Product Description

This title is presented with a new introduction by Andrey Kurkov. A rich, successful Moscow professor befriends a stray dog and attempts a scientific first by transplanting into it the testicles and pituitary gland of a recently deceased man. A distinctly worryingly human animal is now on the loose, and the professor's hitherto respectable life becomes a nightmare beyond endurance. An absurd and superbly comic story, this classic novel can also be read as a fierce parable of the Russian Revolution.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4439 in Books
• Published on: 2009-04-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 144 pages

From the Back Cover
A rich, successful Moscow professor befriends a stray dog and attempts a scientific first by transplanting into it the testicles and pituitary gland of a recently deceased man. A distinctly worryingly human animal is now on the loose, and the professor's hitherto respectable life becomes a nightmare beyond endurance. An absurd and superbly comic story, this classic novel can also be read as a fierce parable of the Russian Revolution.

'As high-spirited as it is pointed. Unlike so much satire, it has a splendid sense of fun.' Eileen Battersby, Irish Times

'Bulgakov here assaults the dour utilitarian lives of Soviet citizens with a defiant, boisterous display of nonsense.' The Times

'One of the greatest of modern Russian writers, perhaps the greatest.' Nigel Jones, Independent

'A marvellous writer.' Michael Frayn

About the Author
Mikhail Bulgakov (1891 - 1940) was born and educated in Kiev where he graduated as a doctor in 1916. He rapidly abandoned medicine to write some of the greatest Russian literature of this century. After a lifetime at odds with the stultifying Soviet regime, he died impoverished and blind in 1940, shortly after completing his masterpiece, The Master and Margarita. None of his major fiction was published during his lifetime.

Customer Reviews

An Absurd Masterpiece
Completed by Bulgakov in 1925, this short story remained unpublished in the Soviet Union for almost sixty years. When it finally appeared on Soviet bookshelves in 1987 it became an instant hit and is arguably seen as on of the author’s most hard-hitting novels. Not for nothing did Stalin’s censors deem this book too sensitive for publication.

‘The Heart of a Dog’ is the absurd story of a stray dog, who is taken in from the streets by a well-known, well-off Professor named Philip Philipovich Preobrazhensky in order that he may attempt a groundbreaking operation; the transplantation of human testicles and pituitary gland into the dog. The operation is successful; however the Professor has produced an intolerable being which resembles a human of revolutionary sentiment with a dog-like penchant for chasing cats.

The story is enjoyable in and of itself, and one must congratulate Bulgakov for his imagination and inventiveness – forced upon him by the oppressive intellectual climate of his time - in thinking up such a tale. In addition, It is very easy to read and interesting for its portrayal of the atmosphere in a bourgeois household in 1920s Moscow. There are also a number of other levels to the book and various interpretations of what Bulgakov’s true message was. It is worth noting, for example, that Professor Preobrazhensky’s name is a derivative of the Slavic word for ‘transfiguration’, and the book is ostensibly about failed attempts to improve upon human nature. Thus, Bulgakov may be seen to be either ridiculing Soviet attempts to create communist supermen or attacking science’s interference with nature. Finally, another interpretation of the story sees it as a parable of the 1917 Revolution in which things were set into motion which became almost uncontrollable.

‘The Heart of a Dog’ is a classic story of great intellectual value, which deserves to be read and which is immensely enjoyable for its absurdity, humour, and political message(s).

Woof!
We had Behemoth the cat in "The Master And Magarita". Now it's Sharik the dog. Sharik the hungry waif dog picked up by the brilliant scientist Preobrazhensky and fed until the fat canine starts to believe that he's entitled to the good life. But in life nothing is free. Once upon a day Sharik is drugged for a very unusual operation - the brilliant surgeon replaces the dog's genitals and pituitary glands with human ones. The dog survives the operation against all odds and then astonishingly starts to speak and behave human. Before you could say Jack Robinson rumours are flying all over Moscow and everyone wants in on the secret. The human-dog reads, attends the theatre, gets a job and is even made a citizen.

There won't be a story if that was the end of it. It wasn't and it's not long before the experiment goes horribly wonky. Preobrazhensky must now decide how to cure his monstrous construct. The story is absurd of course but it is so off the wall funny you can't put it down. When a story begins in the first person spoken by a dog with guile and a salacious sense of humour then one's fate is sealed - the book must be read.

It is well known that Bulgakov's tale is an indictment against Bolshevism. Written in 1925 the story of how a brilliant Lenin created a monster out of the proletariat was not the sort of reading material suitable for comrades. History and hindsight may now show us clearly the fault lines of Leninism but it was clear to some others within 10 years of the revolution as demonstrated by Preobrazhensky's rather incautious musings. Another 10 years and Stalin would have made mince meat of this rather proud and rash gentleman.

It is irrelevant if you have no interest in Russia or its history. This book stands on its own three feet. Outstanding.

Satirical Masterpiece
Being a Surgeon myself, I read this short story with great amusement. Professor Preobrazhensky, apparently altruistically, takes from off the streets, a wretched and scalded mongrel dog, named 'Sharik'.
Sharik, having started off the book, with his perambulations around Moscow; makes it clear to us, that he already has a degree of consciousness.
The Professor, a respectable world acclaimed Surgeon/ Scientist lives in some comfort in a seven roomed apartment in Moscow doubling as a consulting room and operating theatre. Here Sharik is revived and rapidly improves his physical condition.
As Sharik is beginning to trust, and feel an intense loyalty to the Professor, the situation changes dramatically. Chloroformed and manhandled, poor Sharik has the testicles and pituitary gland of a recently deceased man implanted into his 'person'.
Expecting post operative death soon after this ground breaking operation, the plucky Mongrel comes to the brink and then appears to recover with hilarious consequences.
This is where the book really takes off. After 8 days post op, the dog is heard pronouncing the word 'nessetaciled' or 'delicatessen' (backwards), soon after he stands on his hind legs, and soon after this, is heard calling the Professor a 'bloody bastard'.

Without spoiling the story further, this appalling creature with diabolical instincts starts to attempt to dominate the household, using the muscle of the local housing committee in the apartment block to disenfrachise the Professor.
By the end of the story, the Dog is a jumped up loathsome parody of the kind of career scoundrels, who literally dragged off the streets of early Soviet society, bullied and forced their way to power at the expense of the classes typified by the Professor using all the 'Organs' of power at their disposal.
Bear in mind,this book like many other classics was published only in the 80's. Yet interestingly, Bulgakov as a contemporary of Stalin was well regarded by the Dictator, and was never exiled. His criticisms are quite transparent of the system that allowed people no better than dogs in behaviour to bully their way to the top of this brave new society.
As a footnote, this story does make one more cautious on the streets as a dog and owner pass-by, making you wonder who is walking who...