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3.91 AVERAGE
3.91 AVERAGE
Oh god, I hated this book. I understand that certain characters are meant to represent events and ideas of people in Russia/the Soviet Union, but I really just did not like the story. Animal Farm by George Orwell does a similar idea of representing the Russian Revolution and the rise to power of Lenin and the Bolsheviks but it’s done really well and it’s a fantastic read. This book, on the other hand, is terrible. The only good thing I have to say is that it was very short so I didn’t have to suffer through it for long...
dark
funny
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
charming- I had fun with this but i don't see myself revisiting. aggie rec
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Medical content
Moderate: Animal death, Blood, Sexual harassment
Minor: Confinement, Fire/Fire injury
funny
reflective
dark
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
dark
funny
lighthearted
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
“There is absolutely no necessity to learn how to read; meat smells a mile off, anyway […] Out of the forty thousand or so Moscow dogs, only a total idiot won’t know how to read the word ‘sausage.’”
‘Heart of a Dog’ is the second novel I’ve read by Mikhail Bulgakov. And like ‘The Master and Margarita,’ it did not disappoint. It follows the story of a stray dog who gets his pituitary gland and testes transplanted with a criminal’s by Moscow scientist Dr. Philip Philippovich Preobrazhensky. Over the course of the story, the dog becomes more and more human until he finally becomes a man named Polygraph Polygraphovich Sharikov. The story is extremely funny and dark at times. It is definitely a satire of the bourgeoisie and how classes are treated differently. At one point Sharikov finds employment disposing of a dog’s worst enemy, and starts expounding Engels.
Trigger warning though, there is a scene involving attempted sexual assault, but it is very short.
But please read the book it’s very funny.
On the surface it's like a comedy Frankenstein tale, a doctor creates a humanoid and instantly regrets it, only in this tale they live together and rather than the monster becoming shy and erudite, Sharikov instead is rude and raucous.
It's a lot of fun and very quick and easy to read. I don't know enough about Bulgakov or the Russian revolution to pass much judgement on the allegorical and social commentary side of it, but I did feel it was coming from a place of snobbery, but then, as with a lot of good writing it isn't didactic and so I felt it was open to multiple interpretations and my reading held the professor and doctor as impatient hypocrites. The review printed on the back of the edition I read described it as "boisterous nonsense" which it is hard to disagree with. A good read, a good insight. Glad I read it and may try his masterpiece, Master and Margherita in the future.
It's a lot of fun and very quick and easy to read. I don't know enough about Bulgakov or the Russian revolution to pass much judgement on the allegorical and social commentary side of it, but I did feel it was coming from a place of snobbery, but then, as with a lot of good writing it isn't didactic and so I felt it was open to multiple interpretations and my reading held the professor and doctor as impatient hypocrites. The review printed on the back of the edition I read described it as "boisterous nonsense" which it is hard to disagree with. A good read, a good insight. Glad I read it and may try his masterpiece, Master and Margherita in the future.
Yup, a Russian novella about a scientist giving a dog human testicles and accidentally making a Bolshevik is absolutely my brand! It's everything Frankenstein ought to have been -- weird, funny, dark, and with a talking dog!
Once it gets going, it never stops. The scientist complains that any peasant can give birth to a genius, and yet he's instead made "Furballov." Animal Farm is about how a good idea went sour -- Bulgakov's Filipp Filippovich started with a bad idea and it becomes a bonafide disaster. The poor doctor ends up with a Russian, more obnoxious ALF for a roommate, who matter-of-factly coos about his new job killing cats.
No, there was no chance it'd be as magical as Bulgakov's The Master and Margerita, but this book is delightfully warped. For a little old book, it's got some evergreen juices pumping up its pages. Any decade can find its annoying bureaucrat Shwonder, cosmopolitan intellectual Filipp, or...a talking dog, that was perfectly fine before it started to talk.
Once it gets going, it never stops. The scientist complains that any peasant can give birth to a genius, and yet he's instead made "Furballov." Animal Farm is about how a good idea went sour -- Bulgakov's Filipp Filippovich started with a bad idea and it becomes a bonafide disaster. The poor doctor ends up with a Russian, more obnoxious ALF for a roommate, who matter-of-factly coos about his new job killing cats.
No, there was no chance it'd be as magical as Bulgakov's The Master and Margerita, but this book is delightfully warped. For a little old book, it's got some evergreen juices pumping up its pages. Any decade can find its annoying bureaucrat Shwonder, cosmopolitan intellectual Filipp, or...a talking dog, that was perfectly fine before it started to talk.
dark
funny
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
An entertaining and quick read, it does well as a follow-up to "Master and Margarita" despite being written first. After reading the first few chapters it became very obvious to me that Bulgakov was a fan of HG Wells. There are references to both The Time Machine and The Island of Doctor Moreau, especially of the latter since this novella deals with animal-human hybrid experiments (not really a spoiler because it already tells you that in the summary of the book). Although I feel like it is a little too short and that conclusions came a little too quickly, it was still fun to read about Sharik the dog becoming Sharikov the human.
dark
funny
fast-paced