War and Peace and Sales

Wednesday, February 24th, 2016

The BBC’s racy adaptation of Tolstoy’s War and Peace has sent the novel into the Bookseller’s top 50 for the first time since Nielsen BookScan’s records began in 1998:

The BBC edition of the novel sold 3,581 copies last week, putting it in 50th place in the charts, according to the Bookseller, with total sales for the BBC edition now more than 13,000 since its December release. Five other editions of War and Peace have also sold strongly, with combined sales of 2,438 copies last week.

The strong sales follow YouGov’s recent survey, which found that only 4% of Britons have read War and Peace, although 14% wish they had. A study commissioned by BBC Store also said that War and Peace was in the top five works of fiction people are most likely to lie about having read.

That last line has some punch.

Comments

  1. James James says:

    Yes, 4% did sound a bit high.

  2. Bob Sykes says:

    The delicious Natasha sold those books.

  3. Harold says:

    I think people don’t read War and Peace because it has been given an intimidatory aura it doesn’t deserve. I remember it being soap opera-esque and easy to read, interspersed with some repetitive and unconvincing musings on Napoleon not being a master of fate.

  4. Kent says:

    Is it time to release War and Peace and Zombies?

  5. Bruce says:

    I remember War and Peace as a fix-up from a bunch of 19th century magazine serials. There’s the ain’t it awful that women like to look at guys in short shorts at the ballet episode, the Freemasons and Illuminati episode, some battle episodes, the Napoleon ain’t all that episodes. If I was a patriotic Russian facing a long winter with no TV I’d love it.

  6. Isegoria says:

    It’s well past time for War and Peace and Zombies.

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