Mikhail Bulgakov

WITH A NEW INTRODUCTION BY ANDREY KURKOV A rich, successful Moscow professor befriends a stray dog and attempts a scientific first by transplanting into it the testicles and pituitary gland of a recently deceased man. A distinctly worryingly human animal is now on the loose, and the professor's hitherto respectable life becomes a nightmare beyond endurance. An absurd and superbly comic story, this classic novel can also be read as a fierce parable of the Russian Revolution.

The Heart of a Dog

Short but smart and funny and entertaining, while also remaining layered and poignant. I feel like we are starting to lose this a little bit in the current publishing environment which is very profit driven - which may be an unfair comparison since Bulgakov had no choice but to not be so.

There is a lot in the novella that prompts contemplation and consideration. It is an examination of the remnants of a revolution but it is also an examination of the old regime clinging onto the last remnants of itself. It cannot be read as condemnation of one or the other the same way it cannot be read as glorification of one or the other. It is a grotesque situation that somehow feels like an honest eyes-wide-open reflection of society.

It is strange because it still feels so relevant today. A clash of the ideas of the masses and the ideas of the intelligentsia and how taking either to an extreme puts them at odds. And no one would like to admit they are wrong. I can tell I will be thinking about it for a long time.

Short but smart and funny and entertaining, while also remaining layered and poignant. I feel like we are starting to lose this a little bit in the current publishing environment which is very profit driven - which may be an unfair comparison since Bulgakov had no choice but to not be so.

There is a lot in the novella that prompts contemplation and consideration. It is an examination of the remnants of a revolution but it is also an examination of the old regime clinging onto the last remnants of itself. It cannot be read as condemnation of one or the other the same way it cannot be read as glorification of one or the other. It is a grotesque situation that somehow feels like an honest eyes-wide-open reflection of society.

It is strange because it still feels so relevant today. A clash of the ideas of the masses and the ideas of the intelligentsia and how taking either to an extreme puts them at odds. And no one would like to admit they are wrong. I can tell I will be thinking about it for a long time.

The Heart of a Dog

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