Most ever chapters to a novel

[crosso]

This is not competition-linked but a question from my daughter who wishes to know the most chapters that have ever been written in a book (prob. novel). I have tried to look this up through websearches but cannot come to a conclusion. I don't want to look too silly so any help would be most appreciated, even if the answer is not definitive. Thank you, Happy New Year!

[maxi29]

If you take Recherche du temps perdu as a single book, then it's certainly the longest but it won't have the most chapters - each volume is divided into a handful of parts. My guess would be Clarissa which is written as a series of letters, which by their nature are going to be short. The book with the most on my bookshelf is Don Quixote with 126 chapters but I'm sure that can be beaten.

[crosso]

Thank you very much for your answers...it has saved face with my daughter, although as she is only eight years old, I don't think she'll be reading any of these novels yet. One of my New Year's Resolutions is to improve my French and Spanish, maybe I'll try and read the Proust (I've only read excerpts so far, which I enjoyed) and I'm sure my daughter would like an easy/abridged version of the Don Quixote. Thanks and enjoy the New Year!