M. A. Bulgakov, "Heart of a Dog": a summary of the chapters

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

In January 1925, Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov set to work on a new work. Already in March, the writer completed work on the manuscript. It was a story called "The Monstrous Story". During the life of the author, it was never published, despite the fact that people who understand literature praised the story. Due to the fact that the work is filled with subtle allusions and shows the Land of the Soviets in an extremely unsightly form, the authorities and writers terminated the agreement on its publication and staging on stage, and Mikhail Afanasyevich's manuscript and his diaries were confiscated. Only recently this work was finally published under the title "Heart of a Dog" and became available to a wide range of admirers of the writer's work. Of course, it is worth reading the whole story, but what if there is no time or if you want to plunge into the wonderful world again? Read a summary of Bulgakov's "Heart of a Dog" on Briefly or on our website!

About the product

BAt the time when Mikhail Afanasyevich was working on his work, various ideas for improving a person with the help of scientific achievements and discoveries were very popular in the country. The protagonist - Professor Preobrazhensky - is trying to unravel the secret of eternal youth and quite by accident makes a stunning discovery that allows you to turn an animal into a person! The transplantation of the human pituitary gland into a dog seems to have been successful, but the result shocked both the professor and the other characters in the book. We offer you an acquaintance with the most important details of the story - read the summary of Bulgakov's Heart of a Dog chapter by chapter. On Briefly, the text is not divided into parts, which is not very convenient.

Main characters

The first thing you should pay attention to when getting acquainted with the characters of the Russian prose writer's book is that all the characters have prototypes! Their characters are written off from Bulgakov's acquaintances, well-known political and public figures of that time. Critics say that this story is a political satire on the leadership of the state in the mid-20s of the last century, and on the whole idea of the "Russian revolution".

Sharik is a stray dog. Partly a philosopher, completely intelligent in everyday matters, he is distinguished from other animals by observation and the ability to read.

Polygraph Poligrafovich Sharikov - the same Sharik, however, already after the operation, when the pituitary gland of the brawler and drunkard Klim Chugunkin, who died in a tavern brawl, was implanted in his brain.

Professor Filipp FilippovichPreobrazhensky is a world luminary of medicine, a genius, an intellectual who hates the proletariat for his lack of education and ambitions that are not justified by anything. Dissatisfied with the advent of a new era.

Ivan Arnoldovich Bormental is a young doctor, a student of Professor Preobrazhensky. Shares all the beliefs of the teacher and idolizes him.

Shvonder is another hero we will talk about, retelling the summary of Bulgakov's "Heart of a Dog" for the reader's diary. Chairman of the House Committee, distributor of communist ideas. Sharikov is trying to educate in their spirit.

Sub-characters

Zina is the professor's maid. A very young and no less impressionable girl. She combines her household duties with the work of a nurse.

Daria Petrovna is Professor Preobrazhensky's cook. A strong middle-aged woman.

The young lady-typist is another minor heroine of Bulgakov's work "Heart of a Dog", a summary of the chapters of which will begin a little lower. This is a subordinate and failed wife of Polygraph Poligrafovich.

Chapter One

A stray dog freezes in one of Moscow's doorways. Doused with boiling water, he suffers from pain in his side, but at the same time he very ironically and even philosophically describes his whole life, full of misfortunes, Moscow life and types of people, the most vile of which are porters and janitors.

Suddenly, a respectable gentleman in a fur coat appears in the dog's field of vision, feeds it with sausage and calls it Sharik. Dogfollows the master, trying to understand who his benefactor is, since even the doorman speaks to him with respect. By the way, from a conversation with the porter, the gentleman learns that housing comrades have moved into one of the apartments. The man perceives this news with real horror, although his personal living space will remain unaffected by the seal.

Chapter Two

A summary of Bulgakov's Heart of a Dog chapter should begin with the fact that Sharik, having got into a rich and warm apartment, was frightened and decided to quarrel. They put him to sleep with chloroform, examine the wound on his side, and treat him. The awakened dog finds that his side no longer bothers him, and therefore nothing prevents him from observing the reception of patients, which is led by his benefactor Professor Preobrazhensky. Among the clients are both an aged womanizer and an elderly lady in love with a charming young cheater. They all dream of only one thing - rejuvenation. And the professor (of course, for a tidy sum) is ready to help them.

A very brief summary of Bulgakov's "Heart of a Dog" (more precisely, the second half of the second chapter of the story) is that in the evening of the same day members of the house committee, led by Shvonder, visit Preobrazhensky. They insist that the professor give up two of the seven rooms he has, in order of compaction. This state of affairs infuriates the professor, complaining of arbitrariness, he calls one of the influential patients, suggesting that he be operated on by Shvonder. Of course, there is no consolidation, and therefore the members of the house committee, leaving, accuse Philip Preobrazhensky of hatred for the working class.

Chapter Three

Reading a summary of Bulgakov's "Heart of a Dog" (especially this chapter) is simply impossible without studying quotes from the book. The third chapter of the story is devoted to the culture of food, the proletariat. The professor at dinner recommends not reading newspapers published in the Soviet Union in order to avoid serious digestive problems. Philipp Philippovich is sincerely indignant that representatives of the new government can simultaneously stand up for the rights of workers around the world and steal galoshes.

Behind the wall, a meeting of housing comrades begins to sing revolutionary songs. Hearing this, the doctor comes to a completely logical conclusion:

If I, instead of operating every night, start singing in my apartment in a choir, I will be devastated. If, on entering the lavatory, I begin, pardon the expression, to urinate past the toilet bowl, and Zina and Darya Petrovna do the same, devastation will begin in the lavatory. Consequently, the devastation is not in the closets, but in the heads. So, when these baritones shout "beat the devastation!" - I am laughing. I swear to you, I'm laughing! This means that each of them must hit the back of the head!

During the conversation, the future of Sharik is also discussed. The intrigue has not yet been revealed, however, pathologists who are well acquainted with Bormental promise to immediately inform him of the presence of a suitable corpse. The dog continues to be under surveillance.

Considering the third chapter of "The Heart of a Dog" by M. Bulgakov in summary, it is impossiblenot to say that they buy a decent collar for Sharik, they feed him deliciously, his side heals. Sometimes the dog tries to act outrageously, to which Zina, outraged by such behavior, offers to tear him out. The professor is categorical:

You can’t fight anyone, you can only act on a person and an animal by suggestion.

As soon as the dog takes root in the house, the phone rings. A commotion begins, the professor demands that dinner be served earlier, while Sharik is deprived of food, locked in the bathroom. And then they bring him to the examination room and give him anesthesia.

Chapter Four

The professor and his student operate on Sharik: they implant the dog's testicles and pituitary gland, which were taken from a fresh human corpse. Doctors are convinced that this will open up new horizons, allowing you to better understand the mechanisms of rejuvenation. With regret in his voice, Preobrazhensky assumes that Sharik, like other animals before him, will not survive the operation and will die.

Chapter Five

It makes no sense to cite Dr. Bormental's diary, which is dedicated to the history of Sharik's illness, in a summary of Mikhail Bulgakov's Heart of a Dog. One has only to say that the dog survived, strange changes occur to him: he loses his hair, his barking begins to resemble a human voice, the bones and skull grow and change shape. Sharik starts to say the words, so it turns out that he learned to read from the signs.

The young doctor understands with delight: transplantation of the pituitary gland leads not only to rejuvenation, but to humanization. Professor Preobrazhensky, in turn, does not share the enthusiasm: he glumly studies the medical history of a man whosethe pituitary was transplanted to the dog.

Chapter Six

Professor Preobrazhensky and Dr. Bormenthal are trying to educate the creation obtained as a result of the experiment: instilling in it the necessary skills, educating it.

The intelligent Filipp Filippovich is faced with Sharik's terrible taste in clothes, and the manners of speech and habits of the former dog are disgusting. Throughout the apartment of the genius of medicine there are posters prohibiting throwing cigarette butts, chewing seeds, spitting and cursing. The ball is aggressive towards the process of education:

They seized the animal, slashed its head with a knife, and now they shun.

The former dog communicates with Shvonder, which leads to skillful handling of various clerical terms, requires the professor to issue him identification documents. The surname Sharikov quite suits him, but he chooses a name that is not quite standard - Polygraph Poligrafovich.

The professor, in a conversation with the chairman of the house committee, expresses a desire to buy a room in the house in order to move Sharikov there, but the vindictive Shvonder refuses Preobrazhensky. Meanwhile, a real communal disaster is happening in the apartment: Sharikov is chasing the cat and causing a flood in the bathroom.

Chapter Seven

This chapter of the summary of Bulgakov's "Heart of a Dog" should begin with the fact that at the table Sharikov drinks vodka the way experienced alcoholics do. Looking at this, Philipp Philippovich just shakes his head and sighs: “Klim…”.

In the evening, Sharikov declares that he is going to the circus. In response, Preobrazhensky offers him a much more cultural entertainment - a trip to the theater. However, Polygraph Poligrafovich refuses, saying that the theater is a counter-revolution. Then the professor invites the former dog to read a book, for example, "Robinson", but Sharikov is already carried away by the correspondence between Engels and Kautsky, received, of course, from Shvonder. True, he is able to understand little, except perhaps this:

Take everything and share.

The frustrated Professor Filipp Filippovich offers to "share" all the lost profits from the fact that on the day when Sharikov arranged the flood, the reception of clients was disrupted - he offers the Polygraph to pay 130 rubles for a cat and a crane. The professor tells Zina to burn the book. Having sent the former dog and Bormental to the circus, the professor looks at Sharikov's pituitary gland (of course, canned) for a long time and utters a mysterious phrase:

God, I think I'm going to make up my mind.

Chapter Eight

This chapter (as well as its summary) of Bulgakov's "Heart of a Dog" begins with a grandiose scandal: Sharikov claims to live in Preobrazhensky's apartment. In anger, he promises to shoot Shvonder and threatens Polygraph with deprivation of food. Sharikov calms down for a while, but it soon turns out that he stole two gold coins from the doctor's office, and he is trying to blame the theft on Zina. In addition, Polygraph gets drunk and brings his drinking buddies to the apartment, after they are expelled from the house, they disappear.a beaver hat, a malachite ashtray, and the professor's favorite cane.

Over brandy, Ivan Arnoldovich confesses his respect to Preobrazhensky and says that he is personally ready to feed Sharikov with arsenic. Professor Vs: A young doctor can't get away with murder. But a world-famous scientist, he adds, can escape responsibility. Philip Filippovich admits his scientific mistake:

I've been sitting for five years, picking out appendages from the brain… And now, one wonders - why? To one day turn the sweetest dog into such scum that your hair stands on end. Two convictions, alcoholism, "to share everything", a hat and two gold coins were gone, a boor and a pig … In a word, the pituitary gland is a closed chamber that determines a given human face. Given!

Here it is worth remembering that the pituitary gland for Sharikov was taken from Klim Chugunkin - a recidivist, rowdy, alcoholic. Klim earned his living by playing the balalaika in taverns. He died in a drunken brawl. Doctors are horrified trying to imagine what could happen from Sharikov with such heredity, and even under the influence of Shvonder!

At night, Darya Petrovna noisily drives the drunken Polygraph out of the kitchen, Bormental is angry, he promises to make a scandal with the former dog in the morning, but Sharikov disappears. Returning after some time, he reports: now he is the head of the subdepartment for cleaning up the city from homeless animals. Together with him, a typist girl appears in the apartment, whom Sharikov introduces as his own.future wife. The girl opens her eyes to the lies of the Polygraph: he is not at all a Red Army soldier, wounded in battles with the whites, as he told the chosen one. In response, Sharikov declares that he will fire the girl, Bormental takes her under protection and promises to shoot Polygraph Poligrafovich.

Chapter Nine

Retelling the ninth chapter of Bulgakov's "Heart of a Dog" in summary, it is worth saying that Preobrazhensky will learn unpleasant news: Sharikov wrote a denunciation of the professor and his student. The polygraph is offered to get out of the apartment, but he becomes stubborn and takes out a weapon. Medics twist Sharikov, put him to sleep with chloroform and take him to the examination room, where some activity begins.

Chapter Ten

The story "Heart of a Dog" by Bulgakov is coming to an end. The summary of the last chapter should begin with the fact that the police appear in the professor's apartment with a search warrant, the results of which lead to the fact that Preobrazhensky is accused of killing Polygraph. But the professor is unshakable: he calmly reports that the laboratory creature has completely inexplicably degraded and has become a dog again. As proof, Filipp Filippovich shows the law enforcement officers a creature that can be recognized as Sharikov.

The dog, which received his pituitary gland back as a result of a second operation, remains to live in the professor's house, however, without understanding why his whole head was cut.