"The Crocodile" by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

"The Crocodile"  by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1865, 34 pages, translated by Constance Garnett)


"The Crocodile"  by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821 to 1881-Russia) is flat out strange!    If I had read this work not  knowing who wrote it and been asked to guess the author I would have first guessed Franz Kafka, then Nikolai Gogol, then I would have been wide open who might be but I think I would not have guessed the author's name for a long time.

The story is told in the first person about what happens after the narrator's friend, Ivan Matveich, is swallowed alive by a crocodile that was being shown in a sort of traveling zoo run by a German and his wife.    Ivan begins to tease the crocodile and he ends up inside the stomach of the crocodile which he finds quite comfortable.   Ivan's wife insists that the crocodile be cut open to release her husband but the German refuses permission for this unless he is paid a huge price for him as he feels the crocodile will attract a lot more customers now that he has a a life person inside him.   It turns out Ivan is quite comfortable in side the beast and has no urgent wish to leave.   He feels he will attract a lot of attention as the man inside the crocodile and he can give his views on politics and economics to the world.

There are a lot of social references in the story as well as satirically intended conversations about economic theory.   It is really a funny work and know I have not conveyed this.   My post read research indicated that "The Crocodile" was sort of a satire on the writings of Russian socialists.

You can easily find it online.   It is not "heavy reading" or anything like that.   It really is a "fun" read by an author we normally do not describe in that way!



Mel u

"Bobok" by Fyodor Dostoevsky

"Bobok" by Fyodor Dostoevsky (1873, 20 pages, translated by Constance Garnett)

1821 to 1881

As a blog note, from now until the first week of 2012 I will be posting only on short stories.   I am about  half way through The Changeling by Kenzaburo Oe and A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens and they will be next novels I post on.

Yesterday I was checking my Amazon.com recommendations and they listed a forthcoming paperback edition of  The Eternal Husband and other Stories by Fyodor Dostoevsky, translated by Richard Prevear and Larissa Volokhonsky.    I like their translations but I was not really interesting in buying it, being happy to read older translations for free but I did check to see what stories were included in the collection.   The shortest one was "Bobok".   Long ago in the distant mists I read most of the major works of Dostoevsky and I am happy now to have begun slowly reading some of his shorter fiction.   (My first post on his short fiction was on "A Christmas Tree and a Wedding".)

"Bobok" was written between the publication of Crime and Punishment (1866) and The Brothers Karamazov (1880).   It sounds almost like a bit of an autobiographical story.   The chief character is a frustrated writer.   He wants to write literary fiction but his work always gets rejected by editors.   He gets by through odds and ends of journalism, advertisements and translation of French works.  When he submits works of literary fiction, they are rejected and he is told his work lacks the quality of real life.   He is told he must seek out inspiration where ever he can.   The story is told in the first person as if it were from the writer's diary.  

One day he goes to the funeral of a friend and stays behind in the graveyard to think about his life and his writing.   Suddenly he hears voices all around him even though no one is there.   It is the recently buried conversing with each other and with him.   It seems they have enough consciousness left to speak for two or three months after they are dead.  The dead speak very openly about their lives.   It is as if there is many life times of stories being told as inspiration for the writer.   Some of the dead are bitter, some long for passion, others freely confess affairs and corruption they always denied while living.   The writer begins to despair that the dead seem to have no inspiring stories for the living.  He tells himself maybe he will have better luck in another cemetery.  

"Bobok", the title is supposed to come from a Russian slang word for nonsense, is not hard to read, not very long and is very much worth reading.    

Please share your experience with us on shorter Russian fiction.  

Mel u

"A Christmas Tree and a Wedding" by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

"A Christmas Tree and a Wedding" by Fyodor Dostoevsky  (1848, 15 pages)

Yesterday when I was reading two short stories by Maxim Gorky I noticed that a story by Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821 to 1881) was included in the same collection of short stories.    The story was "A Christmas Tree and a Wedding".   I read pretty much all of the major works of Dostoevsky way back in the mists of time but I had never read any of his short stories.   This being Christmas season, it seemed almost like a sign that I should read "A Christmas Tree and a Wedding."  (There is no translator credit given for the story at my source.)    I am glad there is now at least one post on Dostoevsky to be found on my blog.

The narrator of the story has just been to a wedding but he wants to talk about a Christmas party he went to that he found more interesting.   I liked this story a lot.   As one would expect, there is great psychological acuity  shown even in this brief story.   The party was supposed to be a children's party but it was really given so the host would have the opportunity to talk business with rich members of the community.     The wealthiest was Julian Mastakovich.    The story was written about a time and place where to be heavy was seen as a sign you were rich.
.
The narrator has nobody to talk to so he observes closely the children at the party.   It was kind of sad to see how the children were given gifts based on the social standing of their parents and the children of servants and such already know just to keep silent when the children of the rich get fancy gifts and they keep much less, if they are lucky.

The host has a beautiful eleven year old daughter.  (As you read older literature you have to accept that girls were seen as potential marriage-and otherwise-partners at a much earlier age than they are now.)   The wealthy unmarried Mastkovich calculates how much of a dowry the girl will probably have when she reaches the proper marrying age of 16.   He is of course at least as old as her father.   He kisses the girl on the forehead and she is repulsed and runs away.   The girl goes to a playmate for protection.   Mastkovich causes a scene running after the boy and tries to get a promise of love from the girl who he clearly intends to marry.   I will leave the rest of the simple plot unspoiled.

For sure this is a good short story very much worth reading.

You can download Best Russian Short Stories, in which the story appears, here in numerous formats, all free.   


Mel u Buffer