Many people have a competitive spirit. Someone wants to be stronger than everyone, someone faster, someone wants to become the brightest and most noticeable. Not surprisingly, there is even a record book. Moreover, these are records in the most unexpected areas. Well, what about language advances? Someone might think: “And what record can be set here?” In fact, there are so many achievements related to different languages. One speaks faster than the other, the other reads at an incredible speed, the third writes huge amounts of text in an incredibly short time. But this article will focus on suggestions.
Yes, about the longest offers. Such records also exist. We will find out which proposal is the longest, and what contribution the Russian classics made to these achievements.
"War and Peace"
When it comes to long sentences, many recall the famous Russian classic Leo Tolstoy. He was firmly entrenched in the glory of an amateur who used long and intricate speech structures in his works. In his novels, it is easy to find sentences that occupy a whole page. It delights and amazes. For example, it is worth opening any of his work. How well do you need to know Russian to write this way? One of Tolstoy’s longest offers can be found in the world famous novel War and Peace.
It includes 229 words. Students should especially pay attention to this while reading the writer's works included in the program. Such suggestions will serve as a clear example of the use of a composing and subordinate connection, as well as various means of expression. And for those who graduated from school, but are interested in the features of the Russian language, this can also be interesting.
But 229 words are far from the limit of the writer. In his drafts, which were studied in detail, a sentence of 244 words was found. A Russian writer could easily compete for victory in the nomination “The Longest Proposal”. But he hardly worried about records when he wrote his works. Just Tolstoy was a talented writer, and now we can only admire his level of knowledge of the Russian language. Here is someone who proves in practice that the Russian language is great and beautiful.
F. M. Dostoevsky
You can find other examples of one of the longest sentences in the literature. F. M. Dostoevsky, like L. N. Tolstoy, was also a master of words and was able to stand out among writers by his ability to build long sentences.
Take, for example, The Brothers Karamazov, one of his most famous works. The most attentive readers will find in this work a sentence consisting of 137 words. And in the novel by F. M. Dostoevsky "Idiot" there is a sentence in which there are as many as 136 words. These statistics also show how well the Russian classics spoke the language. And how big was their vocabulary. Who else will be able to make such a long sentence, not to lose touch, correctly place punctuation marks and not repeat the same words? Most likely, few can boast of such talents. But Russian classics could. Therefore, sentences written by F. M. Dostoevsky can also stand out among the longest sentences in the Russian language. But they are certainly not the only ones.
What is the longest sentence in Russian?
In fact, answering this question is extremely difficult. Why? Yes, all because there are many Russian-language literary works (and not only Russian-language ones), and it is simply impossible to analyze them all. In addition, there are authors who are little known. Also, many people are blogging right now. Who knows, maybe among them there is a modern, but still unknown to anyone, L. N. Tolstoy? Or F. M. Dostoevsky?
But among the Russian-language works can be noted those that could not go unnoticed. And they have offers that can be taken for the longest. For example, among fiction, nevertheless, L. Tolstoy and the phrase he wrote from "Two Hussars" stand out.
After all, it is not in vain that the fame of the one who writes one sentence on half (on average) of the page stretches for this writer.
However, apparently, officials took the goal of breaking the record for the longest sentence in the Russian language. Many have long drawn attention to the Law of the Samara Region. In it you can find a sentence consisting of 9,387 words. Just think about this figure. These are about fourteen printed pages. By the way, this article does not take so much. Not even close. But taking this record seriously is quite difficult. It is hardly a proof of the richness and beauty of the Russian language. And the size of the proposal has long been the subject of jokes. But still, speaking of long sentences, this record is simply impossible not to mention.
The story of Victor Pelevin
Victor Pelevin is one of the most famous contemporary Russian writers, and, quite non-standard. His works are very often widely discussed and attract attention. Often they either find a response in the soul and find their reader, or not. But it is undeniable that the works catch on anyway, and leaving them unnoticed is extremely difficult. They may or may not like. But they are. And one of his works can also be a contender for the title of the longest offer. And it should be noted that it is the whole work, and not just one single phrase. Why work? Yes, because his whole story “Water Tower” consists of only one single sentence.
At least this fact may interest and force one to get acquainted with the works of this writer, if this acquaintance, by coincidence of some strange circumstances, has not yet happened.
World record
In the Guinness Book of Records, for quite some time, the place of the longest sentence in the world was occupied by the phrase from the famous Ulysses by James Joyce.
This record-breaking phrase consists of 4,391 words. One has only to try to imagine this scale and admire. To make it easier to imagine, it can be noted that this article has fewer words. Far less.
James Joyce is an Irish writer. Ulysses is his second and most famous novel. This work was created for the whole seven years. Not surprisingly, the phrase from it ended up in the record book.
Guinness World Record
However, this article has already mentioned that all these records are very, very subjective. How can we single out the longest simple sentence? Or complicated? Yes, whatever. Indeed, in the world there is such a volume of various works. So the James Joyce record pretty soon went by the wayside when the work of the British writer Jonathan Coe was analyzed. In his work The Rotters' Club, a phrase was found in which there are 13,955 words. This sentence is about three times the size that Joyce wrote. Such a volume is hard to imagine. It's easier to find a work and see this miracle with your own eyes.
Who else can become a rival?
According to some reports, the rival of Jonathan Coe in the length of sentences may be the Polish author Jerzy Andrzejewski. The writer was born in 1909. One of his main works is the book “The Gates of Paradise”. Readers, getting acquainted with this book, should call all their attention and observe the long sentences. Perhaps it will be possible to discover another record.
Bohumil Grabal
Another giant among the proposals can be found in one of the works of the Czech writer Bohumil Grabal. Attention should be paid to his work “Dance Lessons for Senior and Advanced Students”. This work was written in 1964. Reading it, you can find a sentence that stretches for as many as 128 pages. An entire chapter sometimes takes up less space, so the size of this proposal clearly stands out from the rest.
Other advances in literature
If not the most, then one of the biggest offers is found in the work of the French writer Marcel Proust, “In Search of Lost Time”.
More precisely, this is a world-famous cycle consisting of seven novels. In the fourth of them, under the name "Sodom and Gomorrah" there is a sentence that contains 847 words. Of course, after all of the above proposals, giants, it can hardly claim to be the largest in the world. But to compete at least for the title of the largest in French literature, it is quite capable.
And yet, to single out one author unambiguously and say that it was this person who wrote the longest sentence that can only be found in the whole world is simply unrealistic. After all, it is also not possible to read and analyze all existing texts. Moreover, over the years there are new trends and directions, as well as many talented writers. You can find books that are written even without a single punctuation mark, but they can hardly be attributed to the longest sentences. And why is this race for the best? After all, the content is much more important. Long sentences are not always appropriate. And not everyone can feel this fine line. There are many authors who, on the contrary, tried to follow the so-called rule of the golden mean. You will not find huge, overloaded offers. And not without reason, the well-known saying appeared: "Brevity is the sister of talent."