0.0.0: Intro

Hello, and welcome to _War in Pieces_, a reading of Leo Tolstoy’s _War and Peace_, as translated by Constance Garnett, published by Carlton House in New York in 1930, digitized by Duke University Library in 2017, usually read by me, Tod Beardsley of Huge Success, LLC, one sentence at a time starting on January 1, 2026, for a podcast which, being an undertaking of extraordinary ambition and, dare I say, courage, is expected to last approximately fifty-nine and a half years and conclude on May 30, 2085, though I cannot promise that every sentence will be read by me personally, nor that the acoustic ambiance or recording quality of each installment will be uniform or stable, yet this I offer as my solemn pledge: that for the lifetime of this podcast, and, should I be so fortunate, my own body, a single sentence from this monumental work shall be released daily, and if you feel inclined to support this scholarly yet entirely ridiculous enterprise, you may visit our Patreon, or its as-yet-unimagined future equivalent, at the URL listed in the show notes or on our website at https://warinpiec.es, so with that, I welcome you to episode zero, itself a multi-clause sentence hewing to spirit of Garnett’s translation, and invite you to check in tomorrow for the first sentence of Part One, Chapter One of _War and Peace_, offering my, and if need be my heirs’, sincere thanks for your patronage and enjoyment.

Music: Stars and Stripes Forever, released to the public domain by the Library of Congress.

Text: _War and Peace_, first published serially 1865 to 1867, snagged from archive.org. Of course, you're free to read ahead, but you'll ruin the surprise!

Ending date estimate:

date -r $(( $(date +%s) + 21700 * 86400 ))

Wed May 30 09:00:00 CDT 2085