Natural disaster
I hereby accuse Roger Chartier's The Cultural Origins of the French Revolution of being imbibed with soporific agents. Without fail, in the past three days, each attempt to read it has resulted in a good two hours of completely unintended sleep. The cliched metaphor of "a wave of sleep" is insufficient; Chartier has the power to unleash veritable tsunamis of somnolent torpor upon its unwitting victim (me). As a result, I have been thus far unsuccessful in completing my French Revolution essay.
I wonder if my tutor will accept this as an excuse.