Mikhail Afanasevich Bulgakov, Sobach'e serdtse

Roger Cockrell (University of Exeter)
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Mikhail Bulgakov’s

Sobach'e serdtse

(

The Heart of a Dog

), written in early 1925 but not published in Soviet Russia until 1987, shows the author honing the satirical powers and sharpness of characterization that were to become such a feature of his novel

Master i Margarita

(

The Master and Margarita

), on which he was to begin work at the end of the 1920s. The story centres on a scientific experiment that goes disastrously wrong. A professor of medicine who runs a Moscow clinic using “scientific methods” to rejuvenate patients, gives a home to a stray dog, Sharik, whose trust he wins over by a kindly attitude and the provision of food. On the death of one of his patients, the professor, Filipp Filippovich Preobrazhensky (from the Russian for “transfiguration”), subjects Sharik to…

1067 words

Citation: Cockrell, Roger. "Sobach'e serdtse". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 18 July 2012 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=22986, accessed 04 December 2024.]

22986 Sobach'e serdtse 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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