"Sleepy", by Anton Chekhov (1888)

I wonder if Robert Coover was in some way paying homage to this story in his weird, and (I think) delightful PoMo tale we read last month: The Babysitter. There are echoes of Dr Chekhov in Coover's fragmented half-dream-half-real presentation, or maybe not.

Whatever Coover was trying to do with that story (and we were in somewhat deep disagreement in our discussion last month about exactly what he was trying to achieve), Chekhov, as in most cases, got there first. Wherever that "there" is.

You might not want to listen to this late at night though. It's a very creepy story.






[Download story]

Will the real (i.e. best translated) Chekhov please stand up?

If we're going to do this proper-like, it makes sense (at least at the beginning of our endeavor) to tip our collective hats to the progenitor of the modern short story, Anton Pavlovich Chekhov. So this is who we shall be reading and discussing in October's Meet-up.

As Chris Power says in the first entry for A Brief Survey of The Short Story:

"I couldn't justify starting with anyone else because for me he's the uncontestable father of the modern short story, both by dint of bridging 19th-century realism and 20th-century experimentation and because his stories are some of the best that have ever been written. Plus, spit in a bookshop and chances are you'll hit something marked by his influence. Unless you're in the coffee bar."

Indeed.

But which translation to go for? A bit of Internet delving would seem to suggest that the husband and wife team of Pevear and Volokhonsky are at the moment in possession of the leafiest of the translation laurels, but but Mr Knowles has said he'd sound out a Professor or two on this matter too (thank you Mr Knowles).

Here's a pic of Pevear and Volokhonsky, BTW. Bless.