A Dog's Heart

A Dog's Heart

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4.12 of 5 stars 4.12  ·  rating details  ·  9,100 ratings  ·  352 reviews
Through surreal, often grotesque humour, Bulgakovgivesan ingenious new twist to the "Frankenstein" parable, in a new translation of one of the most popular satires on the Russian Revolution and on Soviet society

Having been scalded by boiling water earlier that day, and with little chance to survive the severe winter night, a stray dog is left for dead on the streets. Lamen...more
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Expected publication: June 1st 2013 by Hesperus Press (first published 1925)
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Nataliya
"The whole horror of the situation is that he now has a human heart, not a dog's heart. And about the rottenest heart in all creation!"


The recipe for success a la Bulgakov:

# Take a street dog, hungry and flea-ridden and wickedly smart (yes, he can even read - you gotta do that to survive on the cruel winter Moscow streets!).

# Take a brilliant and renown professor with a knack for brain surgery/transplants and desire to advance science.

# Add to the mix a dead good-for-nothing delinquent alcohol...more
Paquita Maria Sanchez
I'm not even sure where to begin...there is so much going on in this little novella (particularly concerning the Russian government and its sociopolitical policies in the 1920's and beyond), that I'm be afraid that discussing it in detail would only serve to highlight my ignorance on the subject. So here it is! Me highlighting my ignorance on the subject...

I decided to read this story simultaneously with The Master and Margarita with the hope of completing The Heart of a Dog first. I did this na...more
Maria
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 book is an expl...more
Mary
Sep 14, 2012 Mary rated it 5 of 5 stars  ·  review of another edition
Recommended to Mary by: Kris
What does it mean to be human? To be an individual? How unfortunate we must be, us, merely to be human beings. We can never escape what we truly are. We can nip and tuck our way around our flaws, but humans inevitably are always their own disastrous downfalls and worst nightmares.

Heart of a Dog is, before anything else, FUN. It's just really damn entertaining. We start with a sort of Woody Allen neurotic type stream of concsiousness narrative from a stray dog, Sharik, who is swooped up by doctor...more
Shannon (Giraffe Days)
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...more
Adam
One of the marks of a good translation is that the reader does not feel as if he or she is reading one. This is certainly the case with Michael Glenny’s translation of Bulgakov’s The Heart of a Dog.

This book was completed in the USSR in 1925, but was not published in that country, or anywhere else, until 1987, 47 years after the author died.

The short novel was written during the era when Soviet science included Ivan Pavlov (of salivating dog fame) and Trofim Lysenko (of dubious genetics fame)...more
MJ Nicholls
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 power of Communism and the changing tides...more
Brian
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 like the narrative of the...more
Nathaniel
"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 his earnest and uneducated comr...more
Rhys
One of the best writers of the 20th Century, Bulgakov was a genius at compressing a huge amount of action, thought and atmosphere into every page. He was also very good at showing scenes at slightly oblique angles, so that you don't quite "get" them immediately; there's always a delay before th...ings click, but it's a very small delay, just like in real life. That's why he's a realist even though he writes (sometimes wild) satiric philosophical fantasy. This magnificent novel is short but extre...more
Pete Young
The Heart of a Dog has ingredients that make it a satirical classic, yet it would surely have been funnier still to its intended Russian audience. Bulgakov had constant problems with censors and he never saw publication of The Heart of a Dog in the Soviet Union in his lifetime: he died in 1940 and it was suppressed there until as late as 1987, appearing only a few years before the fall of Soviet Communism. Philip Philipovich, a rich and respected Moscow doctor who specialises in rejuvenation, de...more
Germano Dalcielo
Una lettura sicuramente da consigliare. Il messaggio moralistico tra le righe è molto significativo: l'uomo non si deve sostituire a Dio o alla Natura. Non si può pretendere di modificare con la scienza un puro istinto animalesco ed estrarne fuori come da un cilindro un bagaglio comportamentale umano.
Alla fine il nostro Pallino viene sottoposto a un'operazione chirurgica "regressiva", (una variante di una lobotomia?), perchè se è vero che l'istinto canino era rimasto(l'odio per i gatti), è anche...more
Andrew
The Master and Margarita was awesome, not only in its satire, but in its sense of deliverance. It is grand and theological. Heart of a Dog is firmly in the gutter. And that's OK, I'm a gutter kind of guy, but I could easily see how fans of Bulgakov's more famous novel might be disappointed. I thought this was a pretty delightful little story. It's quite short, which is probably a good thing. Satire tends to get old pretty fast. But Bulgakov keeps it brief, and packs a lot of punch in the process...more
Dwight
http://bookcents.blogspot.com/2010/10...
Heart of a Dog is set in Moscow during the early 1920s. Professor Preobrazhenski treats the sexual dysfunctions and aging issues of the powerful and well-connected. For his talent and discretion, he is provided many privileges in the Soviet system. In one of his medical experiments, he transplants the testes and pituitary gland of a recently deceased criminal into a dog, turning the dog into a man. Unfortunately for the professor’s household and the city's...more
Matthew
This is a goofy, slapdash sort of a book. It's that special sort of humor that Soviet oppression inspired, reminded me of Daniil Kharms.

A scientist gives human testes and a pituatary gland to a dog, and then spends the rest of the book scolding the human/dog when he misbehaves. The human/dog attains a small government position that he dedicates to the eradication of cats.

I usually skip introductions, but would've welcomed one in this case, at least a few notes on the history of composition, but...more
Tiffany
Apr 29, 2009 Tiffany rated it 3 of 5 stars  ·  review of another edition
Recommended to Tiffany by: read for European Film & Fiction Class
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
Mike
Russian authors have an often well deserved reputation for heaviness of subject matter and style. While Leo Tolstoy explored everything in minute detail, for example, Fyodor Dostoevsky is seen as casting a foreboding shadow across Russian culture.

Mikhail Bulgakov, however, can be seen as just odd. The Master and Margarita is a screaming flight through politics hidden behind realism. There's a little more of the same in Heart of a Dog, although this book is a little more direct in its satire; mor...more
Madalina
I beg the indulgence, for a few seconds, of all who are unfamiliar with romanian lit.

For the rest, I respectfully suggest for you of stronger a will and stomach, to give Enigma Otiliei a try, if you haven't already, as you might observe a similarity, in matters of grotesque stereotypes in parody, appealing, to your esthetic sense.

Back to the general public, a sly and unusual irony is used to describe, through the eyes of poverty-striken Bulgakov, the more or less appealing society, fresh out of...more
Withanhauser
I picked this up for a bus ride to DC, and nearly finished it during the trip down. "Heart of a Dog" is a 113 page novella. But, Bulgakov squeezes so much into those 113 pages that it reads like a much longer work. This isn't to say that the book is dense. It's a quick, enjoyable read; but, it's so allegorical that it feels like there's another 113 pages of message and metaphor lurking beneath the text.

The plot: A medical professor (Fyodor) in early Soviet Russia takes in a scrappy, wounded str...more
Jamyang Phuntsok
This book should ideally be read before Bulgakov's masterpiece, The Master and Margarita. For in the latter, the black humour and satire evident in this book is played out on a much grander stage. Here, they almost appear subtle in comparison. But of course I am talking trash. For here you have a distinguished Moscow surgeon, well known of his 'rejuvenating' operations, taking in a stray dog named Sharik and planting it with pituitary glands and testicles from a dead criminal. The result is, a t...more
Lex
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.
Molly
Aug 06, 2007 Molly rated it 5 of 5 stars  ·  review of another edition Recommends it for: People
Shelves: russian
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.
Debra
Very strange story. I can't say I understood all the politics, but I got the satire. Very original story. Felt sorry for the poor dog! Worth the read - definitely a lot of black humor.
Jenni
Finished this with tears in my eyes at 1:54 in the morning, and anxiously awaiting my lecture on it tomorrow afternoon. It's THAT good.

In this short novel, written in the mid 1920's in Soviet Russia and not published until the 80's, Bulgakov manages a few different levels of awareness. The surface level is a moderately comedic story about a scientist that transplants a human's brain into a dog's body, at which point the dog (Sharikov) begins to become progressively "human". The human-like creatu...more
Ozan
Bu kitap ile ilgili savunacağım iki husus var. Birinci husus: kitabın akıcılığı ve kolay okunabilen bir yapıda olması. Edebi olarak metni çok beğendiğimi söyleyebilirim. İkinci husus : kitabın sansüre uğramış olması. Kitabın rejim eleştirisi gereksiz ve abartılı olmasına rağmen her ne olursa olsun sansüre topyekün karşı olmak gerektiğini düşünüyorum. Bu kitabın rejim tarafından yasaklanmış olması ülkemizdeki Ahmet Şık olayını aklıma getirdi.

Bu kitap bence çok planlı ve ince düşünülmüş. Monarşis...more
Brian
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
Trin
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*
Steve Evans
This savage attack on the urge to reform the unreformable in man was read aloud by its author over two sessions to a literary circle in Moscow in the 1920s, while the fledgling Soviet Union still allowed some freedom of expression. Permission to publish was not granted, and Bulgakov's career skitterd sideways. Ironically, he was saved by Stalin, who found one of his plays funny. Bulgakov was never arrested, and died of natural causes in 1939.

Russians found this a wonderful satire on the impossi...more
Celestial Elf
Heart of a Dog (1925) features a stray dog named Sharik who is adopted and becomes transformed into a human form by a prominent Moscow Professor. The creatures bad manners, aggressive profanity and heavy drinking hilariously characterize this incarnation of the 'New Soviet Man' as a satirical allegory of the Communist revolution's attempt to 'radically transform mankind'. Its publication was initially prohibited in the Soviet Union, it was not released in the country until 1987.
Bulgakov, perhaps...more
Anna Khachiyan
Aug 29, 2012 Anna Khachiyan rated it 5 of 5 stars  ·  review of another edition Recommends it for: Everyone
Recommended to Anna by: Mom
Shelves: russian-lit
From the author of The Master and Margarita, a less monumental, though no less masterful satire of Soviet Russia. Once again, Bulgakov is in top form with his depictions of bureaucratic blundering and apartment snatching in the beleaguered capital of Moscow. This time, the protagonist is a stray dog who undergoes a hushed scientific experiment (spoiler alert: they swap his pituitary gland and testicles for those of a deceased smalltime crook) to become the proletariat man—the indolent, crass and...more
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Mikhaíl Afanasyevich Bulgakov (Russian: Михаил Булгаков) was the first of six children in the family of a theology professor. His family belonged to the intellectual elite of Kiev. Bulgakov and his brothers took part in the demonstration commemorating the death of Leo Tolstoy. Bulgakov later graduated with honors from the Medical School of Kiev University in 1915. He married his classmate Tatiana...more
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