Longest sentence?

Question

What is the longest sentence ever published? I heard that there is an entire book (chapter-book size) made up of one sentence. Is this true?

Answer 1

Many people attribute the longest sentence in literature to Victor Hugo. The claim is that a sentence in Les Miserables, 823 words long, earns that title.

The source most often given for this, if a source is given, is Timothy Fullerton's Triviata: A Compendium of Useless Information, published in 1975.

Unfortunately, Fullerton was in error. At best, it is the longest sentence in French literature, though I can't confirm that.* 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


got this from the website in my sources

Answer 2

I am like the queen of run-on sentences, i mean seriously, in every paper i write i have to go back and check for run-ons or comma splices because i just go on and on and occasionally i'll find out that i have written this gigantic paragraph and it is all one sentence, and not only does this not help my english grade, when a writing assignment gives a guideline of around 8-10 sentences or so, usually i find that i have described all my ideas within the first 5 sentences, so i have to go back and break up these sentences into smaller ones, but i'm not so good at doing that so usually i ask a friend to proofread, which is a really good strategy when writing any essay paper: get a friend to proofread it for you because he or she has never read it before so they wouldn't know what they are reading for and will catch the mistakes that you have missed because you think it in your head but sometimes that's not what is down on paper, and that happens a lot to me because i go on and on with my little ideas and i just run with it, and now i see that i am way off topic but no one is really reading this anymore because they've gotten bored in the first 8 lines but i shall keep going because that's how i roll, and so in answer to the actual question i must say that Lemony Snicket is the King of long sentences that are actually grammatically correct, with no run-ons like the ones i'm using, though you probably don't care much since no one is going to read these words except you who happens to be reading these right now and probably laughing and making sure that i have not used a period since the beginning of this paragraph and i probably should because this is getting to be a really long sentence and i hope you had fun reading this because i am going to stop now.

Answer 3

"Letter from the Birmingham Jail" by Martin Luther King, Jr. has a sentence in it that takes a few pages and I think was in the 600 words range, but I'm not sure of the correct number any more. It's still a wonderful sentence and makes a lot of people wake up.

Answer 4

Lemony Snicket's books have a lot of long sentences

Answer 5

Patent claims are usually one sentence. I have seen one claim that was 16 A4 pages long, followed immediately by another claim, almost identical which was also 16 pages long. These were "Markush" claims and they typically make the average literary effort look puny.

YY did YY stop just when I was beginning to enjoy it?

Answer 6

I think there is an annual contest for the longest sentence. Pax - C.

Answer 7

Try reading "Ulysses" by James Joyce. There's an occasional paragraph break, but it's mostly one big run-on sentence.

Answer 8

Finnegan's Wake.

Answer 9

I do believe it was in one of Lemony Snicket's books.