re doorstoppers

[Bekah]

I think one attraction of the long novel is being able to get to know  
and hang on to old friends / characters.   Reading a new volume of  
Proust,  it's like oh yeah,  there's Gilberte and Robert St. Loup and  
Mama and Francois and Odette and the Baron and the Guermantes and  
Albertine and  so on.   I can completely immerse myself in the lives  
of these characters for more than a scene or two.  (Or,  if some  
themes are being developed then the author and I have time and space  
to explore the the ideas in various incarnations,  various aspects.)

But I enjoy the short ones, too.  The Stranger is very short - so is  
The Crying of Lot 49 and most of Hesse's work.  Lots of great short  
stuff out there.   (I'd put a bottom limit of 125 pages?)   The Great  
Gatsby - under 200?  Ismail Kadare (Algerian) is fabulous - The File  
on H -   How long was The Master of Petersburg?  256 pages.


Bekah


On Nov 17, 2008, at 3:43 PM, Henry wrote:

> Why are we attracted to doorstoppers?  I, for one, live in them  
> while I read
> them for months on end, and then I need to find a short book or a  
> book of
> short stories to bring me back.
>
> Henry Mu
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: James Kyllo
>
> That's surprising.  It doesn't "feel" as long as dozens of others.
>
> On Mon, Nov 17, 2008 at 8:00 PM, Dave Monroe wrote:
>
>> Vikram Seth, A Suitable Boy
>>
>> Published 1993. 1488 pages softcover. 591,552 words. The longest
>> conventional novel in English since Clarissa, and officially the
>> longest novel in the English language published in a single volume.
>>
>>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_longest_novels#Vikram_Seth. 
> 2C_A_Suitabl
> e_Boy
>