The crocodile

The crocodile is a short story written by Fyodor Dostoevsky and first published in 1865.

This is a satirical account of a man named Ivan Matveich who is unexpectedly swallowed alive by a crocodile at a public exhibition.

Despite being trapped inside the animal, Ivan remains unharmed and continues to speak from the inside, much to the bewilderment of his wife, Elena, and the people around him.

Instead of trying to escape, Ivan becomes obsessed with the new attention and sees his strange situation as an opportunity to express his ideas about the economy and society.

The story explores with humor the themes of vanity, bureaucracy and human absurdity.

"On the thirteenth of January of this present year, 1865, at half-past twelve in the day, Elena Ivanovna, the wife of my cultured friend Ivan Matveitch, who is a colleague in the same department, and may be said to be a distant relation of mine, too, expressed the desire to see the crocodile now on view at a fixed charge in the Arcade. As Ivan Matveitch had already in his pocket his ticket for a tour abroad (not so much for the sake of his health as for the improvement of his mind), and was consequently free from his official duties and had nothing whatever to do that morning, he offered no objection to his wife's irresistible fancy, but was positively aflame with curiosity himself."