The Buzz | Russians read Tolstoy’s War and Peace in 60-hour TV marathon

More than 1,300 Russians are reading Leo Tolstoy’s notoriously lengthy novel “War and Peace” aloud in a 60-hour marathon on national television.
The public readings, pre-recorded at locations all over Russia, from the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg to remote Arctic islands, have been coordinated by Tolstoy’s great-great-granddaughter and feature Russians from all walks of life, from gas workers to cosmonauts.
The event runs over four days and finishes today. The organizers invited French actress Fanny Ardant to read the numerous French-language passages in the novel, which describes both the Napoleonic wars and French-speaking high society in imperial St. Petersburg. The readings are being webcast live and broadcast on national TV and radio, with nighttime intermissions.