The longest novel, according to The Guinness Book of Records , is Proust's " Remembrance of Things Past ." (Also called “ In Search of Lost Time .”) It weighs in at 9,609,000 characters, including spaces. I immediately thought; ' here's my chance to get in the Guinness Book of Records. ' Then I did a little math. Let's say your typical novel is 70,000 words. And lets say that's about 371,000 characters. Then Remembrance of Things Past is the equivalent of 25 regular books. Unless you used VERY small type, I'm not sure you could even get that printed in one edition. I don't think I'm going to try and beat that record. Note: Remembrance of Things Past was published in seven volumes.