence, novel and. What was the longest sentence you have ever seen in a book. Mar 02, 2020 thus begins the longest work of fiction ever written. We congratulate teju cole on writing such beautifully experimental work. What is the longest coherent sentence ever written. There is no absolute limit on the length of a written english sentence. Jan 27, 2017 the hardest book ive ever read was house of leaves by mark z. Published in 11 volumes and 1080 chapters 1040 chapters by cai dongfan, the last 40 chapters by xu jinfu, this historical novel includes 6 million chinese characters. When william faulkner set the world record for writing the. Aug 01, 2014 world longest book series what is the longest fiction book ever written how long is les miserables book war and peace word count word count atlas shrugged.
I started reading the fanfic and it was certainly not the best piece of work ive ever read, but passable. Ferdowsis great aim was to revive the ancient persian culture, mythology and language after the. The guinness book of world records gives the honor to marcel prousts elephantine remembrance of things past, weighing in at 9,609,000 characters including spaces. All records listed on our website are current and uptodate. According to a 1983 guinness book of records, this monster once qualified as literatures longest at 1,288 words, but that record has long been surpassed, in english at least, by jonathan coes the. Kings latest, under the dome, is his third longest novel ever. A compendium of useless information, published in 1975. Im doing a 2000 word essay as we speak, they usually do it by words now in university. I used word count, not number of pages, as the measure of length, and 3. The title the author the genre fiction, historical fiction, non fiction the number of pages 710 sentence book summary 710 sentence character summary why or why not you recommend it your name. The list of books and their page counts was supplied by kings office and refers to the american hardcover editions. Jun 04, 2014 the longest novel ever published was written in the 1600s. The hardest book ive ever read was house of leaves by mark z. According to a 1983 guinness book of records, this monster once qualified as literatures longest at 1,288 words, but that record has long been surpassed, in english at least, by jonathan coes the rotters club, which ends with a 33pagelong,955 word sentence.
If you like what you see, subscribe to our rss feed. I hate to say it, but i find this incredibly sad, as i think out of all possible worlds in fiction, smash bros is one with perhaps the least depth. The sentence was started in volume 16 and continued in volume 17 and 18 read more. The length seems to be due to the writer just writing on and on because they can.
The claim is that a sentence in les miserables, 823 words long, earns that title. No one has ever captured the adolescent voice with such accuracy. In his novel, ulysses, the character molly bloom has a monologue that goes on for 36 pages and has a total of 3,687words. What is the longest sentence in a fiction book answers. It took up,095 pages spread over 10 volumes, with over two million words, and a french name which is the reason why were not even bothering to write it out for you. Many people attribute the longest sentence in literature to victor hugo. Traditionally, the longest sentence in english literature has been found in james joyces ulysses which contains 4,391 words. Bonus points if you actually understood what you were reading. This is one of the longest and most beautiful sentence i have come across till now. Feb 03, 2017 longest sentence ever written phancy phoenix. Holds the guiness book of world records title as longest novel. At 419 words, this whopper may indeed be the longest sentence twain ever wrote.
In his novel, ulysses, the character molly bloom has a. James joyce, ulysses, 4,391 word sentence and there are even onesentence books actually, a few of them. I realize that this longest text ever must be very boring and not worth anyones time. As i did more research, i realized that there were many issues i had to take into consideration when deciding what to include on this list. For as long as i can remember, my anxiety dreams have tended to involve creepy houses not haunted houses but houses where something is slightly off, or im. The current record holder for the longest english sentence is jonathan coe for his staggering 33page,955word sentence in the rotters club, 2001. The longest novel is artamene ou le grand cyrus, originally published 164954 in ten parts, each part in three volumes. The poem is called my blah story and is written by one novels character. But, as cole observes in a note he posted on facebook, the essay is also the longest sentence ever published by the new york times. The 9 strangest books of all time for readers unafraid of. If you like this list, please check out this other writing resource at bookfox. A book s total score is based on multiple factors, including the number of people who have voted for it and how highly those voters ranked the book.
This resulted in the creation of the epic which in persian is called shahnameh or translated the book of kings, the longest poem ever written in history. Enard puts them all to shame with a onesentence novel 517 pages long. Meet the college junior behind the longest fan fiction ever. The 7 longest books in american history america fun fact of. Over the years, there has been some controversy over what constitutes the worlds longest novel. Finally, there is a czech novel that consists of one long sentence dancing. Entire novels hundreds of pages long have been written in one sentence in other languages. However this was surpassed in 2001 by jonathan coes book the rotters club which contains a sentence,955 words long. The book gives 100page excerpts from the longest word, sentence, novel and poem. These books are rather long but never tedious, and will take the reader on unparalleled journeys which will likely be remembered for the rest of his or her lifetime. I had a 20 page one in highschool, but it was a book report so it was fairly easy. Proust produced the first volume of his volume masterpiece in 1912 it was first published in 19. Dec 11, 2008 the longest sentence contains the longest word, both of them belong to nigel tomm and both are published in the longest novel the blah story. Faulkners longest sentencesmack in the middle of absalom, absalom.
This fanfiction has 4,102,217 words, with more than 220 chapters. Though the record has been broken, faulkners legacy lives on. There have been several claims for the longest sentence in the english language, usually with. It is the extraordinary sensory quality of his prose that enabled faulkner to get away with writing the longest sentence in literature, at least according to the 1983 guinness book of world records, a passage from absalom, absalom. The truth is the longest piece of fiction in the world to dateis a fanfiction. Solar bones by mike mccormack is written as one sentence. Thus begins the longest work of fiction ever written. What is the longest work of fiction ever written answers. King talked to time about his top 10 biggest books, reflecting on the circumstances under which they were written and the critical reception that they received. Any fan of stories that involve juicy subjects like adultery, gambling, marriage plots, and, well, russian feudalism, would instantly place anna karenina at the peak of their greatest novels list.
For some odd reason, i started searching for the longest sentence ever written in english and was amazed to find that in fact, a sentence of 469,375. And in his spare time, he writes the longest work of fan fiction ever composed. Often cited for being the longest sentence ever written is by author james joyce. Id like to tell you that the most difficult book i ever read was a russian classic or homers iliad in ancient greek.
When william faulkner set the world record for writing the longest. In the blah story, volume 19 the longest sentence in the world ends. Bramy raju, written by jerzy andrzejewski, and published in 1960, translates as. The longest sentences in literature and why they work. The subspace emissarys worlds conquest is currently over. The title the author the genre fiction, historical fiction, nonfiction the number of pages 710 sentence book summary 710 sentence character summary why or why not you recommend it your name. The second part of his work won international awards as soon as it was published and with them, an international reputation. Apparently the longest fanfic ever written is over 3. While sentences like these are sights to behold, they also demand a certain something from the reader.
Ive poured my heart and soul into this book and ive received nothing but amazingly helpful feedback from this community week after week as i asked for advice. What novel contains the longest sentence in literature. Jonathan coes the rotters club,955 word sentence and for a runnerup. The novels mentioned above are some of the longest books ever written, which allow the reader to stay immersed in the stories and live the characters for a great amount of time. The books, which easily get the readers dizzy, exhausted, or maybe even bored to death while following, because of the amazing length of the sentences. Book one hundred years of solitude by gabriel garcia marquez on page no. When youre done here, read our favorite passages from shakespeareand, of course, share your own. Hey guys, just wondering what the longest essay you have ever written in your life. The sentence is composed of 1,288 words in the 1951 random. The nineteenth volume of the blah story by nigel tomm was published in 2008. Teju cole writes the longest sentence ever published by.
Our editors include robert wilson, sudip bose, bruce. From wikipdia there have been several claims for the longest sentence in the english language, usually with claims that revolve around the longest printed sentence. I recall being stunned by one in some novel of his but i cant say now for. Teju cole writes the longest sentence ever published by the. This task ended up being much more complex than one would think a list of longest books ever should be. The fanfiction is called subspace emissary worlds conquest, based on the popular fighting game super smash bros brawl s. Mar 18, 2019 the current record holder for the longest english sentence is jonathan coe for his staggering 33page,955word sentence in the rotters club, 2001. It is the longest japanese novel and also one of the longest ever written.
William faulkner was featured in 1983 guinness book of world records for this 1,288word sentence from absalom, absalom. Aureliano segundo was not aware of the singsong until the following day after breakf. What is the longest sentence ever written in the history. For as long as i can remember, my anxiety dreams have tended to involve creepy houses not haunted houses but houses where something is slightly off, or im lost, or someone is looking for me. One of the longest sentences in american literature is in william faulkner s absalom, absalom. Teju cole writes the longest sentence ever published by the new york times. This task ended up being much more complex than one would think a list of longest books. I love a long book that i can really get into, so i decided to compile a list of the longest novels ever written. And lets end all this nonsense about how long sentences. I think entrapment is the best thing ive ever written. Proust is no match for these two fanfics the daily dot.
The novel is told from the perspective of a young man named nick carraway who has recently moved to new york city and is befriended by. For now, the longest word contains 3,609,750 letters and is published in nigel tomms novel the blah story, volume 19. Read that onetime longest sentence in literature, all 1,288 words of it, below. Nov 09, 2009 kings latest, under the dome, is his third longest novel ever. The source most often given for this, if a source is given, is timothy fullertons triviata. Permission required for reprinting, reproducing, or other uses. Absalom thats regarded as one of the longest sentence written in english but. Its actually a very funny book, right from its perfect opening sentence.
The only reason that a sentence this long works is because it is a monologue. He studies computer science and computer maintenance. But id like to take this time to thank the 2 and 12 people in the entire universe who have bothered to read this entire thing. It might not actually be the single longest, and probably wouldnt count as a saga, but the richard long arms series by gaius julius orlovsky, at 50 books the final book, emperor, is missing from the wikipedia list, appear to be the longest published science fiction book series with the same author and the same main character. Top 10 longest novels in the english language listverse. The 25 most challenging books you will ever read if youve made it all the way through any of these, give yourself a pat on the back. The longest sentence in english the vandal aka derek. Literature is full of stunning examples of looooooooooong sentences, both properly punctuated and not ahemjohn updike. Greta garbo in anna karenina greta garbo in anna karenina 1935, directed by clarence brown. A sentence often claimed to be the longest sentence ever written is in molly blooms soliloquy in the james joyce novel ulysses 1922, which contains a sentence of 3,687 words. I have ever wrote was a 600 word paragraph and i just wrote that. Searching the internet for references to longest mark twain sentences, the best i found was this 262worder from the adventures of huckleberry finn the first thing to see, looking away over the water, was a kind of dull line. Jul 05, 2014 faulkners longest sentencesmack in the middle of absalom, absalom. Once youre done reading about the worlds longest novel, check out some of our more recent articles or have a look at our notable posts, listed in the right sidebar.
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