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What is the longest sentence in English literature?

Question #77392. Asked by Ringerguy.
Last updated Aug 21 2016.

toughynutter
Answer has 11 votes
Currently Best Answer
toughynutter
17 year member
303 replies

Answer has 11 votes.

Currently voted the best answer.
"Traditionally, the longest sentence in English Literature has been said to be a sentence in Ullyses by James Joyce, which clocks in at 4,391 words. Past editions of The Guinness Book of World Records have listed this record.

However, Joyce's record has recently been surpassed. Jonathan Coe's The Rotters Club, published in 2001, contains a sentence with 13,955 words. I believe he currently holds the record in "English Literature."

However hold on to your seats...

There is also, apparently, a Polish novel, Gates of Paradise, with a 40,000 word sentence. I have been unable so far to find absolute confirmation on an author. Bramy Raju, written by Jerzy Andrzejewski, and published in 1960, translates as Gates of Paradise, but it has been described as a novella. And while there is no absolute definition of that term, novellas are usually shorter than 40,000 words.

Finally, there is a Czech novel that consists of one long sentence -- Dancing Lessons for the Advanced in Age by Bohumil Hrabal. It is this novel that Coe has said inspired his 13,955 word sentence. Hrabal's 'novel sentence' is 128 pages long, though I have been unable to find an exact word count. It most likely takes the award for longest sentence. Even if it doesn't, it dwarfs Hugo's significantly.

-- John Newmark - Nov, 2003}
link http://www.gavroche.org/vhugo/sentence.shtml

Mar 17 2007, 3:52 PM
toughynutter
Answer has 6 votes
toughynutter
17 year member
303 replies

Answer has 6 votes.
"In his 1960 novel "Bramy raju" (The Gates of Paradise), written as a retelling of the Children's Crusade of 1212, and containing in its entirety, remarkably, only two sentences, in a wonderfully excessive example of the elegant variation every English teacher looks for with the advice that you should always mix sentence lengths because reading sentence after sentence of equal length rapidly inspires ennui. (The other sentence is very short)."

link http://everything2.com/index.pl?node=Amazingly%20long%20sentences

"However, Jonathan Coe's The Rotter's Club features a sentence that runs to no fewer than 13,955 words. Mr Coe was apparently inspired by Bohumil Hrabal's novella, Dancing Lessons For The Advanced In Age, which consists of one sentence that runs for 128 pages. Claims that a Polish novel, Gates of Paradise by Jerzy Andrzejewski, boasts a sentence of 40,000 words have yet to be substantiated."

link http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2005/05/22/boll.xml&sSheet=/arts/2005/05/22/bomain.html

Looks like a fight for the title is still going on.

Mar 17 2007, 3:52 PM
Condition
Answer has 8 votes
Condition

Answer has 8 votes.
The longest sentence in English literature belongs to writer Nigel Tomm. His book "The Blah Story, Volume 4" consists of one sentence which contains 469,375 words or 2,273,551 characters (with spaces).

link http://www.prlog.org/10039127-longest-sentence-in-english-literature-language.html

Response last updated by nautilator on Aug 21 2016.
Nov 23 2007, 7:10 AM
avatar
McGruff star
Answer has 5 votes
McGruff star
Moderator
24 year member
3694 replies avatar

Answer has 5 votes.
Question #77983. shes42 asks:
What novel contains the longest sentence in English literature?


crashburn posts:

Jonathan Coe's The Rotters Club

Mar 28 07, 11:22 PM


zbeckabee posts:

The Rotters' Club holds the record for the longest sentence in English literature with 13,955 words. The sentence was inspired by Bohumil Hrabal's "Dancing Lessons for the Advanced in Age", a Czech novel that consisted of one great sentence.

link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rotters%27_Club_%28novel%29

Mar 28 07, 11:27 PM

Nov 23 2007, 10:08 AM
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