Heart of a Dog is very short. Dog's heart. Main characters of the story

The Heart of a Dog is a story by Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov, written in 1925.

Chapter 1

Winter Moscow in the mid-20s. It's December, frosty and snowy. In the outskirts of a catering canteen, a cook poured boiling water on a homeless dog, Sharik, and now he cannot escape starvation.

Howling and trying to lick his scalded side, Sharik hid in the gateway. Suddenly, a respectable, well-dressed gentleman came out of a nearby store that smelled of delicious food.

Looking around, he noticed a dog in the gateway, unwrapped the package, which contained Krakow sausage and, lo and behold, threw a piece to the unfortunate dog. The entire piece was instantly swallowed.

The wonderful stranger beckoned the dog to follow him and Sharik, without hesitation, ran after his benefactor. They walked along Prechistenka and turned into Obukhov Lane. There the dog received another piece of sausage.

A decent gentleman called the dog into the front entrance of a rich house and, past the doorman, the worst enemy of all stray dogs, they began to climb the marble steps of an elegant staircase. In front of the apartment with a shiny sign “Professor F.F. Preobrazhensky,” the benefactor took out a key, opened the door, and they found themselves in the hallway of a clean apartment that smelled of stable income.

Chapter 2

A servant, a young girl Zina, came out into the hallway. She helped the owner, whom she named Philip Philipovich, undress, and he ordered her to take the dog to the examination room. Finding himself in a room full of characteristic hospital smells, Sharik tried to escape. But a second man, much younger, appeared in the room and thrust something disgustingly odorous under the dog’s nose, causing him to fall into oblivion. Before that, he still managed to grab the young man’s leg.

When he woke up, he felt that the pain in his side had disappeared, probably from the bandage that had been applied. The dog was in a half-asleep, grateful state and, feeling guilty for his inappropriate behavior, dragged Philip Philipovich into the office. The professor was receiving patients and Sharik, who was difficult to embarrass, was shocked by the behavior of elderly men and women who had to take off their underwear before the examination.

They asked the professor to help them restore the ability to satisfy sexual desires, and the doctor promised to help them without fail. Thinking that this was not a good apartment, but how lucky he was that he ended up here, Sharik fell into a deep sleep. He woke up from a loud invasion of the apartment by visitors of clearly proletarian origin. This delegation was headed by Shvonder, and even Sharik understood that he was a Jew.

Shvonder announced to the professor that they were representatives of the building management and wanted to take away his excess living space. In response to the professor’s explanation that he uses most of the apartment for medical work, Shvonder said that Preobrazhensky is obliged to give two rooms to those in need.

The angry professor called some high-ranking official and announced that he was canceling his operation, ending his practice and going abroad because he could not work in such conditions. Shvonder was invited to the telephone and ordered to leave Professor Preobrazhensky alone. The humiliated delegation retreated empty-handed.

Chapter 3

In the evening, Philip Philipovich and the assistant named Bormental, who was bitten by Sharik, dined on excellent food at an exquisitely set table. Sharik, who was in the dining room, was given pieces of salmon and roast beef, and for the first time in his life he ate to his fullest. Dinner was followed by a conversation between the teacher and his student.

The professor complained that since a “housing association” appeared in the house, then normal life is over. Instead of working, the proletariat is busy studying philosophical literature and singing revolutionary hymns. Meanwhile, all troubles are blamed on mythical devastation, which is rather in the heads and in the reluctance To Bormenthal’s remark that his words can be regarded as “counter-revolution”, and the Bolsheviks now are not at all the same as in 1918, the professor replied that for him personally this word is as incomprehensible as devastation.

Sharik listened to the conversation with interest and thought that Philip Philipovich could earn good money at rallies, although, apparently, he already had it. The professor decided that he would go to Bolshoi to see “Aida,” and the well-fed dog only dreamed that this blissful state would not end and he would not end up on the street.

Chapter 4

A few days of a well-fed life turned a stray dog into a well-groomed dog, which was taken out for a walk in a collar. Sharik was happy. Everything changed when Bormenthal called him that he had what the professor needed. After his arrival, the dog was taken to the examination room, euthanized, and the doctors performed a complex operation. His pituitary gland and seminal glands were replaced with the human organs of the deceased. In this way, Preobrazhensky intended to speed up the rejuvenation process.

Chapter 5

Contrary to the professor’s predictions, Sharik was quickly recovering. Along with recovery, there was also a dramatic change in appearance. He ate a lot and began to grow in size. Then his fur began to fall out. When he reached the average height and weight of a human, he began to stand on his hind legs and tried to pronounce words. All of them were abusive or uncensored.

Since Sharik now looked more like a man than a dog, they began to sit him at the table and teach him good manners. To these attempts he responded briefly, “Get off, you nit.” The professor received not rejuvenation, but humanization. The dog continued the life of the drunkard, gambler and thief Klim Chugunkin. The most incredible rumors spread throughout Moscow.

Chapter 6

Soon, a human being with an unpleasant appearance and disgusting habits settled in the prosperous apartment of Professor Preobrazhensky. The professor and Bormenthal tried to stop the disgusting actions of a human being with a dog's heart - not to spit on the floor and not to throw himself at cats, to use the urinal and not to pester the servants and cook with voluptuous offers.

But the most unpleasant thing was that the operated dog became friends with the “tenants” and, at Shvonder’s instigation, began to demand that human documents be issued for him. He even chose his future name - Polygraph Poligrafovich Sharikov and classified himself as a labor element. In addition to documents, he began to apply for living space. Preobrazhensky and Bormenthal were horrified, but did not see a way out of this situation.

Chapter 7

During the next dinner, when Bormental tried to make another remark about Sharikov’s manners, it turned out that he had learned to read and was now studying Engels’ correspondence with Kautsky. Struck by this news, the professor ordered Zina to burn the harmful little book. The polygraph stated that this book was not his, but Shvonder’s, and he did not agree with the authors. In his opinion, everything should be taken and divided.

Bormenthal took Sharikov to the circus, having previously made sure that cats would not participate in the program, thereby giving Preobrazhensky time to come to his senses.

Chapter 8

Having received the human documents, Sharikov became completely insolent and began to bring drinking buddies into the house, declaring that he had the right to a living space of sixteen square arshins. Preobrazhensky became furious and announced that in this case he would refuse to feed him. This moderated Sharikov a little, but soon he stole money from the office and disappeared for several days.

Chapter 9

He returned wearing a leather jacket and driving a truck. It smelled terribly obscene. Sharikov, with great aplomb, confirmed by an official document, stated that he got a job and is now the head of the department for cleaning up stray animals. And the nasty smell is because they crushed cats, from which they would later sew “polta” for the proletarians.

Soon he brought with him a young typist and announced that he would live with her. The professor explained to the young woman who Sharikov was and she burst into tears and left. A few days later, one of Preobrazhensky’s patients warned him that Sharikov and Shvonder had filed a denunciation against the doctor, accusing him of counter-revolution.

In the evening, Bormenthal demanded that Sharikov, who had returned, leave the professor’s apartment, and he responded by reaching into his pocket for a pistol. Bormental threw him onto the couch, and Philip Philipovich came to his aid...

Epilogue

Ten days passed and police officers and an investigator showed up at Preobrazhensky’s apartment. They were going to investigate Shvonder's statement that the head. cleaning subdivision Sharikov was killed. The professor explained to them that Sharikov was not a person, but a victim of a failed medical experiment. He was never human and is now returning to his dog form.

And indeed, the criminal police saw strange dog with a fresh scar on his forehead. His body was hairy only in certain places. The investigator stated that he had evidence that Sharikov could speak. As if to confirm this, the strange dog loudly uttered sounds reminiscent of barking, putting the investigator into a stupor. The police left. The professor returned to his previous way of life, and the dog Sharik lay on the carpet and was glad of his well-fed life in the apartment of Professor Preobrazhensky.

Bulgakov wrote the story “Heart of a Dog” in 1925. At this time, ideas of improving the human race with the help of advanced scientific achievements were very popular. Bulgakov's hero, the world-famous professor Preobrazhensky, in an attempt to unravel the secret of eternal youth, accidentally makes a discovery that allows him to surgically transform an animal into a human. However, an experiment to transplant a human pituitary gland into a dog gives a completely unexpected result.

To get acquainted with the most important details of the work, we suggest reading summary Bulgakov's story “The Heart of a Dog” chapter by chapter online on our website.

Main characters

Ball- a stray dog. To some extent a philosopher, not stupid in everyday life, observant and even learned to read signs.

Polygraph Poligrafovich Sharikov– A ball after an operation to implant a human pituitary gland into the brain, taken from the drunkard and rowdy Klim Chugunkin, who died in a tavern fight.

Professor Philip Preobrazhensky- a medical genius, an elderly intellectual of the old school, extremely dissatisfied with the offensive new era and who hates her hero, a proletarian, for his lack of education and unfounded ambitions.

Ivan Arnoldovich Bormental- a young doctor, a student of Preobrazhensky, who deifies his teacher and shares his beliefs.

Shvonder- Chairman of the house committee at Preobrazhensky’s place of residence, bearer and disseminator of the communist ideas so disliked by the professor. He is trying to educate Sharikov in the spirit of these ideas.

Other characters

Zina- Preobrazhensky’s maid, a young impressionable girl. Combines housework duties with nursing duties.

Daria Petrovna- Preobrazhensky's cook, a middle-aged woman.

Young lady typist- Sharikov’s subordinate and failed wife.

Chapter first

The stray dog Sharik freezes to death in a Moscow gateway. Suffering from pain in his side, on which the evil cook splashed boiling water, he ironically and philosophically describes his unhappy life, Moscow life and types of people, of which, in his opinion, the most vile are janitors and doormen. A certain gentleman in a fur coat appears in the dog’s field of vision and feeds him cheap sausage. Sharik faithfully follows him, along the way wondering who his benefactor is, since even the doorman in a rich house, the terror of stray dogs, talks to him obsequiously.

From a conversation with the doorman, the gentleman in a fur coat learns that “tenants have been moved into the third apartment,” and he perceives the news with horror, although his personal living space will not be affected by the upcoming “densification.”

Chapter two

Brought to a rich, warm apartment, Sharik, who decided to make a scandal out of fear, is euthanized with chloroform and treated. After this, the dog, no longer bothered by his side, watches with curiosity as he sees patients. There is an elderly womanizer and an elderly rich lady in love with a handsome young gambler. And everyone wants one thing - rejuvenation. Preobrazhensky is ready to help them - for good money.
In the evening, the professor is visited by members of the house committee, led by Shvonder - they want Preobrazhensky to give away two of his seven rooms in order to “compact”. The professor calls one of his influential patients with a complaint about the arbitrariness and invites him, if so, to undergo surgery with Shvonder, and he himself will leave for Sochi. As they leave, members of the house committee accuse Preobrazhensky of hating the proletariat.

Chapter Three

Over lunch, Preobrazhensky rants about food culture and the proletariat, recommending not reading Soviet newspapers before lunch to avoid digestive problems. He is sincerely perplexed and indignant at how it is possible to stand up for the rights of workers all over the world and steal galoshes at the same time. Hearing a meeting of fellow tenants behind the wall singing revolutionary songs, the professor comes to the conclusion: “If, instead of operating every evening, I start singing in chorus in my apartment, I will be in ruins. If, entering the restroom, I start, excuse the expression, urinating past the toilet and Zina and Daria Petrovna do the same, devastation will begin in the restroom. Consequently, the devastation is not in the closets, but in the heads. This means that when these baritones shout “beat the destruction!” - I am laughing. I swear to you, I find it funny! This means that each of them must hit himself in the back of the head! .

There is also talk about Sharik’s future, and the intrigue has not yet been revealed, but the pathologists familiar to Bormental promised to immediately inform him about the appearance of a “suitable corpse”, and for now the dog will be observed.

They buy Sharik a status collar, he eats deliciously, and his side is finally healing. The dog is playing pranks, but when the indignant Zina offers to tear him out, the professor strictly forbids this: “You can’t tear anyone up, you can only influence a person and an animal through suggestion.”

Only Sharik took root in the apartment - suddenly after phone call Running around begins, the professor demands lunch earlier. Sharik, deprived of food, is locked in the bathroom, after which he is dragged into the examination room and given anesthesia.

Chapter Four

Preobrazhensky and Bormental operate on Sharik. He is implanted with testes and a pituitary gland taken from a fresh human corpse. This should, according to doctors, open new horizons in their research into the mechanism of rejuvenation.

The professor, not without sadness, assumes that the dog will definitely not survive after such an operation, just like those animals that came before him.

Chapter Five

Dr. Bormental's diary is a history of Sharik's illness, which describes the changes occurring in the dog that was operated on and still survived. His hair falls out, the shape of his skull changes, his barking becomes like a human voice, and his bones grow quickly. He utters strange words - it turns out that street dog I learned to read signs, but I read some from the end. The young doctor makes an enthusiastic conclusion - changing the pituitary gland does not give rejuvenation, but complete humanization - and emotionally calls his teacher a genius. However, the professor himself gloomily sits over the medical history of the man whose pituitary gland was transplanted to Sharik.

Chapter Six

Doctors are trying to nurture their creation, instill the necessary skills, and educate. Sharik's taste in clothes, his speech and habits unnerve the intelligent Preobrazhensky. There are posters hanging around the apartment prohibiting swearing, spitting, throwing cigarette butts, and gnawing seeds. Sharik himself has a passive-aggressive attitude towards education: “They grabbed the animal, slashed its head with a knife, and now they abhor it.” After talking with the house committee, the former dog confidently uses clerical terms and demands to issue him an identity card. He chooses the name “Poligraf Poligrafovich” for himself, and takes the “hereditary” surname - Sharikov.

The professor expresses a desire to buy any room in the house and evict Poligraf Poligrafovich there, but Shvonder gloatingly refuses him, recalling their ideological conflict. Soon a communal disaster occurs in the professor's apartment: Sharikov chased the cat and caused a flood in the bathroom.

Chapter Seven

Sharikov drinks vodka at dinner, like an experienced alcoholic. Looking at this, the professor sighs incomprehensibly: “Nothing can be done - Klim.” In the evening, Sharikov wants to go to the circus, but when Preobrazhensky offers him a more cultural entertainment - the theater, he refuses, because this is “one counter-revolution.” The professor is going to give Sharikov something to read, at least Robinson, but he is already reading the correspondence between Engels and Kautsky, given to him by Shvonder. True, he manages to understand little - except perhaps “take everything and divide it.” Hearing this, the professor invites him to “share” the lost profit from the fact that on the day of the flood the appointment of patients was disrupted - to pay 130 rubles “for the faucet and for the cat,” and orders Zina to burn the book.

Having sent Sharikov, accompanied by Bormental, to the circus, Preobrazhensky looks for a long time at the preserved pituitary gland of the dog Sharik and says: “By God, I think I’ll make up my mind.”

Chapter Eight

A new scandal - Sharikov, waving documents, claims living space in the professor’s apartment. He promises to shoot Shvonder and, in exchange for eviction, threatens Polygraph with deprivation of food. Sharikov quiets down, but not for long - he stole two ducats in the professor’s office, and tried to blame the theft on Zina, got drunk and brought drinking buddies into the house, after whose expulsion Preobrazhensky lost his malachite ashtray, beaver hat and favorite cane.

Over cognac, Bormental confesses his love and respect to Preobrazhensky and offers to personally feed Sharikov arsenic. The professor objects - he, a world-famous scientist, will be able to avoid responsibility for murder, but the young doctor is unlikely. He sadly admits his scientific mistake: “I sat for five years, picking out appendages from brains... And now, the question arises - why? So that one day sweetest dog turn into such scum that your hair stands on end. […] Two criminal records, alcoholism, “divide everything,” a hat and two ducats are missing, a boor and a pig... In a word, the pituitary gland is a closed chamber that defines a given human person. Given!” Meanwhile, the pituitary gland for Sharikov was taken from a certain Klim Chugunkin, a repeat offender, alcoholic and rowdy, who played the balalaika in taverns and was stabbed to death in a drunken brawl. Doctors gloomily imagine what kind of nightmare, given such “heredity,” Sharikov could get out of under the influence of Shvonder.

At night, Daria Petrovna kicks the drunken Polygraph out of the kitchen, Bormenthal promises to make a scandal with him in the morning, but Sharikov disappears, and upon returning, he reports that he has got a job - the head of the department for clearing Moscow of stray animals.

A young lady typist appears in the apartment, whom Sharikov introduces as his bride. They open her eyes to Polygraph’s lies - he is not the commander of the Red Army at all and was not wounded at all in battles with the whites, as he claimed in a conversation with the girl. Sharikov, exposed, threatens the typist with layoffs; Bormental takes the girl under protection and promises to shoot Sharikov.

Chapter Nine

His former patient, an influential man in military uniform. From his story, Preobrazhensky learns that Sharikov wrote a denunciation against him and Bormental - they allegedly made death threats against Poligraf and Shvonder, made counter-revolutionary speeches, illegally stored weapons, etc. After this, Sharikov is categorically asked to get out of the apartment, but he first becomes stubborn, then becomes impudent, and in the end even pulls out a gun. The doctors subdue him, disarm him and sedate him with chloroform, after which a ban on anyone entering or leaving the apartment sounds and some activity begins in the examination room.

Chapter Ten (Epilogue)

The police come to the professor’s apartment on a tip from Shvonder. They have a search warrant and, based on the results, an arrest on charges of murdering Sharikov.

However, Preobrazhensky is calm - he says that his laboratory creature suddenly and inexplicably degraded from a human back into a dog, and shows the police and the investigator a strange creature in which the features of Poligraf Poligrafovich are still recognizable.

The dog Sharik, who had his canine pituitary gland returned through a second operation, remains to live and blissfully live in the professor’s apartment, never understanding why he was “slashed all over his head.”

Conclusion

In the story “The Heart of a Dog,” Bulgakov, in addition to the philosophical motive of punishment for interfering in the affairs of nature, outlined themes characteristic of it, branding ignorance, cruelty, abuse of power and stupidity. The carriers of these shortcomings for him are the new “masters of life” who want to change the world, but do not have the wisdom and humanism necessary for this. The main idea of the work is “the devastation is not in the closets, but in the heads.”

Brief retelling“The Heart of a Dog” chapter by chapter is not enough to fully appreciate the artistic merits of this work, so we recommend that you take the time and read this short story in its entirety. We also advise you to familiarize yourself with the two-part film of the same name by Vladimir Bortko from 1988, which is quite close to the literary original.

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“The Heart of a Dog” is a unique story by Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov, on which he worked in 1925. This is a fantastic work, where the author emphasizes the inadmissibility of interference in nature: no matter how noble the attempts to make a higher being out of an animal, the opposite, negative result will result. The story also aims to show the wrong side of the post-revolutionary time with its devastation, unbridledness and phony ideas. According to Bulgakov, revolution is nothing more than bloody terror, violence against the individual, and nothing good can come from this, rather the opposite. Its consequences are a global tragedy for humanity.

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Chapter One: Dog Ordeals

The story “The Heart of a Dog” by Mikhail Bulgakov begins in a very unusual way - with the reasoning of a poor dog whose side was scalded by the cook. The dog seems to be thinking about his difficult life, where he was beaten with a boot and “got a brick in the ribs” - and dreams of only one thing: to eat.

The animal does not dare hope for luck, when suddenly... the dog is called to him by a representative gentleman. What a stroke of luck - Sharik, as his unexpected benefactor called him, received a piece of Krakow sausage. And the dog, having satisfied his hunger, went where he called, without looking back, ready to follow the benefactor even to the ends of the world.

Chapter two: new life for Professor Preobrazhensky

Professor Philip Philipovich – that was the name of Sharik’s new owner – brought the dog into a spacious apartment. Seeing the wounded side, he decided to examine the dog, but that was not the case. The dog struggled for a long time and stubbornly, but we still managed to treat the dog with anesthesia. When Sharik woke up, he realized that he was in the same room. The side no longer bothered me. He began to watch with interest how the doctor received patients. The astute dog guessed that the professor’s activities were related to rejuvenation. However, in the evening the professor received a visit from special visitors, Bolshevik activists, who began to make claims, saying that his apartment of seven rooms was too large, and people needed to be moved into it, taking away the observation room and dining room. Shvonder was especially zealous in this. The problem was resolved when Philip Philipovich called some influential official, and he resolved the conflict.

Chapter Three: Dog's Everyday Life in Preobrazhensky's House

“You need to be able to eat,” Preobrazhensky said over dinner. For him, eating was a special ritual. The dog was fed too. They were condescending to what Sharik sometimes did. They were patient. But not for nothing. The dog was needed for an incredible experiment. But they haven’t talked about this yet: they were waiting for the right moment.

During the meal, the household talked about the new Soviet order, which Philip Philipovich did not like at all. After all, before, galoshes weren’t stolen at all, but now they disappear without a trace. And even after the revolution, they began to walk on marble stairs in dirty shoes, which, in the opinion of an intelligent person, is completely unacceptable.

Sharik listened to these conversations and mentally sympathized with the owners. He was quite happy with life, especially since he managed to sneak into the kitchen and receive tidbits from Daria Petrovna there. Sharik felt that he had the right to this hitherto forbidden territory when the collar was put on him. Now he is truly the owner's dog. However, the happy life in a dog's body was coming to an end. But Sharik did not know what he would soon experience.

That day, an unusual, even alarming turmoil reigned around Sharik. Everyone was running and fussing, Doctor Bormenthal brought with him a foul-smelling suitcase and rushed with it to the examination room. Sharik decided to eat, but suddenly, out of the blue, he was locked in the bathroom. And then they took me for surgery.

Chapter Four: Unusual Operation

The experiment of transplanting human seminal glands into a dog has begun. The instruments flashed in the hands of the surgeons, they worked very energetically, acted with unusual dexterity: they cut, sewed up, but in the depths of their souls they did not hope for a successful outcome of the operation, being almost sure that the dog would die.

Chapter Five: From Dog to Man

Contrary to the doubts of doctors, the unprecedented experiment was successful: the dog survived. Gradually, Sharik, in front of the amazed eyes of Bormental and Preobrazhensky, began to turn into a man. But the doctor and the professor did not rejoice for long, because along with the miracle they observed, bad things happened: having turned from Sharik into Sharikov, the former dog behaved impudently, was rude to the professor, used profanity, and played bad songs on the balalaika.

Strange habits the former dog haunted Preobrazhensky and Bormental. And they began to look for the reason for this. It soon became clear that the pituitary gland of the twenty-five-year-old former drunkard and rowdy Klim Chugunkin, who was convicted three times for theft and died in a knife fight, was transplanted to Sharik.

Chapter Six: Man is worse than a dog

After conducting the experiment, the professor and doctor got themselves into big trouble. They constantly fought with a human being who attacked cats, tore down pipes, causing a flood in the bathroom, and broke glass in cabinets and cupboards. In addition, a man with a dog’s heart had the audacity to pester the cooks and the maid Zina. But that wasn't the worst thing yet. Recently, the dog became friends with the “tenants” who hated Professor Preobrazhensky, who taught him to defend his rights. In the end, he asked the professor to make human documents. He took the hereditary surname - Sharikov, but came up with the name, according to the ideas of the revolution - Poligraf Poligrafovich. In Preobrazhenskoe and Bormental the former dog saw oppressors.

Chapter Seven: Sharikov’s behavior upsets the professor and doctor

Bormenthal and Preobrazhensky are trying to teach Sharikov good manners, but he is difficult to educate. But he really loves vodka, and for entertainment he loves going to the circus. Having become friends with Shvonder, he very quickly adopted his style of behavior. When Philip Philipovich and his colleague found out that Polygraph could read, they were very surprised. But real amazement and shock was caused by the fact that Sharikov was reading nothing more than the correspondence between Engels and Kautsky, given to him by Shvonder. The enraged Preobrazhensky orders Zina to find this book and burn it in the stove. Sharikov's mind is primitive, however, Polygraph does not hesitate to give advice, for example, about the seven rooms of Preobrazhensky: just take everything and divide it - he offers his own option.

Day after day, Sharikov behaves more and more defiantly: in a fit of animal rage, he kills a cat belonging to a neighbor; accosts women on the stairs; he bit one of them when she hit him in the face in response to the fact that he brazenly pinched her, and does many other indecent things that cause inconvenience to the residents of the apartment. Professor Preobrazhensky is thinking about a new operation - this time to transform a person into a dog. But he hasn’t made a final decision yet, although he admits with great regret: greatest discovery, made as a result of a unique operation, can result in harm to others.

Chapter Eight: Sharikov is becoming more and more rowdy

The former dog, and now a man, demands that documents be made for him, and, having received them, he tries to abuse his position: he claims the right to living space in Preobrazhensky’s apartment, to which the angry Philip Philipovich says that he will stop giving him food.

Soon Sharikov does even worse: he steals twenty rubles from the professor’s office and returns in the evening completely drunk, and not alone, but with friends who would also like to spend the night in good conditions. They were threatened that the police would be called, and the drunkards retreated, but valuable things disappeared with them: the professor’s cane, a malachite ashtray and a beaver hat. Polygraph shifts the blame for the chervonets onto Zina.

While the scientists are discussing the situation and deciding what to do now, Daria Petrovna appears at the door, holding the half-naked Sharikov by the collar and reporting that he dared to pester them. An angry Bormenthal promises to take action.

Chapter Nine: Operation Again

The polygraph reports that he has accepted a position in the department of cleaning the city of Moscow from stray animals and presents the corresponding paper in this regard.

After some time, a modest-looking girl, a typist, appears in the apartment, and Sharikov reports that this is his fiancee who will live with him. Philip Philipovich calls the young lady into his office and explains Sharikov’s true origins. A typist named Vasnetsova is crying and says that she has very little food. Preobrazhensky borrows her three chervonets.

After the “result of an unsuccessful experiment” begins to write slander against the professor, Preobrazhensky decisively tries to kick him out of the apartment. But that was not the case: Polygraph picks up a revolver and threatens them. Bormenthal quickly finds his bearings and throws Sharikov onto the couch. Scientists, in order to protect themselves and others, are again deciding to perform surgery.

Chapter Ten: Epilogue

Policemen who are investigating the disappearance of Poligraf Poligrafovich Sharikov cross the threshold of Preobrazhensky’s apartment. In response to the charge of murder, Philip Philipovich asks that Sharik be brought before the investigator. A very strange-looking dog runs out of the door, bald in spots, and fur is growing on it in spots. The dog still talks, but less and less. Surprised law enforcement officers leave Philip Philipovich's home.

Sharik is glad that now he will live with Preobrazhensky all the time. He is no longer a rebel man, but an ordinary dog, and, dozing on the carpet next to the leather sofa, he reflects on his dog’s life. Which, it seems to him, is very good.

Still from the film “Heart of a Dog” (1988)

Winter 1924/25 Moscow. Professor Philip Filippovich Preobrazhensky discovered a way to rejuvenate the body by transplanting animal endocrine glands into people. In his seven-room apartment in a large house on Prechistenka, he receives patients. The building is undergoing “densification”: new residents, “tenants,” are being moved into the apartments of the previous residents. The chairman of the house committee, Shvonder, comes to Preobrazhensky with a demand to vacate two rooms in his apartment. However, the professor, having called one of his high-ranking patients by phone, receives armor for his apartment, and Shvonder leaves with nothing.

Professor Preobrazhensky and his assistant Dr. Ivan Arnoldovich Bormental are having lunch in the professor's dining room. It's coming from somewhere above choral singing- this is a general meeting of “tenants”. The professor is outraged by what is happening in the house: the carpet was stolen from the main staircase, the front door was boarded up and people are now walking through the back door, all the galoshes disappeared from the galosh rack in the entrance at once. “Devastation,” notes Bormental and receives the answer: “If instead of operating, I start singing in chorus in my apartment, I will be in ruins!”

Professor Preobrazhensky picks up a mongrel dog on the street, sick and with tattered fur, brings him home, instructs the housekeeper Zina to feed him and care for him. After a week, a clean and well-fed Sharik becomes affectionate, charming and beautiful dog.

The professor performs an operation - transplants Sharik with the endocrine glands of Klim Chugunkin, 25 years old, three times convicted of theft, who played the balalaika in taverns, and died from a knife blow. The experiment was a success - the dog does not die, but, on the contrary, gradually turns into a human: he gains height and weight, his hair falls out, he begins to speak. Three weeks later he is already a short man with an unattractive appearance who enthusiastically plays the balalaika, smokes and curses. After some time, he demands from Philip Philipovich that he register him, for which he needs a document, and he has already chosen his first and last name: Polygraph Poligrafovich Sharikov.

From his previous life as a dog, Sharikov still has a hatred of cats. One day, while chasing a cat that had run into the bathroom, Sharikov latches the lock in the bathroom, accidentally turns off the water tap, and floods the entire apartment with water. The professor is forced to cancel the appointment. The janitor Fyodor, called to fix the tap, embarrassedly asks Philip Philipovich to pay for the window broken by Sharikov: he tried to hug the cook from the seventh apartment, the owner began to chase him away. Sharikov responded by throwing stones at him.

Philip Philipovich, Bormental and Sharikov are having lunch; again and again Bormenthal unsuccessfully teaches Sharikov good manners. To Philip Philipovich’s question about what Sharikov is reading now, he answers: “The correspondence of Engels with Kautsky” - and adds that he does not agree with both, but in general “everything must be divided,” otherwise “one sat in seven rooms, and another is looking for food in trash bins.” The indignant professor announces to Sharikov that he is at the lowest level of development and nevertheless allows himself to give advice on a cosmic scale. The professor orders the harmful book to be thrown into the oven.

A week later, Sharikov presents the professor with a document, from which it follows that he, Sharikov, is a member of the housing association and is entitled to a room in the professor’s apartment. That same evening, in the professor’s office, Sharikov appropriates two chervonets and returns at night completely drunk, accompanied by two unknown men, who left only after calling the police, however, taking with them a malachite ashtray, a cane and Philip Philipovich’s beaver hat.

That same night, in his office, Professor Preobrazhensky talks with Bormenthal. Analyzing what is happening, the scientist comes to despair that he received such scum from the sweetest dog. And the whole horror is that he no longer has a dog’s heart, but a human heart, and the lousiest of all that exist in nature. He is sure that in front of them is Klim Chugunkin with all his thefts and convictions.

One day, upon arriving home, Sharikov presents Philip Philipovich with a certificate, from which it is clear that he, Sharikov, is the head of the department for cleaning the city of Moscow from stray animals (cats, etc.). A few days later, Sharikov brings home a young lady, with whom, according to him, he is going to marry and live in Preobrazhensky’s apartment. The professor tells the young lady about Sharikov’s past; she sobs, saying that he passed off the scar from the operation as a battle wound.

The next day, one of the professor’s high-ranking patients brings him a denunciation written against him by Sharikov, which mentions Engels being thrown into the oven and the professor’s “counter-revolutionary speeches.” Philip Philipovich invites Sharikov to pack his things and immediately get out of the apartment. In response to this, Sharikov shows the professor a shish with one hand, and with the other takes a revolver out of his pocket... A few minutes later, the pale Bormental cuts the bell wire, locks the front door and the back door and hides with the professor in the examination room.

Ten days later, an investigator appears in the apartment with a search warrant and the arrest of Professor Preobrazhensky and Doctor Bormental on charges of murdering the head of the cleaning department, Sharikov P.P. “What Sharikov? - asks the professor. “Oh, the dog I operated on!” And he introduces the visitors to a strange-looking dog: in some places bald, in others with patches of growing fur, he walks out on his hind legs, then stands on all fours, then again rises on his hind legs and sits in a chair. The investigator faints.

Two months pass. In the evenings, the dog sleeps peacefully on the carpet in the professor’s office, and life in the apartment goes on as usual.

Retold

Year of writing:

1925

Reading time:

Description of the work:

Wide famous work Heart of a Dog was written by Mikhail Bulgakov in 1925. Three editions of the text have survived.

Mikhail Bulgakov brilliantly showed in his work a complete picture of the events that took place in those days not only in the country itself, but also in the minds of people. Class hostility, hatred and rudeness, lack of education and much more reigned. All these problems of society merged together in the image of Sharikov. When he became a man, he still wished to remain a dog.

Professor Preobrazhensky and his assistant Dr. Ivan Arnoldovich Bormental are having lunch in the professor's dining room. Choral singing can be heard from somewhere above - this is a general meeting of “tenants”. The professor is outraged by what is happening in the house: the carpet was stolen from the main staircase, the front door was boarded up and people are now walking through the back door, all the galoshes disappeared from the galosh rack in the entrance at once. “Devastation,” notes Bormental and receives the answer: “If instead of operating, I start singing in chorus in my apartment, I will be in ruins!”

Two months pass. In the evenings, the dog sleeps peacefully on the carpet in the professor’s office, and life in the apartment goes on as usual.