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.

If you can get into the alternative history side of them, The Baroque Cycle by Neal Stephenson consists of 3 long novels. I really enjoyed them myself, but I am a bit of a SF/Fantasy fan anyway, so maybe not everyone's taste.

A House for Mr Biswas is one of my favourite long books. Apart from all the classics, that is.

Some good suggestions here, will look them up.

Is Baroque Cycle sci-fi like NS's other books? I thought they were historical fiction.

House of The Spirits-Isabel Allende
Wolf Hall -Hilary mantel

Dorothy Dunnett the Lymond chronicles, then the House of Niccolo.

They are wonderful books and I envy anyone reading them for the first time.

Gillian Slovo - Ties of Blood
Sebastien Faulks - Human traces
David Wroblewski - The Story of Edgar Sawtelle
Lewsis Grassic Gibbon - A Scots Quair (a classic, I know, but not all that well known)
Neil Gunn - The Silver Darlings
Noel Barber - Tanamera
Elizabeth Arthur - Antarctic Navigation
Bryce Courtenay - The Power of One

Not sure if it's been mentioned up the thread, but 'A Woman in White' - Wilkie Collins captured me. One of my favourite books ever

Ooh talking of Wilkie Collins reminds me of one of my favourites. No name by Wilkie Collins. IMO even better than Woman in White (which I loved)
Would also suggest:
Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell
If you like the classics, have you tried any French or Russian classics! I particularly enjoyed
Anna Karenina
Crime and Punishment
Madame Bovary

Elizabeth Jane Howard is a good escape for me and Joyce Oates.

The Forsyth saga
The Sovereign series by C S Sansome
Not at all in your genre, but the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings are absorbing

Oops - Forsyte

I second A Fine Balance and Shantaram. I am about to start Lowlands which I am hoping will fit the bill. I adore long books you can get completely engrossed in.

This Thing of Darkness (seriously gripping)
Woman In White
Freedom
Lord of the Rings (3 parts!)
Cazalet Chronicles
Mahfouz Cairo Trilogy
and my absolute favourite tear jerker, East Lynne

another vote for Scots Quair too
and No Name

If Nobody Speaks Of Remarkable Things by Jon McGregor
The Northern Clemency by Philip Hensher
A Fine Balance

Thanks for starting this thread, lots of great ideas.

Not especially long but I've just finished Sisterland by Curtis Sittenfeld.

Thoroughly enjoyed it!

Read Shantaram a few years ago, I liked it but didn't finish it because towards the end I began to find all his 'swashbuckling' irritating.

I loved The Northern Clemency as well!

antimatter me too! It reminded me of a modern-day Arnold Bennett novel. Must read more of his stuff.

Would you recommend any Arnold Bennett highlandcoo?