Artamène

Artamène ou le Grand Cyrus (English: Artamène, or Cyrus the Great) is a French novel sequence, originally published in ten volumes in the 17th century. The title pages credit the work to Georges de Scudéry, but it is usually attributed to his sister Madeleine. At 1,954,300 words, it is considered the longest novel ever published.

"Scudery’s major classical references and source-material comes from Herodotus’ Histories and Xenophon’s Cyropaedia. Other sources include Plutarch, Justin, Polyaenus, Pliny, Ovid, Strabon, and the Bible." But it is a roman a clef about contemporary personages.