The Crocodile

The Crocodile is an outstanding piece of satire: It is vicious, dreamlike, scatological, and one of the funniest things that Dostoevsky ever wrote. In this brief work, he reveals his hatred of communism and socialism in an unusually direct caricature. The tongue-in-cheek "true story" follows a civil servant who suddenly gets swallowed alive by a crocodile -- but he survives, carrying on his duties and preaching socialist theories from within the crocodile's belly.

Dostoevsky is best known for his understanding of the dark side of human nature, but The Crocodile proves he was equally adept at sarcastic, absurdist observations.