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Original poster

Big novels to get lost in

70 replies

TheOtherSideOfSilence · 21/05/2014 20:05

I love reading long novels that I can get really stuck into. My favourites are the big Victorian novelists, particularly Dickens and Trollope, and my favourite book ever (possibly) is Middlemarch. I have pretty much exhausted the classics now so need to discover some modern equivalents. Any recommendations? Something similar to Middlemarch, with lots of characters and interwoven stories would be ideal, but anything long and engaging would do.

I have recently read The Goldfinch and just finished The Luminaries.

OP posts:
tumbletumble · 21/05/2014 22:59

Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts

maudpringles · 21/05/2014 21:33

The Poldark series is something to get your teeth in to.
Fabulous story.

Quangle · 21/05/2014 21:31

Any Human heart by William Boyd.

Have you read any Wally Lamb? "I know this much is true" is a really good one though a heartbreaker.

gamescompendium · 21/05/2014 21:31

Margaret Attwood writes big novels, Alias Grace might be a good place to start. Have you read any Sarah Waters, classy historical fiction with rollicking plots. Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell is a historical fantasy that I really enjoyed more than I thought I would. Another vote for A Suitable Boy and Donna Tartt, The Secret History is fab.

bunnybing · 21/05/2014 21:27

Didn't really get on with the Luminaries, but as well as Possession The Children's book by AS Byatt is good
Haven't read the Goldfinch but Donna Tartt's earlier books - Secret Histories and the Little Friend both v good
Memoirs of a Geisha

TheRealMaryMillington · 21/05/2014 21:24

I really enjoyed The Luminaries

The Corrections and/or Freedom by Jonathan Franzen - both brilliant but kind of essentially the same book….

The Crimson Petal and the White - like a contemporary feminist Dickens

The Children's Book - nearly wept when I finished this I felt so bereft

Any Human Heart

DuchessofMalfi · 21/05/2014 21:16

Sharon Penman's history novels - have two to read - very long, should fit the bill.

LondonForTheWeekend · 21/05/2014 21:15

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Original poster
TheOtherSideOfSilence · 21/05/2014 21:14

Thanks, great suggestions. I have read a few of them but will be checking out the rest on Amazon. A series of 8 novels that are all 700 pages long sounds ideal!

I wish I could turn back time to before I had read any Dickens so I could experience them all again for the first time.

OP posts:
Asleeponasunbeam · 21/05/2014 20:36

Have you read 'The Count of Monte Cristo'? It's long, beautifully written and deeply gripping.

I never thought I'd feel like that again about a novel, once I'd exhausted Dickens, but I was thrilled and delighted to discover how brilliant it was.

FlossieTreadlight · 21/05/2014 20:34

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides (sp?)

goshhhhhh · 21/05/2014 20:34

The Laguna - Barbara Kingsolver or Possession - AS Byatt, one of my favourite books.

PlinkyPlonker · 21/05/2014 20:32

Another vote for a sensible boy

alterego2 · 21/05/2014 20:31

Ooh - or Wild Swans - Jung Chang

alterego2 · 21/05/2014 20:31

A Place of Greater Safety - Hilary Mantel. Set in the French Revolution.

The Quincunx - Charles Pallister. A mystery, like on of the great Victorian classics but more readable.

Completely lost myself in both of them.

jeee · 21/05/2014 20:29

Susan Howatch is great - the Starbridge series of novels should keep you going for weeks.

Redglitter · 21/05/2014 20:29

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

7 books in the series with no 8 out next month. All about 700 pages long

highly recommended

FaintlyMacabre · 21/05/2014 20:29

A Suitable Boy

Fairyloo · 21/05/2014 20:27

The goldfinch

Twotofive · 21/05/2014 20:26

I really enjoyed Penmarric by Susan Howatch