Heart of a Dog: Difference between revisions
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'''''Heart of a Dog''''' ({{lang-ru|Собачье сердце}}, ''Sobač'e serdce'') is a biting satire of the [[New Soviet man]], written in [[1925]] by [[Mikhail Bulgakov]]. It features Professor Filip Filippovich Preobrazhensky who implants a human [[pituitary gland]] and [[testicle]]s into a stray dog named Sharik. Sharik |
'''''Heart of a Dog''''' ({{lang-ru|Собачье сердце}}, ''Sobač'e serdce'') is a biting satire of the [[New Soviet man]], written in [[1925]] by [[Mikhail Bulgakov]]. It features Professor Filip Filippovich Preobrazhensky who implants a human [[pituitary gland]] and [[testicle]]s into a stray dog named Sharik. Sharik proceeds to become more and more human as time passes, picks for himself the name Polygraf Polygrafovich Sharikov, makes himself a career with the "Moscow Cleansing Department responsible for eliminating vagrant quadrupeds (cats, etc.)", and turns the life in the professor's house into a nightmare until the professor reverses the procedure. |
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==Themes== |
==Themes== |
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Revision as of 21:27, 1 March 2008
| A 2001 Russian edition of The Fatal Eggs and Heart of a Dog. | |
| Author | Mikhail Bulgakov |
|---|---|
| Original title | Собачье сердце |
| Country | U.S.S.R. |
| Language | Russian |
Publication date | 1925 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback and Paperback) |
| ISBN | NA Parameter error in {{ISBNT}}: invalid character |
Heart of a Dog (Russian: Собачье сердце, Sobač'e serdce) is a biting satire of the New Soviet man, written in 1925 by Mikhail Bulgakov. It features Professor Filip Filippovich Preobrazhensky who implants a human pituitary gland and testicles into a stray dog named Sharik. Sharik proceeds to become more and more human as time passes, picks for himself the name Polygraf Polygrafovich Sharikov, makes himself a career with the "Moscow Cleansing Department responsible for eliminating vagrant quadrupeds (cats, etc.)", and turns the life in the professor's house into a nightmare until the professor reverses the procedure.
Themes
Names figure prominently in the story. Preobrazhensky's name is derived from the Russian word for "transfiguration." "Sharik" is a common name for dogs in Russia and roughly translates as "little ball."
The name and patronymic "Polygraf Polygrafovich" translate roughly as "Rotogravure, Son of Rotogravure" and echos a tradition of nonsense double names in Russian literature that goes back to Gogol's hero Akakii Akakievich in The Overcoat. The name is also a satire on new naming conventions in the early Soviet Union. Nevertheless, the name was chosen according to the old Russian tradition, of "consulting the calender," with Polygraf's name day being March_4.
The name of the drunken donor of the human implants is Chugunkin ("chugun" is cast iron) which can be seen as parody on the name of Stalin ("stal'" is steel).
The real life prototype for Professor Preobrazhensky was most probably Russia-French surgeon Serge Voronoff who was famous for his experiments on implanting humans with animal's testicles and Thyroid glands [1]. However, since 1883 on 1911 during 18 years over neurologic clinic of the Moscow hospital (the central hospital of Moscow at that time) professor Peter Alekseevich Preobrazhensky (1864-1919) supervised. He also could serve as the prototype for the character of Heart of a Dog. [2].
The story has analogies with Dr. Faustus, Frankenstein, and The Island of Dr. Moreau. It was published in the Soviet Union only in 1987, more than 60 years after its completion, but was made known to Russian readers through samizdat. In 1968, it was published in English by Harvill Press, translated by Michael Glenny.
The tale has been interpreted either as a satire on the Soviet utopian attempts to radically improve human nature by creating a New Soviet man[3] or as a wry comment on the scientists' attempts to interfere with nature. [4] One commonly accepted interpretation is that Bulgakov was trying to show all the inconsistencies of the system in which a man with a dog's intelligence could become an important part (Sharikov); and that his other goal was to picture a man with a strong personality who could remain unaffected by the system and keep his personal independence (Preobrazhensky).[citation needed]
A comic opera, The Murder of Comrade Sharik by William Bergsma (1973), is based on the plot of the story.
A very popular 1988 Soviet movie, Sobachye Serdtse, was made (in sepia) by Vladimir Bortko. Major sequences in the movie were famously shot from an unusually low dog's point of view.
References
- ^ Tatiana Bateneva. In the quest for longevity humans are ready to become relatives with any animals] Template:Ru icon
- ^ [http://www.monikiweb.ru Moscow regional research Clinical institute official website.] Template:Ru icon
- ^ New York Times review Stage: Heart of a Dog, 1988-02-01.
- ^ Bulgakov's biography at SovLit.com
- Bulgakov, Mikhail, Heart of a Dog, Grove Press; reprint edition (August 1, 1987), ISBN 0-8021-5059-4 (paperback)
External links
- Full text of Heart of a Dog in the original Russian
- Full text of Heart of a Dog translated into English
- Sobachye Serdtse in the Internet Movie Database
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