Heart of a Dog Paperback – January 21, 1994

A classic of Russian/Soviet literature. A must read for anyone interested in that genre.

I arrived at this book because it is slyly alluded in Edward Ashton's **Mickey7** : there, he mentions a certain **Chugunkin process** as a hint that leads to Bulgakov's book. And the connection is far from fortuitous: this is a book about how science may overstep itself with far from desirable consequences.The strength of Bulgakov's style and narrative immediately grabbed me, as the book starts inside the mind of a stray dog's, **Sharik**. His difficult life on the streets immediately makes him a strong character, a victim who doesn't give up. The strength of this voice really impressed me: ironic, but sharp and inventive.I started reading this book in the Portuguese edition by Alex Zuchi, but I must confess I found it imprecise here and there and then felt necessary to revert to this General Press edition, which was okay. Then I found a PDF edition in Russian at archive.org, which I referred to cover the most obscure passages using the usual AI suspects.The surgery that eventually turns Sharik into **Polygraf Polygrafovich Sharikov** is very graphic and reminded me of **Frankenstein** in tone and spirit, although Mary Shelley's seriously gothic-romantic register vs Bulgakov's satire. Both books are solidly footed in Goethe's **Faust** tradition. Bulgakov references it explicitly, while Shelley grazes it with a reference to **Werther**. Here, as there, the scientific experiment gets out of the creator's control. Professor Philip Philipovich's speech of regret ("why we should set about manufacturing artificial Spinozas when any simple peasant woman can give birth to one at the drop of a hat?") is more conscious of his mistakes than Victor Frankenstein, who to the end can't really grasp the atrocity of his actions, even when he laments to Walton. But both scientists are clear on the need to put an end to their creatures.It is striking that however odd the experiments in the book may sound, there were doctors practicing them by the time Bulgakov wrote his book in 1924. By then, a certain **Serge Abrahamovitch Voronov** was getting rich transplanting monkey testicles onto men as an anti-aging therapy, just like Professor Philip Philipovich does in the book with monkey ovaries (with the lady he examines) or human pituitary glands and testicles (which he implants in Sharik.)Small details introduced in the first chapters--the girl with silk stockings, Professor Philip Philipovich's excited patient, Sharik's dream of a Newfoundland ancestry--are brought back to the plot cohesively. The book even has a soundtrack, in the songs Dr Philip sings all along : Tchaikovsky's **Don Juan's Serenade** and Verdi's **Aida**. All these details are delightful rewards to the reader.Sharik's arc is firmly built, and its tragic conclusion reminded me a lot that of **Charlie Gordon** in Daniel Keyes' **Flowers for Algernon**. Bulgakov had probably in mind all the vicissitudes of the bolshevik bureaucracy by the time of his writing, but his sardonic criticism to eugenics and dogmatic indoctrination extrapolates time boundaries--it is, sadly, rather applicable to modern Sharikovs, victims of pituitary gland transplants by social media.

Mikhail Bulgakov (1891-1940) endured the difficult experience of having to live under the pressure of censorship, but has nonetheless left some interesting books that allow us to know what he thought about the process that has taking place in the newborn Soviet Russia. "Heart of a dog" is one of those books. It was written by Bulgakov in 1925, but it wasn`t published in Soviet Russia until 1987, due to the fact that it can easily be interpreted as a critical satire regarding the URSS."Heart of a dog" is the story of a stray dog, Sharik, that hasn`t led an easy life. He lives in the streets of Moscow, and eats what he can, when he can. However, one day a doctor gives him food and takes him to his home. Sharik believes that his fate has changed, but he doesn`t know that the doctor has rather strange intentions...The doctor wants to perform an experiment on Sharik, in order to learn what would happen if some human organs were transplanted to a dog. The doctor performs the operation, implanting in Sharik the pituitary gland and the testicles of a dead criminal. Against all odds, Sharik survives the operation, and from that moment on begins an extraordinary transformation, that makes him more and more human.But what kind of human is he?. Sharik can talk, and asks everybody to call him first "Mr. Sharikov", and afterwards "Polygraph Polygraphovich Sharikov". He also walks like a human being, and somehow resembles one... But can he think, or does he merely repeat what he hears, specially Marx`s teachings?. Has the doctor`s experiment ruined a perfectly good dog, making him a perfectly despicable "human" being that threatens to denounce counterrevolutionaries and chases cats?.I don`t want to tell you more about this book: you really should read it yourself. It isn`t long, but it is quite interesting. What is more important, it is open to many interpretations, and you can always find your own. Some people believe that for Bulgakov Sharik represented the failure of those who try to create new beings (exactly what was supposedly being done at that time in the URSS, with the "soviet man"). Others highlight the glimpses of Soviet society that "Heart of a dog" allows us to have, and think that the aim of the author was to give the reader at least an idea of what it was like to live in the URSS at that time...These few possible interpretations don't exclude others, so read this book and find them!!. Obviously, I highly recommend "Heart of a dog"...Belen Alcat