Morphine (New Directions Pearls) by Mikhail Afanasevich Bulgakov (EPUB)

Description

From the author of The Master and Margarita comes this short and tragic masterpiece about drug addiction Young Dr. Bromgard has come to a small country town to assume a new practice. No sooner has he arrived than he receives word that a colleague, Dr. Polyakov, has fallen gravely ill. Before Bromgard can go to his friend’s aid, Polyakov is brought to his practice in the middle of the night with a self-inflicted gunshot wound, and, barely conscious, gives Bromgard his journal before dying. What Bromgard uncovers in the entries is Polyakov’s uncontrollable and merciless descent into morphine addiction ― his first injection to ease his back pain, the thrill of the drug as it overtakes him, the looming signs of addiction, and the feverish final entries before his death.

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: Review Even in his earliest writings, Mikhail Bulgakov exposed the ugliness and absurdity of Soviet reality. “One of the great writers of the twentieth century. –A. S. Byatt”The anarchic, resistant genius of Russian literature. –George Steiner” About the Author Mikhail Bulgakov (1891–1940) was a Russian author and playwright ― one of the few writers allowed to publish during the Stalin era. His works include The Master and Margarita, Heart of a Dog, and the biography, Life of Mr. de Moliere.Hugh Aplin has translated works by Mikhail Bulgakov, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Ivan Turgenev, and Anton Chekhov.

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐Mikhail Bulgakov was a great writer who was appreciated fully only after his death before WWII, when his. work found its way out of his native Russia. This tale of a country doctor’s addiction to morphine is based upon his own experience as a backwoods physician before he gave up medicine for literature. It is not at the level of other works such as “The Master and Margarita” or “A Dead Man’s Memoir,” but even medium grade Bulgakov greatly surpasses current popular literary works in style and depth of feeling. As a writer myself I look upon Bulgakov as a “Master,” and I would urge readers to seek out any of his works.

⭐This is a short, memorable read about a promising young man’s descent into addiction. It should be a must read for all students from grade 7 and up. Bulgakov is a master and this is a masterpiece.

⭐Wonderfully dark

⭐This is my first read by Bulgakov. It is a short story (50pgs), and tells the life of a doctor, at the cusp of the russian revolution, whom is practising in a private hospital on the outskirts of a provincial village in the countryside; about his growing drug addition and the outcome. I liked the style of writing by the author and I look forward in reading more from Bulgakov soon.

⭐First published in 1925, Morphine is a mini-novel by Mikhail Bulgakov, one of the giants of 20th century Russian literature. The storyline is simple: Bromgard, a young doctor moves from the backwoods to a small country town to practice medicine in a clinic. A month passes and he receives news that Polyakov, a friend, a `very reasonable man’, he knew as a student in medical school is ill and needs his help. Bromgard plans to travel by train to his friend but before his scheduled departure Polyakov is brought to the clinic on the verge of death, resulting from a self-inflicted bullet wound. But before Polyakov dies, he hands Dr. Bromgard a diary recording his addiction to morphine. And the heart of this Bulgakov tale is the contents of the diary.Such a simple story. But please don’t be fooled – through Bulgakov’s literary magic we are given a gem. The author crafts with a kind of subtle perfection the step-by-step decent of an intelligent young man with a promising future in the grip of morphine addiction. And it all starts so innocently: On the night of February 15 an otherwise perfectly healthy 23 year old Dr. Poyakov experiences intense stomach pain. He sends for Anna Kirillovna, a kind and intellegent nurse, and she gives him a morphine injection.The next day, Dr. Polyakov makes a decision that will prove to be a drastic mistake, turning him into an addict. We read, “Fearing a recurrence of yesterday’s attack, I injected myself in the thigh with one centigramme” Such a penetrating observation on human psychology: the young doctor does not experience intense pain, but he gives himself a morphine injection because he fears intense pain. Oh my goodness: according to the wisdom of ancient Greek philosophers, a prime emotion we must overcome is our fear, fear of pain and fear of death. If we act from our fear, the consequences can be dreadful.A mere two weeks later, the young doctor’s identity has completely transformed; he and his morphine are one. Here are his words from the diary: “I would say that a man can only work normally after an injection of morphine.” Then, we read the following March 10 entry: “Never before have I had such dreams at dawn. They are double dreams. The main one, I would say, is made of glass. It is transparent. This is what happened: I see a lighted lamp, fearfully bright, from which blazes a stream of many-colored light. Amneris, swaying like a green feather, is singing. An unearthly orchestra is playing with a full, rich sound – although I cannot really convey this in words. In short, in a normal dream music is soundless . . . but in my dream the music sounds, quite heavenly. And best of all I can make the music louder or softer at will.” Oh, such ecstasy! Our young doctor is completely hooked, psychologically every bit as much as physically. Incidentally, Amneris is an opera singer, the doctor’s former mistress who left him weeks prior to his first morphine injection.But such ethereal, blissful dreams have a price, a big price. On April 9th he writes, “The devil is in this phial. . . . This is the effect: on injecting one syringe of a 2% solution, you feel almost immediately a state of calm, which quickly grows into a delightful euphoria. This lasts for only a minute or two, then it vanishes without a trace as though it has never been. Then comes pain, horror, darkness.” And then a month later we read: “What overtakes the addict deprived of morphine for a mere hour or two is not a `depressed condition’: it is slow death.” Ten more months of morphine addiction, alternating between injections and the slow death between injections, Dr. Polyakov takes his own life at age 24.From what I’ve read on the net, this is a much read and consulted cautionary tale for those involved in the medical industry. And recognizing the many forms of drug addiction in our brave new 21st century world, Bulgakov’s Morphine is a cautionary tale for each and every one of us.

⭐I truly enjoyed this short story and found I could not pin point a particular time in history that this would have taken place. Although the writer stated 1917 this story could have been 2014. Now knowing the writer lived from 1891 through 1949 he could have been a contemporary of writers today. This story would be excellent for those who believe that an addict can pull him or herself up by the boot strap and just stop. So many lives ruined by Morphine and of course any drug that is not followed closely. So easy to start, so hard to quit. I will read more of Mikhail Afanasevich Bulgakov very engaging writer.

⭐For once I do recommend reading the other reviews .It’s from one of those that I learned this story is an except from a longer book.Morphine is a short story about a Russian provincial doctor who gets hooked on morphine and is destroyed by it.It is slight by Bulgakov standards but those are pretty high standards .I’d read a book of highly regarded contemporary short stories before this and the superiority of even lesser Bulgakov was painfully obvious.You have a “real” voice here and you sense something of importance is going on.We are playing for keeps ! Interestingly , the revolution is a backdrop here.We the readers know it’s a big deal.The protagonists are only dimly aware that something earth shattering is going on.They have their own problems.

⭐”Morphine” itself is a fairly good story/novella, but it’s just a single excerpt from “A Country Doctor’s Notebook,” which you can buy for just a few dollars more. Don’t waste your money on this New Directions paperback. Buy the entire anthology.

⭐Another excellent book by Bulgakov, and another excellent translation with notes by Hugh Aplin.

⭐I had been searching this book for a long time. It is not translated in italian, my mother language, and finally I could read it. It is autobiographical and a small masterpiece of the effects of the drug on the system. A book to be read by adolescents, written by a genius of literature.

Keywords

Free Download Morphine (New Directions Pearls) in EPUB format
Morphine (New Directions Pearls) EPUB Free Download
Download Morphine (New Directions Pearls) 2013 EPUB Free
Morphine (New Directions Pearls) 2013 EPUB Free Download
Download Morphine (New Directions Pearls) EPUB
Free Download Ebook Morphine (New Directions Pearls)