“The Head of Professor Dowell” is a science fiction novel by Russian Soviet science fiction writer Alexander Belyaev , one of the most famous works of the writer. The first version in the form of a story was published in Rabochaya Gazeta in 1925. The novel was first published the same year in the journal World Ranger . Belyaev, who was completely immobilized during periods of exacerbation of the disease, called it an autobiographical story: he wanted to tell, "what a head can experience without a body."
| Professor Dowell's Head | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Science fiction |
| Author | Alexander Belyaev |
| Original language | Russian |
| Date of first publication | 1925 |
| Following | |
Content
History
In 1923-1928, Alexander Belyaev lived in Moscow and worked as a legal adviser in the People’s Commissariat . In the Moscow period of his work, he wrote a story (later a novel), “The Head of Professor Dowell,” novels “ The Island of the Dead Ship ,” “ The Last Man from Atlantis ,” “ Amphibian Man ,” “ Fighting on Air, ” and a series of stories.
The work “The Head of Professor Dowell” was first published in 1925 (1 (short story): “Working Newspaper” (M.), 1925, 16–21, June 24–26; “World Pathfinder”, 1925, No. 3-4. 2 (novel). Gas. “Change” (L.), 1937, 1-6, 8-9, 11, 14-18, 24, 28 Feb., 1, 3-6, March 9-11; “Around light ", 1937, No. 6-10; department of publishing. - L.," Sov. writer ", 1938)
Story
Paris surgeon professor Kern secretly carries out successful work to revitalize the human head. Marie Laurent, who was an assistant at his private clinic, accidentally learns that Kern owes his success in research to the revitalized head of his former leader and well-known professor Dowell, who died under suspicious circumstances. Kern conceals the existence of a busy head and forces her to work for herself.
Under the leadership of Dowell’s head, Kern conducts a number of successful operations - it revives the other heads of dead people, and also gives one of them a new body. Former singer in the bar Briquet, who received the new body of artist Angelica Guy who died in a train accident, escapes from Cairn to start a new life. On the Riviera , in the company of her friends - Jean and his wife Martha - she encounters an artist Arman Lara, who suddenly recognizes the body of her missing girlfriend, Angelica, with the head of another woman. Moreover, Arman and his friend Arthur Dowell are amazed when they learn from Briquet that in the Kern clinic she saw the living head of Arthur's father.
At this time, Kern discovers that Marie Laurent is talking with the head of Professor Dowell and knows about the crimes he committed. Fearing a revelation, Kern puts Marie in Dr. Ravino's psychiatric hospital. This "hospital" is designed to get rid of objectionable people whom Ravino with the help of savage methods turns into real crazy.
Arthur Dowel and his friends go to Paris, where, with the help of another artist, Schaub, they arrange an armed raid on a hospital and save Marie from there. At this time, Kern, forcing events, organizes a public display of his works on revitalization. Marie with friends comes to the show and performs with exposure. Despite the spoiled triumph, Kern still manages to twist. A search at the Kern Clinic, organized by the police, yields nothing. Trying to find his father, Arthur Dowell requires a repeated search in the police. As a result, Marie Laurent identifies Professor Dowell in a disfigured head. He dies in front of his son, but manages to help the final exposure of Kern. Not wanting to be in the dock, he commits suicide.
Characters
People
- Kern - professor, villain surgeon
- Marie Laurent - the main character, doctor, assistant Kern
- John is a Negro servant
- Angelica Guy - the dead artist, whose body was used by Kern
- Red Martha - Brike's girlfriend
- Jean - Martha's husband
- Madame Laurent - mother of Marie
- Arman Lara - artist
- Arthur Dowell - son of Professor Dowel
- Schaub - an artist from Australia, buddy Lara
- Ravino - criminal doctor, owner of a psychiatric hospital
Heads
- Dowell - professor, surgeon
- Tom Bush is a deceased construction worker whose head was revitalized by Kern
- Briquet - a dead singer from a bar whose head was revived by Kern
Criticism
In 1939, the critic and prose writer Ya. S. Rykachev made a review of the novel The Head of Professor Dowell on the pages of the journal Children's Literature. Calling the novel an integral and fascinating narrative and noting the culture of writing and the undoubted giftedness of the author [1] , Rykachev nevertheless severely criticized Belyaev’s work, considering it a failure of the writer and defining the book as an “annoying anachronism” [2] . The critic suggested that the novel is distinguished not only by the absence of any social idea, but by weakness from the point of view of scientific thought, expressed in the author’s inability to communicate essential scientific information or to acquaint the reader with the real prospects of science. In his review, Rykachev made the assumption that Belyaev was based on the experiments of Dr. Bryukhonenko , who managed to maintain the vital activity of the dog’s head, separated from the body [3] .
On the pages of the same magazine, Belyaev replied that the novel was written before the experiments of S. S. Bryukhonenko [4] . Belyaev noted that the novel is partly autobiographical - his idea came to the writer’s head when his legs paralyzed and he was bedridden for 3 years, actually feeling like “a head without a body” [4] . By the time the book was written, the idea where the head (brain) lives without a body, supported by a scientific method, was not fundamentally new to literature - the feuilleton of Edward Page Mitchell “A Man Without a Body” (1877), the story by Gustav Meyrink “Exhibit”, the novel by Maurice Renard “ Dr. Lerne (The New Beast) (1908), Gaston Leroux's novel The Bloody Doll (1923), the novel by the German writer Karl Grunert, Mr. Vivacius Style , touched on this issue. Belyaev himself called Charles Brown-Secar [4] the inspirer of his book.
Regarding the social topic, Belyaev expressed confidence that creating an entertaining and sharp plot in a book on the theme of class struggle is much easier than in a work describing the future classless society. The writer emphasized that to show such a society and its scientific, technical, cultural, everyday prospects is no less important than the class struggle [5] .
While Rykachev gave the novel a low rating, stating that the novel has “a clear trace of the influence of Western entertaining science fiction literature,” the English science fiction writer Herbert Wells, during a meeting with Belyaev in 1934 in Leningrad, expressed the opposite opinion [6] : “I pleasure, Mr. Belyaev, read your wonderful novels “The Head of Professor Dowell” and “Amphibian Man”. ABOUT! They differ very favorably from Western books. I even envy their success a little. ”
Films
In 1984, the director Leonid Menaker, based on the novel, shot the film "Testament of Professor Dowell . "
Notes
- ↑ J.S. Rykachev, 1939 , p. 50.
- ↑ J.S. Rykachev, 1939 , p. 53.
- ↑ J.S. Rykachev, 1939 , p. 52.
- ↑ 1 2 3 A.R. Belyaev, 1939 , p. 23.
- ↑ A.R. Belyaev, 1939 , p. 25.
- ↑ B.V. Lyapunov, 1967 .
Literature
- B.V. Lyapunov . Alexander Belyaev. - Critical and biographical essay. - M .: “ Soviet writer ”, 1967. - 27 p.
- Ya. S. Rykachev. “The head of Professor Dowell” A. Belyaev // “Children's literature” : magazine. - 1939. - No. 1 . - S. 50-53 .
- A.R. Belyaev . About my works // "Children's Literature" : journal. - 1939. - No. 5 . - S. 23-25 .
Links
- Alexander Belyaev. The head of Professor Dowell (text of the novel on the site Lib.Ru).
- Svetlana Belyaeva "The star flickers outside the window ..." (Alexander Romanovich Belyaev Romanov. Stories. Stories / Library of World Literature. M., Eksmo, 2008.)
- https://web.archive.org/web/20130123024656/http://www.computerra.ru/vision/640403/
- Illustrations by Alexander Dovgal for the publication of the 1957 Professor Dowell's Head.