What is the longest work of fiction ever written?

The longest work of fiction ever written is a matter of debate, as there are several contenders depending on how you define "work of fiction" and "longest".

Here are some of the most prominent candidates:

By word count:

* "In Search of Lost Time" by Marcel Proust: This seven-volume novel, also known as "Remembrance of Things Past", is often cited as the longest work of fiction at approximately 4,200 pages and 1.2 million words.

By page count:

* "The First Circle" by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn: This novel, set in a Soviet prison camp, is considered one of the longest novels in terms of pages, exceeding 1,000 pages.

* "The Book of the New Sun" by Gene Wolfe: This four-volume science fiction epic spans over 1,200 pages.

By length of narrative:

* "The Mahabharata" from Ancient India: This epic poem, spanning over 100,000 verses and over 200,000 lines, is considered one of the longest narratives ever written.

Ultimately, determining the "longest" depends on your criteria. While "In Search of Lost Time" is often considered the winner due to its sheer word count, the other works hold their own in terms of page count or the length of their narratives.