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A Dog’s Heart
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ONEWORLD
CLASSICS
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Contents
I ix
A Dg’ H 1
Notes 127
E M 131
Mikhail Bulgakov’s Life 133
Mikhail Bulgakov’s Works 146
Select Bibliography 161
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ix
I
A Dog’s Heart R Fk g
twist and a happy end. A kindly proessor perorms ag m g m g y
g m g ;
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mm .
Mikhail Bulgakov (1891–1940) suered at the hands o
the Soviet system. His amily, educated and religious, man-
aged to emigrate to France. As a doctor in the First WorldWar and later during the Civil War, he could not. His
lie’s vicissitudes made it dicult or him to survive as a
writer: ater perorming a tracheotomy on a child in 1917
he contracted diphtheria, which he treated with morphine
and soon ound himsel addicted. He went through three
marriages and battled constantly with Soviet censorship.Py c , mc The Master and
Margarita d 1966, d mc
o A Dog’s Heart was conscated in 1926, shortly ater it
was written, and not published until orty years later by a
Russian-language press in Germany.
H m , m y y Days of
the Turbins (9), v The White Guard (9), my g g
R Amy v R
y Bvk Rv 9. T y
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x
a dog’s heart
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T v .
Proessor Preobrazhensky, a “high priest o science”,
is a godlike character who works on the rejuvenation o the ageing rich in order to discover the secrets o lie. His
disdain or the Soviet regime and Homo socialisticus is
expressed strongly and rankly, creating problems with
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xi
introduction
the new Bolsheviks running his apartment building, a
quartet o ervent revolutionaries blinded by ideology
and stupidity.T v A Dog’s Heart m v
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Preobrazhensky – the dog can tell proletarians rom the
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standing o the canine mind. The narrative is continued
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Preobrazhensky is now a classic character, requently
quoted by Russians. Witty, acerbic, cultured and scholarly,
he is ull o theories about enjoying lie. He delivers a
wonderul lecture on how to eat and drink properly, the
main rule being: do not read Soviet newspapers beoremeals. He represents everything the revolutionary regime
wants to eradicate, just as Sharikov is the embodiment
o everything that is ruining Russia in the proessor’s
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xii
a dog’s heart
view. To him, the Soviet culture is dumbing down the
country, lling people’s heads with talk o equality and
rebellion instead o instilling the virtues o hard workand education.
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, m mm
m mm f.
Bulgakov’s tale is imbued with religious and musical
symbolism and allusions. This story o the birth o anew man takes place between late December 1924 and
early January 1925; that is, between Christmas Eve on
the Western calendar and Christmas Eve on the Russian
Orthodox calendar. The religious underpinnings appear
in the proper names: “Preobrazhensky” comes rom the
Russian “Preobrazheniye” (“Transguration”) and is a
common surname among the clergy. The Arbat area wherethe action takes place has lanes with names like Myortvy
(“Dead”) and Prechistenka (“Holy”). The proessor is an
opera-lover, and he sings the chorus “To the Sacred Banks
o the Nile” rom Aida when he is under stress. A new
production o Aida entered the repertory o the Bolshoi
Opera Theatre in 1922. The chorus is sung to strengthenthe resolve o the Egyptian army and to aid the warrior
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into his legitimate wie when he becomes a commander.
The rst encounter with the opera is in the story’s open-
ing pages, when the stray dog grumbles about “the old
biddy who sings in the moonlight – ‘Celeste Aida’” (that
is, “Heavenly Aida”, which is Radames’s love aria). Whenthe proessor is in a more cheerul mood, he likes to sing
Don Juan’s Serenade, mc cmd y Tckvky
to a poem by Alexei Tolstoy. In it, Don Juan entreats the
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xiii
introduction
lovely Nisetta to come out on her balcony so that he can
play his guitar or her.
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y g, m y.
Many o the characters are recognizable as well. The
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mill; the political ocial with a predilection or young
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Sharikov becomes a monster who turns on his creator
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it becomes clear that Sharikov is bound to turn on his
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the main villain, the upstart Sharikov. Full o remorse,
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once again and reverses the operation. Peace is restored
to the apartment, but the social experiment outside his
y.
– A W. B, 0
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A Dog’s Heart
A Monstrous Story
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C
A
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a dog’s heart
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it. The worst part is this: once he’d poured the boiling
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guy with a stick can nish me o. And then the street-cleaners with their badges will grab me by my legs and
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chapter 1
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my y gy, I’m d , d
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a dog’s heart
I y , I . B I y my v m. T’
my gm kg, , ’ y
q . A ’ m m, about me? Where can I go? Beaten, scalded, spat upon,
I g? O-!
“H, y. Sk, m , Sk! Wy y -
g, g? E? D m y?… O!”
The blizzard wind, that witch, rattled the gates and
mk yg y m. I her skirt to her knees, revealing creamy stockings and a
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The dog remained near the alley, suering the pain o
his mutilated side, pressed himsel against the cold wall,
held his breath and decided that he would never leave
this spot again, that he would die right there. Despairoverwhelmed him. He elt such bitterness and pain, such
loneliness and ear, that tiny canine tears bubbled rom his
eyes and dried on the spot. His ur on the wounded side
was all in shredded, rozen clumps, revealing vicious red
burns. How stupid, nasty and cruel were cooks. She called
him “Sharik”…* What the hell kind o “Sharik” was he!
Sharik was a fuball, a round, well-ed, dumb, oatmeal-eating son o pedigree parents, and he was a shaggy, bony
and scruy stray, a homeless dog. But thanks or the kind
thought.
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chapter 1
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doesn’t steal. He won’t kick you, but he’s not araid o y, ’ ’ v gy. H g-
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Now he’s right there… What’s he looking or? Oh-oh…What could he want to buy in that crummy little store,
aren’t the ancy stores on Okhotny Ryad* enough? What
is it?! Sausage. Mister, i you saw how they made that
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a dog’s heart
sausage you wouldn’t go anywhere near the store. Give
it to me!
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zzd dd k f v m, g
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rames around his eyes glinting, and took a long white
package out o his right pocket. Without taking o his
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chapter 1
Sk g. I’v z. C m v y
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Myortvy Lane, trying to clear the path, he scared some
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a dog’s heart
have to share the processed meat. He snarled and bared
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processing centre or all the reeloaders hanging around
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Phweet!
This way? With pleas— oh, no, sorry. There’s a door-man. There’s nothing worse than a doorman. Much more
dangerous than a street-cleaner. An absolutely hateul
breed. More disgusting than cats. A fayer in gold braid.
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gd-dd c. A g d . T’respect, gentlemen, real respect. Well, and I’m with him
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chapter 1
m m y . H my m y
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12
C
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here’s absolutel no reason d
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chapter 2
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a dog’s heart
Bd y g xcd d y g cm
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Sk vy, ggg.A great number o objects cluttered the rich entrance.
The foor-length mirror that instantly refected the second
bedraggled and scruy Sharik, the scary antlers up high,
the endless ur coats and rubber boots and the opal tulip
with electricity on the ceiling – all stuck in his head
immediately.
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y y.
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you!… Hmmm… Ah! It’s a burn. What bastard scalded
y? E? S , y!”
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m m my !”