The longest paragraph

Here on The Engine Room we love superlatives. We've already discussed the longest URL; what about the longest paragraph?

I ask this because some copy was filed recently that contained a 175-word whopper – doubtless not a record-breaker but still rather hefty for a magazine article.

"This writer really hates paragraphs," commented one of my colleagues, also a sub.

"No, he loves them – that's why he makes them as big as possible," I replied.

Any other huge pars out there?

7 comments:

The Ridger, FCD said...

Only in newspapers? If not, I suggest you look at Saramago, who can crank 'em out at 2, 3 pages...

Anonymous said...

At the risk of sounding pretentious, I tried reading "In Search Of Lost Time" by Marcel Proust a few years ago, and the longest paragraph I found was a little over three pages long. The longest sentence was nearly half a page. I didn't get very far!

Ed Rowe said...

I was going to suggest Proust [no, Gareth, you're not being pretentious; well, I don't think so, anyway].

Failing that, how about Kerouac? Almost anything really, even the 'poetry'.

Minnesotastan said...

The final paragraph in Gabriel Garcia Marquez' Autumn of the Patriarch is approximately 17,000 words long.

And it's only one sentence.

http://tywkiwdbi.blogspot.com/2008/09/prose-of-cormac-mccarthy.html

JD (The Engine Room) said...

Thanks, everyone – some mighty paragraphs there.

Our magazine's own record has just been beaten with a 197-word effort (that's the unsubbed version, obviously).

Angelina said...

As i writer I would have to raise my white flags with long paragraphs - or maybe it is just me!

MOVIES said...

LONG SENTENCES, the best way to hide your incompetence - I'd say.