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…
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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.]