"Sleepy" () is an 1888 short story by

Anton Chekhov Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (; ; 29 January 1860 – 15 July 1904) was a Russian playwright and short-story writer, widely considered to be one of the greatest writers of all time. His career as a playwright produced four classics, and his b ...

Publication

Chekhov wrote the story in the course of one day, while working upon '' The Steppe'', so as to 'get some money to deal with the beginning-of-the-month payments', as he explained to

Alexey Pleshcheyev Aleksey Nikolayevich Pleshcheyev (; 8 October 1893) was a radical Russian poetry, Russian poet of the 19th century, once a member of the Petrashevsky Circle. Pleshcheyev's first book of poetry, published in 1846, made him famous: "Step forward! ...

in a 23 January letter. It was first published in '' Peterburgskaya Gazeta'' No. 24, 25 January 1888 issue, signed A. Chekhonte (А. Чехонте). In a shortened version and with re-written finale it then appeared in a collection called ''Gloomy People'' (Хмурые люди, Khmurye lyudi, 1890). Chekhov included it into Volume 5 of his Collected Works, published by

Adolf Marks Adolf Fyodorovich Marx (; 2 February 1838 – ), last name also spelled Marcks and recently Marks, known as A. F. Marx, was an influential 19th-century German publisher in Russia best known for the weekly journal ''Niva (journal), Niva''. He obt ...

in 1899–1901.Muratova, K. D. Commentaries to Спать хочется. The Works by A.P. Chekhov in 12 volumes.

Khudozhestvennaya Literatura Khudozhestvennaya Literatura () is a publishing house in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The name means "fiction literature" in Russian. It specializes in the publishing of Russian and foreign works of literary fiction in Russia. History It was founde ...

. Moscow, 1960. Vol. 6, pp. 492

Plot

Varka, a 13-year-old babysitter, sits all night long by the cradle trying desperately not to fall asleep, knowing she will be severely beaten by her masters for neglecting her work. Once she nods off and is punished. The sleepless night by a screaming baby draws on and on, as the girl, eyes half-open, recalls the horrors of her past: her father dying of a

hernia A hernia (: hernias or herniae, from Latin, meaning 'rupture') is the abnormal exit of tissue or an organ (anatomy), organ, such as the bowel, through the wall of the cavity in which it normally resides. The term is also used for the normal Devel ...

and her mother begging for food by the road. The sleepless night having ended, there comes the day full of dirty little jobs and ceaseless errands. After that, another night by the screaming baby. Now almost delirious, the girl starts to believe that the true root of evil in her wretched life is the screaming infant. Greatly relieved by having found an easy solution, she strangles the baby, then "...quickly lies down on the floor, laughs with delight that she can sleep, and in a minute is sleeping as sound as the dead".

References

External links

Спать хочется
the original Russian text * Sleepy, the English translation {{Authority control Short stories by Anton Chekhov 1888 short stories Works originally published in Russian newspapers