Big novels to get lost in

[TheOtherSideOfSilence]

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.

I really enjoyed Penmarric by Susan Howatch

The goldfinch

A Suitable Boy

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

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

highly recommended

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

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.

Ooh - or Wild Swans - Jung Chang

Another vote for a sensible boy

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

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides (sp?)

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts

The quartet of The Jewel in The Crown by Paul Scott.

India just before & during independence.

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Cloud Atlas
Drood
Middlesex
This Thing Of Darkness
The Worst Journey In The World

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Cloud Atlas
Drood
Middlesex
This Thing Of Darkness
The Worst Journey In The World

Have you tried the Cazalet (sp?) Chronicles
YY to Suitable Boy - loved that book!
A Childrens Book
Skippy Dies
A Place Of Greater Safety (much preferred this to her Cromwell books)
Anything by Richard Russo
Anything by Edward Rutherford

For those mentioning Possession, there is also an AS Byatt quartet which starts with The Virgin in the Garden. Then Still Life, The Babel Tower and the Whistling Woman - nice chunky lot to get your teeth into.

This thread also made me think of Iris Murdoch, I'm not sure why - The Black Prince or The Sea, The Sea are good.

On a less literary note, I just re-read the Thornbirds, which is a great family saga.

And Susan Howatch "Wheel of Fortune" is anotehr good read (as well as the Starbridge ones mentioned earlier).