Don’t take my word that these truly are the ten longest novels ever written if you really want to know, I may have missed a few but I tried. Except for number one which I'm sure of because it is in the Guinness Book of World Records as the worlds longest novel.

Long Novel's that didn't quite make the list: 'The Stand : Expanded Edition: For the First Time Complete and Uncut (Signet)' by Stephen King (464, 218 words; 1,168 pg.) 'The Count of Monte Cristo (Penguin Classics)' by Alexandre Dumas (464, 234 words; 1,312 pg.) 'Cryptonomicon' by Neal Stephenson (1,168 pg.) 'Sacajawea (Lewis & Clark Expedition)' by Anna L. Waldo (1,424 pg.) 'Shogun' by James Clavell (1,210 pg.) 'Gai-Jin' by James Clavell (1,248 pg.) 'The Lord of the Rings (Collector's Edition)' by J.R.R. Tolkien (?470,000? words; 1,200 pg.)

Longest book ever written (not just novel) The "Yongle Dadian", an encyclopedia of the Chinese Ming dynasty, had 22,937 chapters in 10,000 volumes. Over 2,000 Chinese scholars worked on the book for 5 years before it was finished.

For more information on the Yongle Dadian go to http://www.inspirationline.com/Brainteaser/book.htm

And Now for the Top Ten Longest Novels

Number Ten: Infinite Jest

'Infinite Jest: A Novel' by David Foster Wallace

This novel has 479,198 words (Wikipedia) and this specific edition is 1,088 pages in length making “Infinite Jest” number ten on this list.

Number Nine: War and Peace

'War and Peace (Signet Classics (Paperback))' by Leo Tolstoy

Probably the most famous novel on this list for being extremely long, it surprisingly didn’t even make it into the top five. At 560,000 words (Wikipedia) it still is a gigantic novel. This specific edition is 1,456 pages in length.

Number Eight: Les Miserables

'Les Miserables : Complete and Unabridged (Signet Classics)' by Victor Hugo

I couldn’t find a word or character count for “Les Miserables” but with 1,463 pages in this edition it beats out “War and Peace.” I am sure that “Les Miserables” is longer because I compared the page count with “War and Peace” both books being by the same publisher (Signet) and of the same size and format.

This is one of the few books on this guide that I have actually read myself and can say that it is excellent. Definitely my favorite novel by a French author. The length may be somewhat daunting but it is worth the effort to read. Like climbing a mountain.

Number Seven: A Suitable Boy

'A Suitable Boy : Novel, A' by Vikram Seth

With 591,554 words (Wikipedia) “A Suitable Boy” grabs the number seven spot. This specific edition is 1,488 pages in length.

Number Six: Atlas Shrugged

'Atlas Shrugged' by Ayn Rand

According to Wikipedia this novel has approx. 645,000 words, but I’m not sure if it is quite that many. This specificedition is 1,200 pages in length, so unless it has very small print with almost no margin I doubt if it is quite that length, so this may be higher up on the list than it should be.

Number Five: Joseph and His Brothers

'Joseph and His Brothers' by Thomas Mann

This edition from everyman's library is 1,536 pages in length. Unknown word or character count.

Number Four: Clarissa

'Clarissa : Or the History of a Young Lady (Penguin Classics)' by Samuel Richardson

According to Wikipedia this novel has about 5,500,000 characters (not words), or somewhere over 1,000,000+ words. This edition by Penguin is 1,536 pages in length. This is conventianally considered the longest novel in English, but that is disputable with the number three candidate.

Number Three: Mission Earth

'The Invaders Plan (Mission Earth Series, Vol 1)' 'Black Genesis (Mission Earth Series)' 'Mission Earth: The Enemy Within (Mission Earth)' 'Mission Earth: An Alien Affair (Mission Earth)' 'Fortune of Fear (Mission Earth Series)' 'Death Quest (Mission Earth Series)' 'Voyage of Vengeance (Mission Earth Series)' 'Disaster (Mission Earth Series)' 'Villainy Victorious (Mission Earth Series)' 'Mission Earth: The Doomed Planet (Mission Earth)' by L. Ron Hubbard

The Mission Earth Series, I know what you are thinking, it is a series not just one novel. Well it is true that it has been published in a whopping 10 volumes, the truth is it was only split up for publication and originally written as a single 1.2 million word novel. This is disputable with Clarissa which as I said is conventianally considered the longest novel in the English language, but if this is considered one novel than it would technically beat it.

Number Two: The Man Without Qualities

'The Man Without Qualities Vol. 1: A Sort of Introduction and Pseudo Reality Prevails' 'The Man Without Qualities Vol. 2: Into the Millennium, from the Posthumous Papers' by Robert Musil

Although here it is published in two volumes it is actually one novel (translated from German) of approximately 1,824 pages in length. I don't have an actual word or character count for this one, but at over 1,800 pages it is undoubtubly number two on the list.

Number One: In Search of Lost Time

'In Search of Lost Time (Proust Complete)' by Marcel Proust

This novel, while generally published in several volumes is considered a single novel and is in the Guinness Book of World Records for being the longest novel.

I’m not sure of the exact number of words in the book, but according to Guinness it has a total of 9,609,000 characters (including spaces) which I estimate to be around 3,000,000 words or so (this estimate is due to Clarissa, which is over 1,000,000 words and about one-third the number of pages of In Search of Lost Time). This novel is approx. 4,800 pages in length.