First published 1925
Professor Preobrazhensky lives comfortably in his Moscow apartment, wealthy and respected but despised by his envious neighbors. When he takes in a stray dog, he decides to attempt an unprecedented experiment. He transplants the testicles and pituitary gland from a recently deceased man into the animal. The surgery succeeds beyond his wildest expectations, but not in ways he anticipated. The dog transforms into something disturbingly human, creating chaos in the professor's once orderly existence. His respectable life crumbles as this new creature wreaks havoc. What began as scientific ambition becomes an uncontrollable nightmare. The professor must confront the consequences of playing god with nature itself.
Genres: fiction, science-fiction, literary-fiction, 20th-century, russian-literature, academia
Vibes: dark, emotional, thought-provoking
Tropes: playing-god, unintended-consequences
Setting: Moscow
Period: 20th-century
116 pages · Paperback · Penguin Classic
Content warnings: body-horror, medical-trauma