Heart of a Dog
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| Heart of a Dog | |
 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 |
Heart of a Dog (Russian: Собачье сердце, Sobač'e serdce) is a biting satire of the New Soviet man, written in 1925. It is "one of novelist Mikhail Bulgakov's most beloved stories" featuring a stray dog "named Sharik who takes human form as a slovenly proletarian."[1] It also features Professor Filip Filippovich Preobrazhensky who implants a human pituitary gland and testicles into Sharik. Sharik proceeds to become more and more human as time passes, picks for himself the name Poligraf Poligrafovich 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.
The story has become a cultural phenomenon in Russia, known and discussed "from schoolchildren to politicians." [2] The story has been filmed in both Russian and Italian-language versions, made into an English-language play and an opera, and been the cause of critical argument.[3]
[edit] 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 "Poligraf Poligrafovich" 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 calendar," with Poligraf'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 [4].
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. More recently, it has been reprinted by Grove Press in paperback; ISBN 0-8021-5059-4.
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[5] or as a wry comment on the scientists' attempts to interfere with nature. [6] 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).
A comic opera, The Murder of Comrade Sharik by William Bergsma (1973), is based on the plot of the story.
The story was filmed in Italian in 1976 as "Cuore di cane" and starred Max Von Sydow as Preobrazhensky.[7]
A very popular 1988 Soviet movie, Sobachye Serdtse, was made (in sepia) by Vladimir Bortko.[8] Major sequences in the movie were famously shot from an unusually low dog's point of view.
[edit] References
- ^ Schoofs, Mark. "In Moscow's Metro, a Stray Dog's Life Is Pretty Cushy, and Zoologists Notice", The Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones, May 20, 2008, pp. A1. Retrieved on 2008-05-20.
- ^ Serebriakov, Alexandr. Собачье сердце как зеркало русской контрреволюции. Scepsis.ru. Retrieved on 2008-05-20.
- ^ Yankova, Tatiana. Автор и герой в «Собачьем сердце». Scepsis.ru. Retrieved on 2008-05-20.
- ^ Tatiana Bateneva. In the quest for longevity humans are ready to become relatives with any animals] (Russian)
- ^ New York Times review Stage: Heart of a Dog, 1988-02-01.
- ^ Bulgakov's biography at SovLit.com
- ^ Cuore di cane Internet Movie Database
- ^ Sobachye Serdtse Internet Movie Database
