The Enormous Crocodile
|
First edition | |
| Author | Roald Dahl |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | Quentin Blake |
| Cover artist | Quentin Blake |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Picture book, children's, short story |
| Publisher | Jonathan Cape (London) |
Publication date | November 1, 1978 |
| Media type | Print (quarto hardback, paperback) |
| ISBN | 0-224-01579-6 |
| OCLC | 4620532 |
| LC Class | PZ7.D1515 En 1978 |
The Enormous Crocodile is a 1978 children's story by Roald Dahl.
Synopsis
The story takes place in Africa where an enormous, greedy crocodile is telling a smaller crocodile that he is going to eat children. The smaller crocodile objects, because children taste "nasty and bitter" in his opinion compared to fish, and because of what happened the last time the larger crocodile tried to eat children. The larger crocodile leaves the river anyway, and announces his intention to Humpy Rumpy the Hippopotamus, Trunky the Elephant, Muggle-Wump the Monkey and the Roly-Poly Bird. The other animals insult him and hope that he will fail and will himself be killed and eaten, after which the crocodile briefly and unsuccessfully attacks Muggle-Wump and the Roly-Poly Bird.
First, the crocodile heads into a coconut tree forest and disguises himself as a smaller coconut tree, hoping to eat two children, but is exposed by Humpy Rumpy.
Next, the crocodile heads to a children's playground outside a school and disguises himself as a see-saw, hoping to eat a whole class of children, but is exposed by Muggle-Wump.
Then, the crocodile heads to a funfair and disguises himself as a wooden crocodile on a merry-go-round, hoping to eat a young girl named Jill, but is exposed by the Roly-Poly Bird.
Lastly, the crocodile heads to the picnic place and disguises himself as a wooden four-legged bench, hoping to eat four children, but is exposed by Trunky. Following a brief confrontation, Trunky sends the crocodile to his death by swinging him round and round in the air by his tail before letting him go, sending him flying into the sky and crashing headfirst into the sun where he is incinerated.
It is in the style of a picture book in contrast to Dahl's other books, illustrated by Quentin Blake. It was first published in 1978.
Relations to Other Roald Dahl Books
- A monkey named Muggle-Wump also appears in The Twits in which he is accompanied by a whole family of Muggle-Wumps. A monkey bearing resemblance to Quentin Blake's illustration of the same character also appears in The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me.
- A Roly-Poly Bird likewise makes an appearance in The Twits and is also to be found in Dirty Beasts.
- A recipe outlining how to make your own edible Enormous Crocodile appears within Roald Dahl's Revolting Recipes.
Editions
- ISBN 0-7857-0812-X (library binding, 2002)
- ISBN 0-375-91046-8 (library binding, 2000)
- ISBN 0-375-81046-3 (hardcover, 2000)
- ISBN 0-224-04684-5 (hardcover, 1999)
- ISBN 0-224-01579-6 (hardcover, 1978)
- ISBN 0-14-230245-7 (paperback, 2003)
- ISBN 0-14-036556-7 (paperback, 2002)
- ISBN 0-14-131152-5 (paperback, 2001)
- ISBN 0-14-056822-0 (paperback, 2001)
- ISBN 0-14-130971-7 (paperback, 2000)
- ISBN 0-14-050342-0 (paperback, 1980)