What a terrible end for Persikov, Professor of Zoology. The media and the state bureaucrats are to be blamed for the horrifying catastrophe when they took the untested invention called "the ray of life" and started producing mutants. Not realising that the eggs they were using were not of chickens but of reptiles due to a cock-up delivery. Frenzied Moscowian blamed the professor for his accidental discovery, killed him and destroyed his home and lab. This is the 3rd Bulgokov I've read. A Brillia...

2.5 stars

«A predatory joy flashed in the young man’s eyes.“You can obtain gigantic organisms?”“Nothing of the sort! Well, it’s true that the organisms that I have obtained are larger than normal… Well, so they have some new properties… But the main point here is not the size, but the unbelievable speed of reproduction,” Persikov said, to his own misfortune, and was immediately horrified by his own words. The young man had already filled up an entire page; he turned it and continued to scribble.“Stop writ...

I'm sure all of us can look back at a few books that stand as, so to speak, milestones along the road of our lives -- books that changed us in some way, usually in our way of thinking. For me, one of these has been Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita, which I was bowled over sideways by in the excellent Michael Glenny translation when I was about 20.Translated Russian novels, even moderately thick ones, could be fantasticated and fun! Who knew? Certainly not me, at that age.The odd thing...

A medical experiment gone bizarre and the whole of Moscow is hit by a catastrophe noone can ever imagine. Poor Professor Persikov, though!!~~~~~~~~~Those who have read Bulgakov know full well that his works were a satire on Stalin's regime in Soviet Russia and this is another extraordinary book so well done. ~~~~~~~~~Utter madness, this book is, just like THE HEART OF A DOG, just like THE MASTER AND MARGARITA, but man, did I love it!!!~~~~~~~~~

A product of it's time and ahead of it's timeThe 70s and 80s were the decades for giant critters running amok, but one of the forerunners of the subgenre was this 1924 Radium-Age sci-fi horror comedy. Meant as a bitter satire against Communism and Soviet Russia, this short novel really shines when a host of giant snakes, crocodiles, and ostriches attack Moscow and the surrounding countryside. The kills are surprisingly gruesome and gory for the time period. But the majority of the story focuses

Only Bulgakov can get from satire of Soviet bureaucracy to GIANT MONSTERS EATING THE COUNTRYSIDE in a short story and have it make perfect sense. Please, nobody tell the SyFy network about this or they'll buy the film rights in 10 seconds.

thefataleggsFor some time now I have been reading a lot about Bulgakov and his books on Kaggsy’s bookish ramblings – her enthusiasm for him made me want to read some of his work. I wasn’t sure which of his novels I would attempt first, but when I came across a copy of this very slight novel in the library I thought it might be a good one to start with.The Fatal Eggs is a novel which is a kind of sci-fi satire on Stalinist Russia (right out of my comfort zone really). I took the book away with me...

A slim sci-fi novel(la) about a "ray of life" birthing mutant cockerels, snakes, and ostriches which run amok in 1920s Moscow. Biting satirical larks from Russia's best-ever satirist.N.B. This story is included in "Diaboliad" (Vintage Classics) with other short stories. You might want to save money and get that collection.

The Fatal Eggs is fun. In this outlandish novelette Mikhail Bulgakov wickedly satirized the new Soviet soulless bureaucracy.Monsters beget greater monsters… “Shukin fired a few more shots in the direction of the conservatory, smashing several panes of glass. But behind him a huge olive-coloured coil sprang out of a cellar window, slithered over the yard, covering it entirely with its ten-yard-long body and wound itself round Shukin's legs in a flash.It dashed him to the ground, and the shiny rev...

This is a science-fiction novella combining the likes of two literary writers Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (with the theme of the scientist whose experiments lead to dire consequences), and H.G. Wells's The Island of Doctor Moreau (with the blurred distinction between animals and humans), further combined with satirizing the times, that of the early Communist regime (1920s) of the former USSR.The book shows how its communist government used to intervene the lives of scientists and their yet incom...

An odd read even for Bulgakov. The clever and budgeted writer that he is, slows down the narration in the second half of this tiny book. The novella starts off as a hilarious satire on absurd investigations under the guise of science. A bland look on the bureaucratic nonsense that surrounds a professor and his "frog egg" investigation, Bulgakov gently points at the Russian secret police, propaganda politics and the headaches that come with insipid helpers.Enjoyed but didn't love.

… in which we learn how an important task it is to educate the masses in egg-sorting.How state-meddeling in half-baked scientific projects should at all cost be avoided.How world litterature does impact the human mind and raise fear of the unknown.And a lot more.Please do check the origin of the eggs in your fridge before exposing them to your ultraviolet self-tan lamp.

Роковые яйца = The Fatal Eggs, Mikhail BulgakovThe Fatal Eggs is a science-fiction novella by Mikhail Bulgakov, a Soviet novelist and playwright whose most famous work is The Master and Margarita. It was written in 1924 and first published in 1925. The book became quite popular, but was much criticized by some Soviet critics as a satire of the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the leadership of Soviet Russia.The Fatal Eggs can be described as a science fiction novel. Its main protagonist is an agin...

Goodness knows why - whether it's just the transitory nature of everything on earth - but the bright red ray (or, the ray of life, for other participants in the story) discovered by the brilliant zoologist, professor Persikov on a peaceful evening of April, 1928, while working on his microscope, shattered some of my peaceful evenings too. Based on my curriculum vitae, I can pretend not I've seen many thrillers, nor horror, or SF movies. That's because I wanted to have a better sleep or nice drea...

108th book of 2021.The Master and Margarita is one of those novels I'm ashamed I haven't read yet, and continues to elude me for some unknown reason. And it eluded me once again when I was in W. Library several months ago and saw this, an early Bulgakov novella, from 1925. A satire, of course, mocking the 1917 Russian Revolution, this Kafkaesque science-fiction story is influenced by the work of H.G. Wells, namely, The Food of the Gods and How It Came to Earth (a Wells novel I haven't read) wher...

Weirdly reminiscent of a terrible Asylum monster flick in its none-more-cliched plot. Some science happens! But then The Man takes the science away from the scientist who made the science, so it does monsters. Oh no! The army are not very good at fighting monsters. Fortunately, deus ex machina.Hell, it even keeps the monsters off-screen most of the time. And when you do see them, they even read like bad special effects.The difference, of course, is that this was written in Soviet Russia in 1924

First half of this book almost reads like a witty story of manners; second half reads like a cheesy horror flick of the 30s—which I wouldn’t consider bad as I love a good ol’ fashioned horror classic (as long it has sufficient cheese).I ultimately really liked this book. However, it is highly likely that the second half will throw many people off as laziness. The way I see it, there are two possible interpretations one might make of the second portion of this story: either Bulgakov just lost hol...

If you have any doubts that Bulgakov was a doctor, then read this novel. There are so many laboratory scenes and there is so much enjoyment in explaining the scientific process. It's nice to see a book where the science isn't the problem, the scientist is not hell bent on gaining knowledge at any cost. However, the people who want to use it before it's been properly tested are another matter.