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A Young Doctor's Notebook

by Mikhail Bulgakov, Hugh Aplin (Translator)

4.28 of 5 stars 4.28 · rating details · 1,918 ratings · 83 reviews

Namera iza ove zbirke priča je da se na jednom mestu skupe autobiografske i poluautobiografske priče Mihaila Bulgakova iz vremena njegove mladosti kada je službovao kao lekar.

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Published March 1st 2011 by Oneworld Classics (first published 1926)

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Nov 27, 2012 Nataliya rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: medicine, russian-classics, my-childhood-bookshelves, doctor-wrote-it

"I am a doctor, thrown straight from the university bench into a far away village, in the beginning of the revolution."¹

¹ EXTRA! EXTRA! Now to be translated to a small screen featuring Daniel Radcliffe. And it will be "a new black comedy". I kid you not. I'm still trying to decide how I feel about it.

Mikhail Bulgakov, the amazing Russian writer of The Master and Margarita fame, was a medical doctor by training. Just like the young protagonist of his semi-autobiographical collection of short stor...more "I am a doctor, thrown straight from the university bench into a far away village, in the beginning of the revolution."¹

¹ EXTRA! EXTRA! Now to be translated to a small screen featuring Daniel Radcliffe. And it will be "a new black comedy". I kid you not. I'm still trying to decide how I feel about it.

Mikhail Bulgakov, the amazing Russian writer of The Master and Margarita fame, was a medical doctor by training. Just like the young protagonist of his semi-autobiographical collection of short stories The Notes of a Young Doctor (translated as A Country Doctor's Notebook), he has spent the time of his internship in a country hospital in the middle of nowhere, having to deal with insane patient volume, confusing diagnoses, and plain human stubbornness and stupidity that can make any medical professional's life a living hell. And what amazed me is that so many of these things are still present even in our sophisticated modern-day medicine. Some things never change, do they?

" We are cut off from people. The first gas lights are nine miles away at the railroad station [...] A train to Moscow would rush by with a whistle without stopping - it does not need a God-forsaken station lost in the blizzard [...] We are alone here."

A Country Doctor's Notebook describes the 'highlights' of the internship time of a brand-new young medical graduate Dr. Bomgard, sent straight from the medical university in Russia in the winter of 1917 to be the only doctor in a provincial hospital (the staff there consisting of a couple of nurses and a pharmacist) without any supervision or backup - save for quite a few medical textbooks and brand-new medical knowledge that he brought with him. This gives quite a new meaning to the whole 'thrown in at the deep end' phrase, doesn't it?

"Well, and what if they bring in a woman in a complicated labor? Or, let's say, a patient with a strangulated hernia? What am I supposed to do then? Please, kindly tell me. Forty-eight days ago I graduated with high distinction, but distinction is one thing and hernia is another. Once I saw my professor operate on the strangulated hernia. He was doing it, and I was sitting in the audience, watching him. And that's it. I felt cold sweat running along my spinal column when I thought about hernias. Every night I sat in the same pose, having drank tea: on my left side, I had all the manuals on operative gynecology, with Dodelein's atlas on top. And on my right - ten different illustrated surgical manuals."

Some of the situations seem almost surreal in their severity and grave danger. Picture a young doctor having to perform a maneuver to turn a malpositioned fetus in the mother's womb to save two lives - and never having done this procedure before, flipping through the pages of the textbook minutes before the surgery to figure out what the hell he is supposed to do. Imagine him performing a tracheostomy (surgically opening a throat to enable breathing) on a small dying child with diphtheria while her frantic mother is waiting outside. Think about discovering that your seemingly intelligent patient has taken his entire course of medications all at once (to speed up the healing process, apparently) and now is almost dying in front of your eyes.

Imagine the entire villages infected with syphilis without having any idea about the disease or its severity, and abandoning life-saving treatment halfway through at the earliest signs of improvement. Think about realizing that your colleague has fallen prey to the deadly morphine addiction, painstakingly documenting the horrific mental and physical destruction (by the way, probably one of the earliest realistic portrayals of narcotic addiction in fiction, and based on personal experience with the drug, no less).

"I felt defeated, broken, flattened by the cruel fate. Fate threw me into this wilderness and made me fight my battles alone, without any support or instruction. What unbelievable difficulties I have to suffer through. They can bring in any strange or difficult case, most often a surgical case, and I have to face it, with my unshaven face, and win. And if you don't win, then you have to suffer and torture yourself - like now, riding along a bumpy country road, leaving behind an infant's little corpse and his mother."

The young doctor's patients are poor peasants - illiterate, superstitious, ignorant of their diseases, frustratingly suspicious of surgeries and other "out there" treatments. After building up a favorable reputation after a miraculous life-saving amputation on day one, the doctor ends up seeing over a hundred patients daily (that's in addition to the hospitalized patients), often having almost no time to sleep, and often still having to make a house call to a woman dying in labor or a patient too sick to be transported to the hospital, often riding miles in miles in the middle of Russian winter blizzard.

"After that, I started seeing about a hundred peasants a day. I stopped eating dinners. Mathematics is a cruel science. Let's imagine that I was spending only five minutes - five! - with every one of my hundred patients. Five hundred minutes - eight hours and twenty minutes. All in a row, please note that. And besides that I had a hospital ward for thirty patients. And in addition to that, I was still performing surgeries."

The young doctor/ Bulgakov's alter ego laments the ignorance of his patients that endangers their lives and the lives of their loved ones, facilitates the spread of diseases, and causes harm and grief. And yet, so unlike the doctor stereotype of that long-gone era he exhibits astounding patience and perseverance, fighting the uphill battle and actually succeeding with every life saved, every disaster averted. These stories are often sad but at the same time life-affirming. And I happily give this book about my colleague almost a hundred years ago, facing similar problems that we encounter even in modern medicine, five well-earned stars.

"In a bout of inspiration, I opened a clinic patient roster and began counting. I counted for an hour. In a year I have seen 15,613 patients, I had 200 hospitalized patients, and only six died."

(less)

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Aug 20, 2011 Rhys rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A collection of linked short stories inspired by Bulgakov's youthful experience as a doctor in a remote region of Russia. Newly graduated but expected to run a small country hospital on his own, the narrator learns very quickly how to perform amputations, deliver babies, treat syphilis, etc. As the book progresses, the incidents get darker. There is addiction and assassination... Bulgakov practised medicine in a time and place when the normal contents of a travelling doctor's bag were: morphine,...more

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Apr 27, 2013 Ghanem Dawood rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

أديبٌ روسي، وطبيبٌ في الوقت ذاته(١٨٩١-١٩٤٠)، يستعرض مذكراته عندما أرسِل عام ١٩١٧م، للعمل في إحدى المدن الريفية النائية والفقيرة كطبيب ومدير للمستشفى هناك، يعاونه مساعد طبيب واحد، وقابلتان فقط!

وبالإضافة إلى تواضع الامكانيات المتوفرة، والجهل المنتشر في صفوف الناس هناك، فإن هذا الطبيب لم يمضِ على تخرجه من كلية الطب أكثر من ٦٠ يومًا قبل إرساله!

٧ قصص رئيسية، يستطرد فيها أحيانًا بصورة مبسطة، ومليئة بالسخرية والتهكم، ليذكرَ أحداثًا ومواقف أخرى، ليضعنا في النهاية أمام مفاجأة جديدة هي أنه لم يكن طبيبًا ف...more أديبٌ روسي، وطبيبٌ في الوقت ذاته(١٨٩١-١٩٤٠)، يستعرض مذكراته عندما أرسِل عام ١٩١٧م، للعمل في إحدى المدن الريفية النائية والفقيرة كطبيب ومدير للمستشفى هناك، يعاونه مساعد طبيب واحد، وقابلتان فقط!

وبالإضافة إلى تواضع الامكانيات المتوفرة، والجهل المنتشر في صفوف الناس هناك، فإن هذا الطبيب لم يمضِ على تخرجه من كلية الطب أكثر من ٦٠ يومًا قبل إرساله!

٧ قصص رئيسية، يستطرد فيها أحيانًا بصورة مبسطة، ومليئة بالسخرية والتهكم، ليذكرَ أحداثًا ومواقف أخرى، ليضعنا في النهاية أمام مفاجأة جديدة هي أنه لم يكن طبيبًا في تخصص واحد، بل طبيبًا عامًا، يقوم بتجبيس الكسور، وخلع الضروس، وتوليد عمليات الولادة الصعبة، واجراء عمليات جراحيّة حرجة وغيرها.

ميَّزَ هذه المذكرات أنها لم تكن جامدة وسطحيّة، مجرد سرد للأحداث والقصص، بل كانت تشمل تأملات الطبيب الشاب في عالم الريف الفقير والجاهل من حوله، ووضع المرضى وحالاتهم النفسية، والمشاعر التي تنتابه عند معاينة المرضى، أو عند القيام باجراءات جراحيّة لهم، وتعليقاته على الظروف الجويّة الصعبة الباردة والجافة.

بعد عام كان سجلُ الطبيب الشاب -الذي ذهب لإدارة مستشفى ريفي بلا أي خبرة- يخبر بالإحصائية التالية؛
"تم علاج ١٥٦١٣ مريض
٢٠٠ مريض أدخلوا المستشفى
و٦ مرضى ماتوا فقط"، في مستشفى متواضع في أحد المدن النائية البعيدة عن مركز الحضارة والتمدن في أوكرانيا في حينها، هذا إن وجد تطور.

- قرأت الكتاب عبر نسخة مصورة pdf، والترجمة كانت جيدة، ويبدو أن المترجم قد اعتنى فيها جيدًا، فهو يستهل ترجمته بتقديم مطوّل -غير ممل- مليء بالمعلومات عن صاحب الكتاب.
- أعاد إلى ذاكرتي، كتاب "سيرة الوجع" للأديب والطبيب السوداني أمير تاج السر، الذي روى لنا قصصه كطبيب في المناطق الفقيرة والنائية في السودان.
- كنت أقرأه خلال الفترة الصباحية، قبل استقبال المراجعين في المستشفى، وكان ممتعًا للغاية، وكان توافقًا وانسجامًا عامًا في الجو. (:(less)

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Jan 14, 2012 MJ Nicholls rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: borscht-and-kvass, short-stories

No one likes going to the doctor, even if the doctor is a hunk with the most fabulous cheekbones (like mine), or a hottie with the prettiest ass this side of the donkey sanctuary (like yours). When we look back at the history of medicine, we realise, although (in America) being sick costs money, at least we aren’t having leeches shoved down our pants, amputations sans anaesthesia, or teeth extractions done by nurses. Bulgakov’s short fictions are drawn from his time as a doctor in a provincial b...more

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Jan 16, 2013 Jay McNair rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I've just been on this Russian kick lately, wanting to read Russian authors or stories set in Russia--Chekhov, Nabokov, more Chekhov. And this really fit the bill. These mostly-autobiographical stories are from the young doctor's first years on a rural assignment in the Russian countryside, immediately after his graduation from medical school in 1916. He's thirty-two miles from the nearest electric lights. It was wonderful to read about his experiences, and get a glimpse into that time, and thos...more

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Jan 28, 2012 Fahad rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

مذكرات طبيب شاب

لو كان الأمر لي لوزعت هذا الكتاب على كل طبيب مستجد، بل على كل شاب يبدأ حياته العملية، حتى يزاوله خوف البدايات، وحيرة الأيام الأولى، التي وصفها بولغاكوف في هذا الكتاب بكل روعة، ودقة.

كتب بولغاكوف كتابه هذا بعد تجربته الشخصية، عندما تخرج طبيباً من جامعة كييف، فعين في سمولنسك في أقصى الشمال، ليعيش التجربة كاملة، وحيداً، بين تلك القرى الثلجية التي لا تعصف بها الرياح المتجمدة فقط، وإنما الجهل والخرافات، متسلحاً بكتبه الطبية، متخوفاً من استدعاء قادم، متخيلاً أسوأ ما يمكن، مستدعياً إلى...more

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Dec 26, 2011 Teng rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book is unlike some of the other Russian literatures that are incredibly long and almost impossible to finish, but this book is just as intensive and nerve-wracking as the other stories. The writing is very concise, impactful and gives very detailed and emotional description of the young doctor's feelings and thoughts, and the situations in the novel are sometimes so bleak and discouraging that they're funny. This book didn't exactly make me laugh out loud, but there are moments where I'm j...more

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May 17, 2013 Tahmeed rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I came into this collection having just read The Master and the Margarita which is undoubtedly Bulgakov's masterpiece. It is perhaps because of that my expectations from this collection were so high and it is as a result of those that I have given it such a low rating. While all the stories have their own merits, as a collection they all seem to fall into a similar narrative: the young inexperienced doctor must face a situation that he has never dealt with before whilst having to deal with super...more

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Jul 20, 2011 Rachel Hirstwood rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

What a great little book. I read it through as a novel, but it could equally be dipped into as a series of short stories, as each short chapter is a little capsule of the experisnces of a young, newly qualified doctor with no practical experience, who finds himself thrown in at the deep end when he is assigned a post at a country hospital where he finds himself in charge. (scarey!)

It was funny (laugh out loud), sad, and miraculous. It made me thank all the lovely scientists and researchers who h...more

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Jan 13, 2013 Guna rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

If you watched A Young Doctor's Notebook with Daniel Radcliffe and decided to read the original stories (like me), and were expecting a rather comical representation of a Russian hospital tucked away deep in the countryside (like me), a bit of a surprise awaits you. That is, while the adaption was very enjoyable, Bulgakov's stories are even better (not that hard to believe, though).
They are not particularly funny (which one would expect based on the mini-series), but there is a strong element o...more

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Nov 22, 2012 Zuberino rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: russia, russian-civil-war, snow, winter, countryside, village-life, superstition, enlightenment, medicine, doctor, short-stories, fiction, cossacks

Sometimes serendipity plays a role in the book that you have chosen to read. A day or two after I picked up this book of short stories from the shelf, I spotted in the underground an advertisement for an upcoming TV show starring none other than Daniel Radcliffe and Jon Hamm. The show called A Young Doctor’s Notebook is based on this very book I am just about to write about. Apparently both Hamm and Radcliffe are HUGE fans of Bulgakov; the former singlehandedly drove the TV project forward while...more Sometimes serendipity plays a role in the book that you have chosen to read. A day or two after I picked up this book of short stories from the shelf, I spotted in the underground an advertisement for an upcoming TV show starring none other than Daniel Radcliffe and Jon Hamm. The show called A Young Doctor’s Notebook is based on this very book I am just about to write about. Apparently both Hamm and Radcliffe are HUGE fans of Bulgakov; the former singlehandedly drove the TV project forward while the latter even went on a Bulgakov pilgrimage to Russia for his 21st birthday! (http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radi...)

Across town, Complicite’s stage version of The Master and Margarita is returning to the Barbican – while I missed it the first time, I don’t plan to this time. I’ve seen a couple of other stage versions of Bulgakov’s works – the splendid National Theatre production of The White Guard a few years ago, and at the other end of the scale, Moliere at the Finborough, as bijou as the NT show was grand. I wish I’d known my Red Revolution and Civil War history a little better BEFORE I saw The White Guard but I had to wait for a few years and Mr Bruce Lincoln to put that to rights. But better late than never, as they say.

What’s charming about this particular book is the self-deprecation, the ironic humour of the young narrator. The year is 1917 and Bulgakov is just a callow young doctor straight out of medical school, when he is farmed out to Muryovo, a village based on a real-life posting in the western borderlands where Mother Russia melts away into Belarus and Ukraine. Here the doctor, with grim determination scooped out of despair, fights the forces of darkness, ignorance and superstition, usually represented by the elemental forces of nature: driving snow, fierce storms, relentless blizzards. On the doctor’s side are the puny but indomitable causes of science, reason and enlightenment – a solitary lamp shining in the doctor’s room, another stubborn one hanging outside his small village hospital.

There are early victories – a successful amputation, a windpipe replacement for a diphtheria-stricken child, a complicated delivery, even a plague of syphilis. Each of these ills the young doctor counters with cussedness, competence, humility and a little luck. The results surprise him as much as they win the admiration and custom of villagers for miles around. At the end of the first year, he has seen no fewer than 15,613 patients, but by that time the outside world – the above mentioned revolution and civil war – has started to impinge on his rural anti-idyll. The names of Kerensky and Petliura appear, the same Kerensky who is buried in a parish church in southwest London, just a few miles from where I am typing this review.

This is, in sum, a lovely book by a very fine writer, told in the most attractive of narrative voices, and one that will transport you to the vanished rural Russia that the Bolsheviks struggled so hard to wrestle away from the Tsars and the Whites. Bring on the TV show and the booming book sales!(less)

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May 02, 2013 Amanda rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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

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Jan 03, 2013 Maria Pallozzi rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Cosa rende un giovane medico appena laureato un vero dottore?
Non di certo le lezioni negli anfiteatri stracolmi di studentelli e professoruncoli spocchiosi che elogiano sacri testi simili più a esperimenti letterari che a manifesti di realtà mentre tagliuzzano un paziente, no!
Un giovane studente diventa medico quando rimane completamente solo, con le braccia in un altro corpo fino al gomito e possibilmente nella meno agevole delle cliniche esistenti, mentre fuori infuria la bufera e si hanno sol...more

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Jan 24, 2012 الوجـــد rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

الطب مهنة ليست عادية أو سهلة بالطبع
إنها دائمًا تحتاج لتخاذ قرار سريع
وقد يكون مخيف أيضًا

الطبيب كما عرفت لابد أن يتحلى بالصبر والحلم والأناة
والقرار الصائب
والمثابرة الدائمة لمعرفة كل دقائق الحياة الطبية ..،
..
أعجبني الكتاب إلى منتصفه توقفت
لم أستطيع إكماله ، فالترجمة لم تعد تروق لي

..

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Mar 23, 2013 Amanda rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Excellent essays about Bulgakov's time as a first assignments as a doctor, in a country clinic, before he became a venereologist (and before he left medicine to become a full-time writer). He thoughtfully captures his experiences with peasants whose lack of education and fear of modern medicine presents an obstacle (and in a few cases, a much-needed lesson in humility) and the well-articulated emotions of a new doctor working without a safety net. Two of these essays were recovered from archived...more

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Sep 24, 2012 Johan Knutsen rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I picked up this book at chance while browsing a book store. At the time I was doing a course in medical anthropology and thought this might be relevant. From the moment I opened it I was hooked in a way that I have not experienced in years. It describes he incredibly ambiguous situation of a newly graduated doctor. On the one hand the main character has knowledge and status, on the other he battles with the responsibility and doubt that comes with it. I think what ultimately made this book for...more

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Jan 03, 2013 Alex rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A charming three part novella. Anybody who has ever had the priviledge of being young and starting their 'first proper grown-up job' will be able to relate to fresh-out-of-uni Dr. Bomgart and his feverish attempts to impress his seasoned medical staff as he undertakes a daunting task of running a country hospital in a remote Russian village. This book is a must for anybody aspiring to become a healthcare professional. If not to give you an idea of the hours you'd be doing, it will be an excellen...more

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Oct 08, 2012 Eya rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

سويعات تكفي للغوص مبدئيا في هذا الكتاب...
هو كتاب يروي الخطوات الأولى لمتخرج حديث من كلية الطب... خطوات كان يسيرها و الأرض حوله بيضاء الثلج و الزوابع و الرياح تملأ أذناه ... فعاش الوحدة و عاش – و لو لفترة – لمرضاه فحسب...
أحسده بعض الشيء لأن قسوة الطبيعة التي أحاطت به لهي قسوة من نوع خاص – صرفته عن كل ما هو زائل أجوف و صرفته إلى ما به تحققت ذاته و تفعلت جوارحه ...
و كم جالت في خلدي رغبة جامحة في السير إلى تلك المناطق النائية حيث يواجه الإنسان ( و التونسي على وجه الخصوص) الحياة فقط بما له من إنسانية...more

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May 28, 2010 Lawrence rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I love "The Russians" and so I picked up this book at a remainder table. Also, I liked Bulgakov's "voice" in "The Master and Margarita" --- a book that I've read at least twice without ever really understanding it.

The stories in this book are a series of medical case histories. The background to them is the author's experience as a doctor performing some type of mandatory service in tsarist Russia at a remote country clinic. The case histories are quite interesting, but also the doctor's nail-bi...more

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Mar 27, 2013 Mesbah KHandan rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

شاید از لحاظِ فرمی چیزِ خاصی در این کتاب یافت نشه و صرفا شاهدِ روایتی ساده از تجربیاتِ عینی یک پزشک باشیم که بعدا نویسنده شده؛

اما دو نکته‌ی خوب در این شبهِ شرحِ حال وجود داره: اول اینکه ضمنِ نشان دادنِ وضعیتِ اجتماعی و فرهنگی مناطقِ دورافتاده‌ی روسیه‌ی صد سال پیش،خواننده را با مشابهت‌هایِ موجود در جوامع بشری در نوعِِ مواجهه‌شان با مدرنیته(در اینجا به طورِ خاص پزشکیِ مدرن مدِ نظر است)آشنا می‌سازد

و دوم آنکه در برخی قسمت ها به نوعی توجه به اخلاقِ فضیلت گرا دیده می‌شود (به طورِ ویژه در داستانِ چشمِ...more

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Aug 17, 2012 Maryam Fr rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: biography

I read half of it. Couldn't finish. In that half, this book had nothing good to offer me. Neither the stories nor the way they are presented were interesting to me. I really like some of Bulgakov's other works but this one was just too simple. The stories couldn't keep me interested to the end. I guess some of it is just bad translation's fault.
The book is mostly about the struggles of a young doctor with the ignorant vast majority. The narration is very detailed about the cases and the narrator...more

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Dec 13, 2012 Shriya rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Everyone!

Shelves: favourites, tome-travelling

Mikhail Bulgakov is now officially one of my favourite authors! Seriously! This man can make you read a book full of all the disgusting details of an amputation, childbirth, even syphilis without making you go, "Eew! I need to puke!"

Written with wit, humour and that rare trait that helps a reader "walk in the the character's shoes," this book is the result of absolute genius in the art of story telling! I now have a new found respect and sympathy for all those who take up the noble job of medic...more

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Dec 15, 2012 Toni rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classics

Now you can also watch a British TV show, based on the book: Young Doctor’s Notebook.

I shall risk saying, that this is the best book I’ve found so far, this year. I definitely liked Bulgakov’s style- I loved the raw and precise descriptions of the feelings of Dr. Polyakov and all the operations he performed. Bulgakov definitely provoked my imagination and I pictured the scenes quite clearly.
The seven stories from the series "A Country Doctor's Notebook" monitor the development of Dr. Polyakov as...more

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Jan 26, 2013 Kate rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: hiu, non-fiction-tbr, read-in-2013

"With the ink still wet on his diploma, the twenty-five-year-old Dr. Mikhail Bulgakov was flung into the depths of rural Russia which, in 1916-17, was still largely unaffected by such novelties as the motor car, the telephone or electric light. How his alter-ego copes (and fails to cope) with the new and often appalling responsibilities of a lone practitioner in a vast country practice -- in blizzards, pursued by wolves and on the eve of Revolution -- is described in Bulgakov's delightful blend...more

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Feb 18, 2013 Ray Hartley rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

As the Russian revolution gathers pace, Dr Bomgard (Bulgakov's alter ego as these are biographical tales) graduates from medical school and is sent to a remote Russian village without modern amenities where he ministers to peasants suspicious of science and medicine. The stories in this book document some of the more interesting medical cases and adventures. Even the dark "Morphine" which documents a colleagues decline due to addiction does not disturb the sense of Bomgard's unfolding learning....more

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Aug 28, 2010 Joe rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2010

The young Dr. House of revolutionary Russia, the extravagantly autobiographical hero of the novel faces wolves, blizzards, and a great deal of his own angst trying to treat a host of enigmatic peasants. Just like House, the episodes are centered around medical mysteries that, after some hand-writing, usually lead to a happy ending. Since the stories were not written to be cohesive, some bits get repeated, and there is no consistent timeline. Nevertheless, like a good episode of a TV Drama, one g...more

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Mar 27, 2012 Mary rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Enjoyed it a great deal; heart-stopping action in the form of his emergency work. Insights into the history and culture of the time. Also could relate to his often amusing comments on trying to get by in your first really responsible job - something that spans time and countries, even if for most of us it didn't include fighting off wolves! Surprisingly easy to read. A good recommendation for someone starting to read Russian literature in my opinion.

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Jan 22, 2013 Olga rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It was worth reading simply for the fact that it changed my whole vision of medicine. It also shows that any hero is a human being at the first place having his own fears and mistakes, but his determination and passion for his job make him a better man. Also , apparently the most challenging thing for doctors is the problematic birth of a child ...which really makes my mom a hero , lol

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Nov 18, 2012 Heidi Lightfoot rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

If you're a junior doctor that's just been banished to the wilds of the rural countryside and are panicking that you haven't got a clue what to do, this book is an incredibly reassuring read. It's also an endlessly successful plot that has been reincarnated in so many forms and never fails to impress;
1. Northern exposure-doctor from NY sent to Alaska to repay the loan they gave him to train
2. Doc Martin - top London surgeon develops haemophobia and sets up as a GP in Coarwall
3. An American show...more

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Jul 04, 2012 Rich G. rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Mikhail Bulgakov has yet to disappoint.
The chapters up through "The Vanishing Eye" are very reminiscent of James Herriot's books. To be more accurate, the James Herriot books are reminiscent of these chapters in A Country Doctor's Notebook.
But the chapters from "Morphine" on take a more dark and sinister tone. However, Bulgakov's clever humor still appears.

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About Mikhail Bulgakov

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 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 Lappa, who became his assistant at surgeries and in his doctor's office. He practiced medicine, specializing in venereal and other infectious diseases, from 1915 to 1919 (he later wrote about the experience in "Notes of a Young Doctor.")

He joined the anti-communist White Army during the Russian Civil War. After the Civil War, he tried (unsuccesfully) to emigrate from Russia to reunite with his brother in Paris. Several times he was almost killed by opposing forces on both sides of the Russian Civil War, but soldiers needed doctors, so Bulgakov was left alive. He provided medical help to the Chehchens, Caucasians, Cossacs, Russians, the Whites, and the Reds.

In 1921, Bulgakov moved to Moscow. There he became a writer and became friends with Valentin Katayev, Yuri Olesha, Ilya Ilf, Yevgeni Petrov, and Konstantin Paustovsky. Later, he met Mikhail Zoschenko, Anna Akhmatova, Viktor Ardov, Sergei Mikhalkov, and Kornei Chukovsky. Bulgakov's plays at the Moscow Art Theatre were directed by Stanislavsky and Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko.

Bugakov's own way of life and his witty criticism of the ugly realities of life in the Soviet Union caused him much trouble. His story "Heart of a Dog" (1925) is a bitter satire about the loss of civilized values in Russia under the Soviet system. Soon after, Bulgakov was interrogated by the Soviet secret service, OGPU. After interrogations, his personal diary and several unfinished works were confiscated by the secret service. His plays were banned in all theaters, which terminated his income. Destitute, he wrote to his brother in Paris about his terrible life and poverty in Moscow. Bulgakov distanced himself from the Proletariat Writer's Union because he refused to write about the peasants and proletariat. He adapted "Dead Souls" by Nikolai Gogol for the stage; it became a success but was soon banned.

He took a risk and wrote a letter to Joseph Stalin with an ultimatum: "Let me out of the Soviet Union, or restore my work at the theaters." On the 18th of April of 1930, Bulgakov received a telephone call from Joseph Stalin. The dictator told the writer to fill an employment application at the Moscow Art Theater. Gradually, Bulgakov's plays were back in the repertoire of the Moscow Art Theatre. But most other theatres were in fear and did not stage any of the Bulgakov's plays for many years. At that time, the repressions, known as the "Great Terror" were started by an increasingly paranoid Joseph Stalin. Many of Bulgakov's friends and colleagues, like Vladimir Mayakovsky, Osip Mandelstam, Vsevolod Meyerhold, Anna Akhmatova, Mikhail Zoschenko and many others were censored, banned, prosecuted, exiled, imprisoned, executed, found dead, or just disappeared without a trace.

Mikhail Bulgakov died as a result of kidney failure.(less)

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