This weekend I finished reading Vikram Seth's A Suitable Boy, which I've just discovered is reputedly the longest novel ever written in the English language. If I'd known this earlier, I'm not sure I would have begun. Psychologically speaking, it's one thing to start reading a 1,349-page novel, and quite another to be told that it's the longest novel of all time. Don't I have other things I should be doing?

Luckily for me, A Suitable Boy isn't just the longest novel ever written in English; it's also one of the best.