A Dog's Heart

by Mikhail Bulgakov, A.S. Byatt (Foreword)

book data

1,717 ratings, 3.98 average rating, 126 reviews (more data...)

rating	frequency	%
5		31%
4		39%
3		24%
2		4%
1		0%

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published

April 29th 2005 by Hesperus Press Ltd (first published 1925)

details

Paperback, 112 pages

setting

Russian Federation

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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Nov 13, 2007

Shannon rated it:

(review of isbn 0802150594)

bookshelves: 2007, book-club, magical-realism, satire, sci-fi, speculative-fiction

Owns a copy — 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 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 sausage. The man, Professor Philip Philoppovich Preobrazhensky, is a kind of doctor who specialises in putting animal parts - namely sexual organs - into human patients. He's wealthy, a bougois oasis within the Communist machine, keeping his lavish 7-room apartment with the help of his high-profiled clients. Another doctor, young Bormenthal, assists him, and he has two female servants - another luxory, to be sure. Needless to say, the building's Housing Committee hate him.

His latest experiment involves taking a human man's testicles and his pituitary gland and inserting them into Sharikh. The man is dead, the dog unconscious, and against the odds he survives. The experiment was part of the professor's search for rejuvenation, but instead the dog becomes a kind-of human man. He starts to talk, he loses most of his fur, he stands upright. But his habits are filthy, his temper bad, his intellect questionable. To make matters worse, he lets Shvonder of the Housing Committee educate him in the communist ways, and gets a job ridding Moscow of cats.

This is a fascinating, funny book full of ideas and themes. I was rather surprised that, among the nine people present at the book club meeting, a few like me really liked it, some were neutral, and some really didn't like it. We could come to no concensus on what it was really about, or even if we were reading too much into it. One idea is about the animal-like qualities of the Communists, another about forcing foreign ideas into people's heads before they're ready for them, as the "foreign" patuitary gland is put into Sharikh's. There were lots more ideas but, sadly, they've slipped my mind just now (the meeting was two days ago).

But I loved the tongue-in-cheek humour and irony, the moments of silliness which was refreshing after recently reading other Russian heavy-weights like Darkness at Noon and Anna Karenina. I loved the writing style: Bulgakov is able to conjure images in your head with only a few words. Having read this, I'm really looking forward to reading his more well-known book, The Master and Margarita, which I had never heard of until recently (and when I was looking for this book, it took me a while to realise it was the same author! Yep, I'm a complete twit). (less)

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Jul 02, 2008

Nathaniel rated it:

(review of isbn 0802150594)

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

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6 comments

Sep 18, 2007

Maria rated it:

(review of isbn 0099479338)

bookshelves: classics, fiction, russian

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

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Jan 29, 2010

MJ Nicholls rated it:

(review of isbn 0099529947)

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

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Apr 29, 2009

Tiffany rated it:

(review of isbn 0802150594)

Read in September, 2008

recommended to Tiffany by: read for European Film & Fiction Class

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

I found this book to be a very nice read. It captivated me throughout the read. And the end really surprised me, because I was not sure how the story was going to resolve itself, in fact, until reading the epilogue, I thought they might have just killed Sharik.
Before starting the novel, and actually a bit into the pages of the book, I was not sure if the book was in fact about a dog or just a “dog” of a man.
I found it very interesting that the book was written in 1925, b...more I found this book to be a very nice read. It captivated me throughout the read. And the end really surprised me, because I was not sure how the story was going to resolve itself, in fact, until reading the epilogue, I thought they might have just killed Sharik.
Before starting the novel, and actually a bit into the pages of the book, I was not sure if the book was in fact about a dog or just a “dog” of a man.
I found it very interesting that the book was written in 1925, but it was not published until 1987. After reading it, I can see why. The commentary that the book makes on political bureaucracy would have been very unacceptable in the Soviet Union at the time of its penning. Also, Philip Philippovich's dealings with the apartment's housing committee demonstrated the political strife of the time.
The idea for the book itself, turning one creature into another...well, not exactly, brings with it a lot of possibilities, and I think that the author explored the notion down a very captivating avenue.
The transformation of Sharik, not just the physical transformation, but also the character transformation, was a drastic change. He went from a gracious, adopted mongrel to an abhorrent and vulgar man. But even being a “man” he could not escape his canine inclinations, still demonstrating some of these qualities, most notably the hatred for felines.
I liked that the author wrote portions of the book from the dog's own perspective. It helped the reader not only identify more with the dog character of Sharik, but also gave a clear perspective of where the his mindset was coming from before he became a man.
There was one curiosity that I had which was unresolved after finishing the book, which is Philip Philippovich's odd phrases: “...from Seville to Granada” and “toward the sacred banks of the Nile...” I am still unsure as to these phrases meanings. Though, the second kind of made me think of Egyptian mythology and Set, God of the Dead--like it is the mantra for playing with life and death?
(less)

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Jan 03, 2008

Lex rated it:

(review of isbn 0099479338)

bookshelves: bonified-lit-ra-chure, re-readable-classics

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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Aug 06, 2007

Molly rated it:

(review of isbn 0099479338)

bookshelves: russian

Read in December, 1998

recommends it for: People

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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Apr 18, 2009

Brian rated it:

(review of isbn 0140455159)

bookshelves: read-2009

Owns a copy — 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

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Mar 24, 2009

Brian rated it:

(review of isbn 0802150594)

bookshelves: russian-lit

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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Dec 25, 2007

Trin rated it:

(review of isbn 0802150594)

bookshelves: fiction, russian-lit

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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2 comments

May 16, 2009

Aziz rated it:

(review of isbn 0140455159)

bookshelves: literature--russian

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

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Mar 12, 2010

Jim rated it:

(review of isbn 0802150594)

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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Jan 26, 2009

Bradley rated it:

(review of isbn 0802150594)

bookshelves: russian-literature

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

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Jan 12, 2010

James rated it:

(review of isbn 1441480315)

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

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Jul 27, 2009

Tortla rated it:

(review of isbn 0802150594)

bookshelves: dragons, dystopias, schooly

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

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Oct 23, 2008

Stephen rated it:

(review of isbn 0802150594)

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

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Nov 23, 2009

James P rated it:

(review of isbn 0802150594)

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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Jan 26, 2009

Paige rated it:

(review of isbn 0802150594)

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.

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Feb 20, 2010

Robert rated it:

(review of isbn 0099479338)

bookshelves: comedy-and-satire, library, literary-fiction, politics, post-uni, russia

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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Feb 09, 2009

Book Cellar rated it:

(review of isbn 0802150594)

bookshelves: ariel-s-picks

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

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