book data
1,717 ratings,
3.98
average rating, 126 reviews
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published
April 29th 2005
by Hesperus Press Ltd
(first published 1925)
details
Paperback, 112 pages
setting
isbn
1843914026
(isbn13: 9781843914020)
description
Through his surreal, often grotesque humour, Bulgakov creates in this book - a new translation of one of the most popular satires on the Russian Revol…more
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avg 3.98
editions: all | this edition
editions: all | this edition
Owns a copy
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Read in December, 2007
Written in Russian in 1925 by the author of The Master and Margarita (his more famous book, which is on my to-read list), Heart of a Dog upset the Communist sensibilities so much that it was banned in Russia until the 80s. That should give some indication of the flippancy of this book, though it was probably quite easy to upset the Russian Communists (as I learned from reading Darkness at Noon).
It follows the story of Sharikh, a stray dog who follows a man home because he offers him ...more
It follows the story of Sharikh, a stray dog who follows a man home because he offers him ...more
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Read in May, 2008
"Heart of a Dog" is a much less ambitious book than "The Master and Margarita." It satirizes a smaller swathe of Russian society and seems a prisoner of its own circular plot structure. It also has a less multi-dimensional cast and a more single-themed, malicious humor.
When Dr. Phillipovich defends himself against the housing committee that seeks to distribute his seven room apartment to various working class citizens, the book is at its comical best. Shvonder and...more
When Dr. Phillipovich defends himself against the housing committee that seeks to distribute his seven room apartment to various working class citizens, the book is at its comical best. Shvonder and...more
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Read in January, 2001
One of the great tragedies of life is that so few people outside Russia have read this, and that I can't imagine any translation could even come close to capturing the setting and language of the original.
Professor Preobrazhensky is searching for a way to restore youth. In his research process, he experiments with replacing a dog's hypothalamus with that of a man, but instead of making the dog younger, the procedure gradually turns the dog into a man, with horrifying results. The boo...more
Professor Preobrazhensky is searching for a way to restore youth. In his research process, he experiments with replacing a dog's hypothalamus with that of a man, but instead of making the dog younger, the procedure gradually turns the dog into a man, with horrifying results. The boo...more
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Read in May, 2009
Mikhail Bulgakov is one of the most overlooked Russian satirists/geniuses of the 20th century.
I’ve read two works of his now, and both have floored me with the scathing cleverness of their satire, the sheer originality of their ideas, and the fact that both these Russian texts – written during Stalin’s reign – are instantly accessible to the modern reader.
The Heart of a Dog (1925) is a short blast against the ‘New Soviet Man’ – a comment on the declining pow...more
I’ve read two works of his now, and both have floored me with the scathing cleverness of their satire, the sheer originality of their ideas, and the fact that both these Russian texts – written during Stalin’s reign – are instantly accessible to the modern reader.
The Heart of a Dog (1925) is a short blast against the ‘New Soviet Man’ – a comment on the declining pow...more
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Read in September, 2008
recommended to Tiffany by:
read for European Film & Fiction Class
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I have no real idea about Communist Russian culture and this book feels entirely immersed in it. That being said, the over all themes feel very applicable to the fetishizing of "the proletariat" and the inexhaustible humanity of the upper class individualist. Fucking funny, ill humored, sickening, and totally creative. Explores the usual themes of humanitarianism and consciousness that I get off on. Lot's of ironic bungles in the bureaucracy.
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Read in December, 1998
recommends it for:
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If you knew how much I hate fantasy fiction, you might wonder at the human/animal transformation fetish, but both of these books are so grounded in the human experience it is like realism. Although you don't really have to know anything about post-revolution Moscow to read the book, you do need to keep in mind that this is a social/political commentary and not a moral allegory. I have Louisa Stephens to thank for introducing me to this one.
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Owns a copy
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Read in May, 2009
It is said that a dog is man's best friend. But what if that dog was given a human pituitary gland and suddenly turned human, the pituitary gland of a miscreant and a human of coarse behavior, a slightly grotesque human?
I'm still not sure why the doctor even bothered giving the dog the testicles of a man unless the doctor already figured out that most thinking stems from the lower regions. The dog did try to use his new testicles but Bulgakov left out the details.
I did li...more
I'm still not sure why the doctor even bothered giving the dog the testicles of a man unless the doctor already figured out that most thinking stems from the lower regions. The dog did try to use his new testicles but Bulgakov left out the details.
I did li...more
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Read in March, 2009
A painfully humorous read, this story is very much in the tradition of Gogol and Dostoevsky in employing the absurd to undermine and satirize the socio-political trends of the time. It was banned in the Soviet Union upon publication in 1925 and remained so until 1987. It tells the story of Sharik, a dog with an instinct for survival, and of the Professor that sought to use his innovative talent to cultivate something modern out of this dog. The story thus serves as a kind of allegory of the mons...more
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Read in December, 2007
Early 20th-century Russian satire. Like Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita, I don’t feel like I fully get this book, and yet I still really enjoyed it. I guess in some ways, that’s a ringing endorsement! Seriously, though, I would recommend this. Especially to people I suspect are smarter than I am. *coughSiriacough*
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Bulgakov's novella 'A Dogs Heart' portrays a satirical post-1917, Bolchevikian Russia in negative light. The plot line circles around Sharik, a helpless, stray dog who becomes an unwilling patient in Dr. Filipp Filippovich Preobrazhenskys' avant-garde experiment and (not unlike Gregor Samsa in Franz Kafka's existentialist novel 'The Metamorphosis') progressively converts form.
Sharik becomes Polygraf Polygrafovich Sharikov, a fully fledged human being. This character becomes the vehic...more
Sharik becomes Polygraf Polygrafovich Sharikov, a fully fledged human being. This character becomes the vehic...more
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Read in August, 2002
It has been a while since I read this, but it is one of the best books I have read in the last 5 years, so I rate it pretty high. If I said a commentary on the social effects of the Russian revolution was a gripping read, you'd probably start to side-step away, but this is a genuinely funny book with some cutting criticism of the twisted idealism of early comunism. Based around a doctor who transplant from a vagrant's into the body of a dog and the disastrous results of that experiment, the bo...more
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Read in January, 2009
WOW! I've read this book twice, both times for class. I TA at McMaster University, and the professor uses this book for her Soviet History class. I enjoyed reading it both times.
I don't want to give away much of the story. Suffice to say that Bulgakov sets his story in Moscow in 1925. The reader comes away with a fairly good impression of how Bulgakov sees the Revolution, and ways in which Russia has changed. It's a short book, but one that will likely captivate the reader. ...more
I don't want to give away much of the story. Suffice to say that Bulgakov sets his story in Moscow in 1925. The reader comes away with a fairly good impression of how Bulgakov sees the Revolution, and ways in which Russia has changed. It's a short book, but one that will likely captivate the reader. ...more
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Read in January, 2010
A decent short read. Stylistically and chronologically it fits between The White Guard and The Master and Margarita, both of which I prefer. Yet another tale unsparingly critical of the Soviet system. It's a wonder Bulgakov never spent any time in the gulag!
Stay away from the black paperback edition currently available on Amazon.com (isbn: 1441480315/isbn13: 9781441480316). A very poorly edited edition with lots of distracting errors that even a simple spell check would have dete...more
Stay away from the black paperback edition currently available on Amazon.com (isbn: 1441480315/isbn13: 9781441480316). A very poorly edited edition with lots of distracting errors that even a simple spell check would have dete...more
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Read in November, 2009
Full of perplexing symbolism. The professor has some great quotes, but he's not exactly an agreeable character. Especially in that drawn-out surgery scene. Gruesome. And he got all worked up about his galoshes (which represented...material wealth? comfort? practicality? something that was taken from the bourgeoisie in the 1917 revolution...). I would definitely need to know more about Soviet history to get some of the details.
It seems like a highly nuanced point was being made about Soviet...more
It seems like a highly nuanced point was being made about Soviet...more
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For starters, “Heart of Dog” was recommended by Omar Torrez, the ultraflash guitar wiz with whom the scribe does a flamenco music/spoken word presentation to his novel “Vedette."
Omar is wed to Russia both through a personal fascination, and through the woman he has chosen to live his life with.
the scribe thought the guitarist might be interested in working on a reading when he saw him at Pastis in L.A. where he mentioned Bulgakov, which is not a very common oc...more
Omar is wed to Russia both through a personal fascination, and through the woman he has chosen to live his life with.
the scribe thought the guitarist might be interested in working on a reading when he saw him at Pastis in L.A. where he mentioned Bulgakov, which is not a very common oc...more
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Read in November, 2009
This book had a fun start following a mangy dog in the streets of Moscow. I thought everything got dull after the surgery. Supposedly Bulgakov made this as an allegory for the Bolshevik revolution about how it was to rejuvenate man along the lines of science. But it failed since Sharikov, the product, was just a base, sensuous man. It is a fine short read, but I think that The Master and Margarita would be better to read from this author.
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Read in November, 2008
A great example of soviet literature before the KGB really cracked down on censorship. On the surface Heart of a Dog is about a scientist who successfully transforms a dog into a human by using experimental surgery. Likable enough as a dog, he becomes a pretty miserable human being. Underneath it all, however, it exposes some of the problems created in Russia by the communist regime.
It was pretty funny too.
It was pretty funny too.
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Read in September, 2009
A Russian friend of mine harped on about this long enough that when I found it in my local library I had to pick it up. It's funny as heck - a famous surgeon/professor living in 1920s Moscow transplants the pituitary and testicles of a recently deceased man into a dog only for the dog to slowly change into a talking, thuggish apparatchik. It's a satire on the then new communist system, the idea of the new Soviet man and the rage at the time for eugenics and experimental surgery.
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Master and Margarita author Mikhail Bulgakov enchants and horrifies us with this funny, witty, and satirical story of a mangy street dog named Sharik.
One day, Soviet scientist Philip Philippovich transforms Sharik into a man.
But what kind of a an can truly be a man with the heart of a dog?
Ariel, Book Cellar bookseller
One day, Soviet scientist Philip Philippovich transforms Sharik into a man.
But what kind of a an can truly be a man with the heart of a dog?
Ariel, Book Cellar bookseller
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