As writers, we often fret about word count and how long our books are going to be when its all said and done. Some authors don’t really care about that as much. In this post, much like in previous posts, we are going to look at some of the longest books ever written. The list that follows will probably contain some recognizable faces, and hopefully this will give you some solace in your own writing goal if you are working on that novel of yours.
1. Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
We all want to start David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest one day, but the book’s daunting size makes that a difficult goal. The book is over 540,000 words long, and it’s also a complex novel. As such, it’s hard to nail the plot down exactly. The novel is set on a North American superstate that involves the United States, Mexico, and Canada. There are many plot threads to contend with, including Quebec radicals, substance abusers in Boston, students at an academy, and family strife. Regardless of its density, it seems to have its merits as one of the really long books on this list.
2. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
Ayn Rand has massively-sized novels, and the often complex content in her novels guarantees that you will be reading for awhile. Her book Atlas Shrugged is about individualism in a dystopian future and is over 500,000 words (565,223-645,000 by some accounts). That is a really long book. Many of us struggled to punch out 50, 000 words for a novel, so to write that many books with a high word count is quite an achievement.
3. Clarissa by Samuel Richardson
Samuel Richardson’s Clarissa or History of a Young Lady was published in 1748. It is a story of Clarissa Harlowe and is a whopping 943-000-969,000-word novel. In Clarissa’s attempts to be a moral, chaste woman in pursuit of a suitable marriage, Richardson got carried away. Or, he intentionally wrote that much and deserves a medal. The book was positively received, but due to its length takes a great undertaking of reading stamina.
4. Mission Earth by L. Ron Hubbard.
The noted creator of Scientologist was also a prolific science fiction/fantasy author. Mission Earth is one such piece of science fiction and it also happens to be a massive tome. It is 1.2 million words and details (over the course of 10 volumes) the story of Jettero Heller, who attempts to stop the evil Voltars from conquering Earth. Largely marred by sexual misadventures and diatribes, reviews for the book are middling.
