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Summary: Bulgakov's Soviet Satire
Review: Bulgakov was a true Russian genius, but one who lacked the "politically correct" postures of other less talented soviet hacks. As a result, his works were nearly unknown in his lifetime. But gradually, his books have been published and translated and with each book his stature grows. Bulgakov may stand with Myakovsky, Mandelstam, Akmatova, Shostakovitch and Malevich as the greatest artistic minds to come from the Soviet Union.
The Heart of a Dog is a great book, perhaps not as multifaceted as Bulgakov's masterpiece, Master and Margarita, but brilliant nonetheless. The book seems perhaps a combination of Gogol's The Nose, and Kafka's Metamorphosis. Sharik - a perfectly normal stray dog is adopted by a famous scientist who transplants the testes and pituitary gland of criminal. Sharik gradually develops into a lewd, drunken cur of a man who is fabulously successful in the new Soviet society.
As Joanna Daneman says in a previous review, Bulgakov's theatrical background is highly visible in this work. Each chapter is crafted like a distinct scene...the comedy is often extremely broad. Sharik is as pointed and broad a caricature of The New Soviet Man...as seen from it's dark underbelly. Many of the scenes are almost broad slapstick. And yet, the humor, while broad, is also quite bitter. It is obvious that Bulgakov saw the deterioration of his society and was deeply disturbed by it.
Bulgakov's disdain of the Proletariat is a bit disturbing to an American. After all, we are the country of the common man. And there is a hidden "snobbery" in the work, which can be a bit hard to take. But so much of the book is dead on...and it is extremely funny. Heart of a Dog is an enjoyable and important addition to the growing Bulgakov oeuvre.
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Summary: a quick and funny read
Review: Bulgakov's "Heart of a Dog" is a fantastic introduction to his writing in general. I read this after "The Master and Margarita" and found it to be a bit less polished, but on the whole a very enjoyable book! Many lessons for modern science. Perhaps high school English teachers should add this book to their curriculum, as it has not lost any of its edge over the intervening 60 years.
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Summary: Throw the Dogma a Bone
Review: Bulgakov's Heart of a Dog deserves to be ranked among the greatest works of satirical writing in the 20th century. Unpublished for over 50 years, due to its harsh criticism of Stalinist Russia, this book is as relevant now as it was in 1925. Although some see in it a single-minded attack of the Socialist mindset, I believe that this view unfairly limits Bulgakov's work to a myopic ideological position. Instead, I believe that the book, through the lampooning of Sharik--a starving stray dog wandering the streets of Moscow, into a petty Marxist bureaucrat by the would be Dr Frankenstien, Philip Philippovich--illustrates the foolishness of blind adherence to any type of dogmatic belief system, rather that be Marxist, Capitalist or religious.If not, the comparison to Pavlov could not hold water because the entire point of conditioning a dog to react in a certain way to a given stimulus, was in the arbitrary nature of the stimulus involved. Thus, while explicitly representing a condemnation of the Stalinist regime, regardless of the terrible realities, Heart of a Dog is an implicit critique of the herd mentality, wherever it may be found. As it is, the mis-adventures of Sharik, as both unwanted dog and "common" man, represents a biting commentary of modernity-a time most rapt by dreams of a Utopian society born from technological achievement.
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Summary: Dr. Frankenstein meets Dr. Doolittle...
Review: Bulgakov's main character in this hilarious little novel is named Dr. Phillip Phillipovich, a "bourgeois" Soviet doctor/scientist in 1925 Moscow. The story begins from the point of view of a dying stray mutt, whom the seemingly benevolent doctor saves, pampers and feeds gourmet foods that are not even available to the majority of the proletariat "masses." Eventually, the doctor attempts to implant a human pituitary gland into the brain of the dog. Ironically, this perfectly nice dog "devolves," into a reckless, selfish, horrid human being. Of course, the neighboring proletariat neighbors feed the dog/man communist literature such as Engels, and the doctor promptly throws these books into the fire! The dog/man, who has now named himself Polygraph Polygraphovich, "informs" on the doctor -- that he has dared to throw Engels in the fire, and that he has an eight room flat when entire families live in one room flats. The doctor's connections to Soviet officials save him from even a slap on
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Summary: Decade of a Dying Nation
Review: Bulgakov's novel is a farce based on the Soviet 'experiment' with its citizens. Rather than read the populous and create a socialist union that would fit early twentieth century Russia, the Bolsheviks attempted to create a society of conscientious political workers. But the lack of education and the inherent crudeness of the raw material that was the 'masses' made the experiment's failure inevitable. Polygraph Polygraphovich, born a dog, is surgically transformed into the quintessential soviet man--opportunistic and petty. In reading Heart of a Dog, one cannot help but feel the unfulfilled potential of the Russian Revolution. Bulgakov's masterful subtleties elucidate the Soviet thirties as a decade of a dying nation, when Stalinist theory negated the 1917 Revolution
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Summary: Dog of a Man
Review: Bulgakov's poignant satire of the Soviet man, made him a pariah in official literary circles of the Soviet Union. Sharikov, who is nothing but a cur becomes a human being who presumes to take a job on the purge committee in charge of getting rid of the udesirable social element, in this case, the cats. This brave allegory is one of Bulgakov's best works. The author came from a long line of Russian priests, was trained as a doctor, and gave up medicine to write full-time. He chose not to leave Russia after the Bolshevik revolution of 1917, and led a rather miserable existence in Russia until his death in 1941. At least he avoided Stalin's purges. In this book, and in most others, Bulgakov shows his "theological heritage" by being very concerned with values, moral issues, and the like. The new man, whose advent was so loudly heralded by communists turned out to be a loutish, arrogant, semi-educated creature. This new man, with his old habits and simplistic views of life, assumes power and presumes to know how everybody should live. This is a well-executed allegory about one of the great tragedies of human history, when intellectual arrogance presumed to postulate the "new man" as false hope, as a promise of communist paradise on Earth.
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Summary: Would have liked France
Review: Bulgakov's quibble with the Soviet authorities seems not to be that they have come to realise that the lower classes are ghastly, but that they ever supposed they could be anything else. I'm sure the dicky-bowed, monacled MB would have been happier as a Parisian boulavadier, aristo-emigre. Funny, decadent, thoroughly counter-revolutionary - its scarcely surprising he was supressed during his lifetime.
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Summary: Just a few clarifying points
Review: From a native Russian speaker, just a few remarks which hopefully will help you understand the book better: 1. Professor Preobrazhensky is modeled on professor Pavlov (of the salivating dogs fame), who himself is well known for a few remarks such as "for the kind of experiment the Communists are conducting on Russia I wouldn't sacrifice even a frog" and "a revolution is not an excuse for being 20 minutes late for work" (to a lab assistant who got caught in street shooting). 2. The book lashes out - VIOLENTLY - at working class, at lumpenproletariat (and in Soviet Russia these two terms were dangerously close for much of the 20th century). Please remember that when you're reading about Sharikov - the caricature of a heavily-drinking, crude Soviet worker (if you've ever spent time in small industrial towns in Russia, you'll be able to understand this book easily) 3. Sharik is a cliche nickname for dogs in Russia (something like Spot). Sharikov is akin to a dog taking the last name Spotter for himself. 4. Polygraph Polygraphovich sounds as ridiculous in English as it does in Russian :) Some of my anglophone friends had problems with this 1925 book. Just trying to be helpful...
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Summary: Heart of a Russian
Review: Grab onto this novel with two fists, and hold on tight. "Heart of a Dog" is a biting satire, at once mocking Russian medicine, the next the Bolshevik party. This novel is a perfect primer into the mind of Bulgakov, making his masterpeice, "Master and Margarita," all the better. If you have any interest in satire, or absurd humor, "Heart of a Dog," is a gem.
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Summary: Great thoughtful fun
Review: Heart of a Dog is a book worth returning to. While is it specifically a satire on the USSR under communism, it also is a satire on human nature. Therefore, the book remains a gem after the failure of communism and the breakup of the USSR. The satire is built on an interplay of the distinctions (if any) between man and dog - and the dangers of being so self-confident as to blur that line. While satire often does not bear rereading, this book is well-structured and well-written - a favorite to return to.
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