Heart of a Dog

Mikhail Bulgakov (1891-1940) endured the difficult experience of having to live under the pressure of censorship, but has nonetheless left some interesting books that allow us to know what he thought about the process that has taking place in the newborn Soviet Russia. "Heart of a dog" is one of those books. It was written by Bulgakov in 1925, but it wasn`t published in Soviet Russia until 1987, due to the fact that it can easily be interpreted as a critical satire regarding the URSS. "Heart of a dog" is the story of a stray dog, Sharik, that hasn`t led an easy life. He lives in the streets of Moscow, and eats what he can, when he can. However, one day a doctor gives him food and takes him to his home. Sharik believes that his fate has changed, but he doesn`t know that the doctor has rather strange intentions... The doctor wants to perform an experiment on Sharik, in order to learn what would happen if some human organs were transplanted to a dog. The doctor performs the operation, implanting in Sharik the pituitary gland and the testicles of a dead criminal. Against all odds, Sharik survives the operation, and from that moment on begins an extraordinary transformation, that makes him more and more human. But what kind of human is he?. Sharik can talk, and asks everybody to call him first "Mr. Sharikov", and afterwards "Polygraph Polygraphovich Sharikov". He also walks like a human being, and somehow resembles one... But can he think, or does he merely repeat what he hears, specially Marx`s teachings?. Has the doctor`s experiment ruined a perfectly good dog, making him a perfectly despicable "human" being that threatens to denounce counterrevolutionaries and chases cats?. I don`t want to tell you more about this book: you really should read it yourself. It isn`t long, but it is quite interesting. What is more important, it is open to many interpretations, and you can always find your own. Some people believe that for Bulgakov Sharik represented the failure of those who try to create new beings (exactly what was supposedly being done at that time in the URSS, with the "soviet man"). Others highlight the glimpses of Soviet society that "Heart of a dog" allows us to have, and think that the aim of the author was to give the reader at least an idea of what it was like to live in the URSS at that time... These few possible interpretations don't exclude others, so read this book and find them!!. Obviously, I highly recommend "Heart of a dog"... Belen Alcat

Mikhail Bulgakov is a master of the outlandish and the surreal. And this book is full of both. Just when you think Bulgakov can’t get any more outrageous, he surprises you with odd twists and turns. The novella begins with a charming tale of a stray dog but this is no Walt Disney tale, for this dog becomes the pet of a renowned Moscow professor of medicine who plants human glands into the dog’s body and the dog becomes a monstrosity. Communism has presented itself to the world as a scientific political theory and I felt like Bulgakov was trying to tell us that despite the science behind Communism, the brute aspects of humanity can’t be washed away. As a sub-human, part-dog creature, we see behaviors that are rude, boorish, violent, but all too human. Human nature, including the worst aspects of human nature, exists even after scientific Communism has taken over. The goal of creating a new breed of man, which was one of the goals of Communism, is impossible and backfires in the writing of Bulgakov. I am reminded of his masterpiece, the Master and Margarita, where the Communist outlaw God but they forgot to outlaw the Devil. The book was written at a time when there were physicians who were injecting patients with hormones or glands of sheep fetus or monkey gonads to bring about everlasting youth or sexual stamina. Bulgakov takes this theme and runs with it. The dog Sharik becomes the human Sharikov, and as such becomes the image of the dull intelligence, short temper, crudeness, non-verbal, non-rationalizing, violent, prejudicial, of the worst group of lower class, lower income persons. Bulgakov would have us see that the Communist experiment can allow this type of person to gain power and influence and to be very socially destructive in their actions. Moscow must have been chaos in the 1930’s as one complete political and economic system is being replaced by another, and thus there is much room for human brutes to rise in a totalitarian system that allowed no dissent. I don’t want to give the impression that the book is all ideology, since in fact, it is highly inventive, entertaining, and outrageously satiric. The scenes are vivid and well written, easily imagined. I recommend this short book. It reminded me of the George Orwell’s Animal Farm mixed with Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein. I know other reviewers have made this comparison but it is a great description of the book to someone who has not yet read it.

One of them most important modern writers in Russian history. If you've never read a book of novel, I would start here. It is one of my favorite books, and I would put it on the same level as Old Man and the Sea or The Hobbit

It's just something about those Russians. I guess because they've had to put up with so much turmoil, for so long, historically; or it could be those long Russian winters; but for whatever reason they have produced a steady stream of excellent satirists for the past two hundred years. Refer to Nikolai Leskov's LAUGHTER AND GRIEF, for a mid 19th century examination of the phenomenon from someone who first noticed it. Leskov's narrator, Vatahvskov, states in a conversation amongst his colleagues that the feature most singular in Russian society is "its abundance of unpleasant surprises." Which brings me to Bulgakov and to HEART OF A DOG, for it is a novella full of "unpleasant surprises," both happening to and instigated by, Bulgakov's singular literary creation, Sharik (aka Mr. Sharik, aka Citizen Sharikov, aka Polygraph Polygraphovich Sharikov, commisar of cat control, etc.) Bulgakov takes an absurd situation (think of Gogol's "nose" wandering around the streets of St. Petersburg for comparison) and crafts it into a wonderful parody of the societal madhouse that was 30s Moscow under the party's intolerable decrees. His is a portrait of political correctness run amok. Citizen Shvonder, the representation of all things banal about the collectivist mentality of the era is the Bulgakov's primary target in this regard. His jealous rage at the fact that professor Phillipov is living the high life, while he and his ilk are sharing one room apartments, remains comically ineffectual. It was Bulgakov's way at getting back at all of the party appartchiks that were in fact causing him a great deal of consternation and physical hardship at the time. A reviewer who was critical of this work as being too much akin to a Chagall painting was drawing an accurate analogy. Yet, coming from a perspective in which magical realism has become an accepted literary technique, I don't consider that a drawback. It is part of the same Russian tradition. The fanciful and the grotesque have long been an integral part of Russian fiction. Bulgakov is simply one of its more famous and adept practitioners. BEK

A classic of Russian/Soviet literature. A must read for anyone interested in that genre.

I really enjoyed this story, but this book it's not made to last. 1. the cover material is very flimsy and delicate - arrived with many tiny tears on the spine 2. Some of the words didn't print fully 3. There were at least 2 spelling errors that I noticed I know is not a big investment - but this is the kind of book that I wouldn't mind gifting if it didn't have the issue above.

Mikhail Bulgakov is considered one of the Soviet Union's truly great writers. I have limited exposure to Soviet authors; I review the novel based on face value reading. An injured dog dying in the Moscow winter curses the cruel uncaring proletariat who either bedevil him or ignore his plight. Then a bourgeois gentleman feeds the dog and encourages him to follow; the distinguished professor shares his seven-room warm apartment with a male physician, a female laboratory assistant and an older female housekeeper. The professor and physician clean and bandage the dog's wounds, feed him, and restore the dog's health; the dog (now named Sharik) relishes his bourgeois new life. Then the professor and physician operate on Sharik, substituting a freshly dead human criminal's pituitary and testes for the dog's pituitary and testes. Sharik barely survives the operation; he awakens but his body and mind are changing. Sharik develops an upright posture, some hair regrows while other hair sheds giving Sharik a somewhat humanoid appearance, and Sharik begins to speak. As Sharik vocalizes the professor realizes that Sharik retains both dog and human criminal memories and attitudes, and some of these attitudes are trouble. Sharik is an unpleasant houseguest who wrecks, steals, terrorizes the household's females, and carouses all hours of the night. When the professor and physician attempt to moderate Sharik's behavior, Sharik gets a government job (controlling stray cats) and then formally complains to the local housing committee and to other Soviet bureaucracy, thus threatening the professor's bourgeois lifestyle. The professor desperately seeks a solution as the situation deteriorates. The post-revolutionary Soviet government sought to scientifically create the Socialist worker's paradise; the government had little appetite for satire or criticism. Mikhail Bukgakov wrote this novel in 1925; the Soviet government barred his work being published and this novel wasn't published until 1968 (in the West, later in Russia). The English translation is very readable and this novel is worthwhile as a reflection of its time, but I do not consider it a great novel.

A well-translated classic from the early days of the Soviet empire.

Good book, weird book. Read it for history and it was interesting!

Un libro muy interesante para los amantes de los perros

excellent, challenging book

A very entertaining book with deep social satyre

There were times I found this a bit difficult to follow, but overall had a great experience with it. I appreciated the theme, plot, and general style of this book, and would likely read it again.