How long does it take to read War and Peace?

War and Peace is the standard byword for a long book, and at around 40 hours it earns it — but the number genuinely depends on which translation you read. English versions range from about 561,000 to 587,000 words, a spread of over 25,000 words, because translators make different choices about Tolstoy's French passages and his repetitions. It is roughly half the length of the Harry Potter series. Unabridged audiobooks range from 55 to 72 hours depending on edition and narrator, which is a wider spread than the text itself.

The numbers

Total

40 hours 8 minutes

In hours

40.1 hours

Non-stop

1.7 days without sleeping

Covers

roughly 561,000 to 587,000 words in English translation

At a realistic pace

an hour a night

That works out as

about 41 days

What this assumes

About 573,000 words at 238 words per minute, the midpoint of the published English translations. The translation you pick changes this by up to two hours.

Sources disagree materially and the disagreement is real rather than error: different English translations genuinely contain different numbers of words, from about 561,304 to 587,287.

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