In 1920s Moscow, the surgeon Professor Preobrazhensky performs a radical medical experiment by transplanting a human pituitary gland and testicles into a stray dog named Sharik. The procedure results in the animal’s physical transformation into a boorish, crude man who adopts the name Polygraph Polygraphovich Sharikov. Rather than becoming a refined citizen, Sharikov embraces the aggressive rhetoric of the new Soviet state, securing a government job killing cats and turning the professor’s orderly life into a chaotic nightmare of bureaucratic threats and domestic vulgarity.
Readers interested in the intersection of biology and social engineering will find this a sharp critique of the attempt to manufacture a "New Soviet Man." Those who study satire read it to see how scientific hubris mirrors political overreach. A reader walks away with a clear understanding of the conflict between inherited nature and forced ideological conditioning, as well as the unintended consequences of trying to accelerate human evolution through authority and surgery rather than gradual education.
Deep and thought-provoking; a moderate read.
Best for readers like The Deep Diver. Which reader are you?
- Published
- 1925
- Language
- EN
