Probably the longest novel I have read all the way through is Hugo’s ‘Les Miserables’ at some 531,000 words. Second place might be ‘The Lord of the Rings.’ I just could not bring myself to wade through Tolstoy; he bores me dreadfully.
I rarely see the need for such long novels. Yes, some stories are epic in scale and take some time to tell. In my own writing, that is more likely to result in a series of shorter novels. Tolkien’s ‘Rings’ is divided into six books and could have been published as such. My ‘Donzalo’s Destiny,’ published in four books, can be seen as eleven novellas and novelettes making up one continuous tale of some 206,000 words.
My longest standalone novel, however, runs to 88,000 words. Two of them, actually, weigh in at that length (one under a pen name). Many of my books run more in the 60 to 70,000 word range. Plenty of good books have been no longer and some a good bit shorter.
There seems to be a current feeling among publishers that shorter books are undesirable. I see that as no more than a passing fashion. I certainly would not add filler. I would not pad my novels to reach some ‘ideal’ length. Nor would I trim them to reach that same goal.
Stephen Brooke 