The Crocodile (short story)

The story relates the events that befall one Ivan Matveyevich when he, his wife Yelena Ivanovna, and the narrator visit the Passage on Nevsky Avenue to see a crocodile that has been put on display by a German entrepreneur. After teasing the crocodile, Ivan Matveyevich is swallowed alive. He finds the inside of the crocodile to be quite comfortable, and the animal's owner refuses to allow it to be cut open, in spite of the pleas from Yelena Ivanovna. Ivan Matveyevich urges the narrator to arrange for the crocodile to be purchased and cut open, but the owner asks so much for it that nothing is done. As the story ends Yelena Ivanovna is contemplating divorce and Ivan Matveyevich resolves to carry on his work as a civil servant as best he can from inside the crocodile.

• Phillips, William, ed. (2012). The Short Stories of Dostoevsky. Translated by Constance Garnett. Literary Licensing. ISBN 9781258369033. See also text online on The Literature Network.
• "The Crocodile". White Nights and Other Stories. Translated by Guy Daniels. London: Alma Classics. 2025. pp. 487–520. ISBN 9781847499318.

• Full text in English at Project Gutenberg
• Text, comments, and footnotes in Russian
• The Crocodile public domain audiobook at LibriVox