War and Peace enters top 50 for first time

Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace has entered the Nielsen BookScan top 50 for the first time since records began in 1998 thanks to a boost from the recent BBC adaptation.

The BBC edition of Tolstoy’s epic novel, which was first published in 1869, is currently in 50th place in the book chart, with sales in the UK topping 3,581 last week. The BBC version has so far sold 13,177 copies since its December release. Sales have increased in volume every week until the end of January, and volume sales jumped 204% week-on-week during the week the TV version started (3rd January).

Five other editions of War and Peace charted in the TCM Top 5,000 last week, shifting a combined 2,438 copies. The biggest selling edition is the £1.99 Wordsworth Classic from July 1993, which has shifted 56,157 copies, 3,054 of those since the BBC show started.

The six-part BBC adaptation of War and Peace, written by Andrew Davies and directed by Tom Harper, starred Paul Dano, Lily James and James Norton.

The show was a "superlative dramatisation of Tolstoy's masterpiece”, according to the Radio Times, and deemed “the greatest costume drama of the decade” by the Telegraph.