Did you ever wonder which books, written in English, are the longest ever written?

By David McClelland

I was re-reading one of my favorite books, "Atlas Shrugged," by Ayn Rand, which I thought was long and remembered some other long books that I have read including: "The Stand" by Stephen King and "Les Miserables" by Victor Hugo.

Then, I wondered about the really long books and which are the longest. When I began to research this subject, I found that I first had to determine what criteria should be used to decide. One could base it on word count or page count. I decided that word count was the more appropriate indicator.

Based upon word count, the longest books ever written in English in order are:

Rank Words Title Author

1 17 million "Marienbad My Love" Mark Leach
2 11.3 million "The Blah Story" Nigel Tomm
3 9 million "The Story of the Vivian Girls" Henry Darger
4 2.2 million "Trial by Tenderness" Cevn McGuire
5 1.2 million "Mission Earth" L. Ron Hubbard
6 1.1 million "Sironia, Texas" Madison Cooper

12 645,000 "Atlas Shrugged" Ayn Rand
14 560,000 "War and Peace" Leo Tolstoy
15 513,000 "Les Miserables" Victor Hugo

I thought the books I remembered were long, but they pale by comparison to the others, especially the longest three. Care to take a few months and read one of those?