The Street of Crocodiles

The Street of Crocodiles (Polish: Sklepy cynamonowe, lit. "Cinnamon Shops") is a 1934 collection of short stories written by Bruno Schulz. First published in Polish, the collection was translated into English by Celina Wieniewska in 1963.

Schulz's earliest literary endeavors can probably be dated back to 1925. They included rough drafts of the short stories, later published in the collection The Street of Crocodiles, which the writer used to send to his friends Władysław Riff and Debora Vogel. Although it was already in 1928 that Schultz wrote the short story A July Night, it was included in the second volume entitled Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass which was published in 1937.

All Debora Vogel's efforts to have Schulz's works published were in vain. It was only after a well-known and respected writer Zofia Nałkowska, from whom Schulz had sought help, expressed her support for him that the work was published in December 1933, dated 1934.

The original title of the collection can be literally translated into English as "Cinnamon Shops." There is also a short story with the same title included in the collection. Cinnamon shops mentioned by the narrator of the story are situated in the centre of the town where the narrator lives.

The collection tells the story of a merchant family from a small Galician town which resembles the writer's home town, Drohobycz, in many respects. The story abounds in mythical elements, introduced by means of the visionary and dreamlike literary depiction (e.g. frequently occurring motif of labyrinths), characteristic of the writer. It is thus mythologized reality, processed by the imagination, artistically distorted and enriched by all possible references and allusions to other literary works, to great myths, to other, more exotic domains of reality.

One of the most significant characters in the work is the Father, who is not only the head of the family, a merchant running a textile shop in the marketplace, but also a mad experimenter endowed with superhuman abilities, a demiurge living between life and death, between the world of the real and the imaginary. Despite the literary fascination with the character of the Father displayed by Schulz, it is Józef whom he renders the work's protagonist and narrator. In the character of this young boy, eagerly discovering the world that surrounds him, many of Schulz's own traits are clearly visible.

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