[drofgnal]

I wouldn't shy away from War and Peace because it's too large. It's a fantastic read. I've read it three times. Les Miserables was a bit more of a door stop for me. It's even longer and at times very boring, like 70 pages for the battle of Waterloo with only a couple of points tangentially related to the story, and there are other examples I won't go into.

I like Catlady's suggestion for Anna Karenia. It's been on my TBR list for a while. I also like Crussel's suggestion for Dickens, I've never read much Dickens. David Copperfield in high school and that was decades ago. I'd also be up for giving Issybird's choice of Don Quixote a run, but that wouldn't be my top choice.