Description
In this humorous tale, titled The Crocodile, the reader senses Gogol’s influence on Dostoevsky. It is reminiscent of Gogol’s story about the wondrous adventure of the Nose.
In this humorous tale, titled The Crocodile, the reader senses Gogol’s influence on Dostoevsky. It is reminiscent of Gogol’s story about the wondrous adventure of the Nose.
This is something Dostoevsky himself acknowledges. Just as Gogol, for the sake of humor, imagined a nose taking on a human face, so too did Dostoevsky wonder, upon seeing a crocodile brought to St. Petersburg: what would a person do if swallowed alive by this animal?
Thus, Dostoevsky crafted a humorous tale that includes a critique of the ideas prevalent around 1860. The protagonist, a liberal civil servant, finds comfort in the crocodile’s belly. There, he can formulate a new economic theory and deliver lectures on natural history in his wife’s salon, to which the crocodile is taken.
The high-ranking official, Timothy Semyovitch, to whom the man’s terrified wife turns for help, tells her that the crocodile cannot be disemboweled because its owner is a foreigner, and because Russia needs foreign capital.
This story attracted attention because Dostoevsky was accused of attacking the philosopher Chernyshevsky and the left-wing newspaper “The Voice,” an accusation Dostoevsky denied.
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