The Longest Novel in the World

Marcel Proust's (right, in 1900) 'À la Recherche du Temps Perdu' ('In Search of Lost Time') is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the world's longest novel. Published in 7 volumes from 1913 to 1927 it contains around 9,609,000 characters constituting nearly 1,500,000 words printed on over 4,300 pages. Proust died in 1922 prior to finishing the final amendments and revisions to the final three volumes. In his stead, his brother Robert had these volumes edited and published posthumously. The novel is semi-autobiographical, the plot (such as it is) involves the narrator (named Marcel) deciding at a young age to become a writer. However, he becomes side tracked and only returns to this later in life. The book mostly concentrates on the life of the narrator and the interaction between characters.

However, 'Artamène' by Madeleine and Georges de Scudèry is a ten volume novel published between 1694 and 1653 is longer. The novel, telling a story of Cyrus the Great of ancient Persia, features a staggering 2,100,000 words in 13,095 pages. Now that's bedtime reading...