{{Short description|1925 novel by Alexander Belyaev}} {{Use dmy dates|date=February 2024}} {{Use American English|date=May 2025}} {{Infobox book | name = Professor Dowell's Head | title_orig = Голова профессора Доуэля | orig_lang_code = ru | translator = {{plainlist| *Antonina W. Bouis *Carl Engel }} | image = Голова профессора Доуэля.jpg | caption = Edition of ''The Worker's Gazette'' containing first instalment of the novel | author = Alexander Belyaev | cover_artist = {{plainlist| *Richard M. Powers *Alex Dallman }} | country = Soviet Union | language = Russian | genre = Science fiction | publisher = {{plainlist| *Macmillan Publishing *King Tide Press }} | english_release_date = 1980, 2021 | media_type = Print | pages = 157, 208 | isbn = 979-8-9851497-0-8 | oclc = 5831451 | followed_by = The Lord of the World | published = 1925 (Russian) }}
'''''Professor Dowell's Head''''' ({{Langx|ru|Голова профессора Доуэля}}) is a 1925 science fiction and horror story (and later novel) by Russian author Alexander Belyaev. The story follows the work of a doctor who has secretly revived his old boss's head, who now guides him through new experiments.
==Plot== left|thumb|An illustration from a 1939 edition of the novel Professor Dowell and his assistant surgeon Dr. Kern are working on medical problems including life support in separated body parts. Dr. Kern kills Dowell. Professor Dowell's head is now kept alive and used by Dr. Kern for extraction of scientific secrets; however, his new assistant, the medically trained Marie Loren, discovers the ploy and is dismayed; to keep her from exposing him, Kern eventually gets her imprisoned in a false lunatic asylum for undesirables.
Continuing his experiments, Dr. Kern transplants the head of a young woman to a new body. That body belongs to the girlfriend of a friend of Dowell's son, who recognizes her body when the young woman flees Dr. Kern's laboratory. Together, Dowell's son and his friend free Marie Loren. Dr. Kern is anxious to announce himself as the inventor. But Dowell's son and Marie Loren help his father's head get in front of the cameras and reveal the truth. The head of professor Dowell tells all before dying. Dr. Kern, disgraced, is summarily executed by a police detective.
== Background == The story was initially published in ''The Worker’s Gazette'', a Moscow daily publication, between 16 June and 6 July 1925.<ref name="Krementsov2009" />{{Rp|page=88}}
==Legacy and reception== The book was positively reviewed in the ''Library Journal'' in 1980, with the reviewer describing it as "an extraordinary tale" and comparing it to Frankenstein and the works of Kafka.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=H. |first=R. |date=1980-02-15 |title=Professor Dowell's Head (Book) |journal=Library Journal |language=en-US |volume=105 |issue=4 |issn=0363-0277}}</ref> David Kirby complimented Antonina W. Bouis's translation as "fluid" and praised the novel as "lively and readable". He interpreted the novel as an allegory for the Soviet revolution, with Dowell being comparable to its leaders, who could not predict "the horrible ends to which his activities would lead".<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kirby |first=David |author-link=David Kirby (poet) |date=Summer 1980 |title=Real-Life Horror in Soviet Science Fiction |journal=Southwest Review |language=en-US |volume=65 |issue=3 |pages=329–331 |issn=0038-4712 |jstor=43471317}}</ref> ''Los Angeles Times'' commentator Nick B. Williams said Belyaev continued the "Poe-esque" tradition into "the realm of modern pseudo-science" commenting, "if squeamish, skip it. If not, read and revel."<ref name="LosA800518">{{Cite news |last=Williams |first=Nick B. |date=1980-05-18 |title=bloody sunday |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-los-angeles-times-bloody-sunday/153825844/ |access-date=2024-08-23 |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |page=337 |language=en-US |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref>
Less than three months after the story was released, similar experiments were performed by surgeon Sergei Brukhonenko. In the Soviet press, Brukhonenko's experiments were often compared to the story.<ref name="Krementsov2009">{{Cite journal |last=Krementsov |first=Nikolai |date=June 2009 |title=Off with your heads: isolated organs in early Soviet science and fiction |journal=Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences |language=en |volume=40 |issue=2 |pages=87–100 |doi=10.1016/j.shpsc.2009.03.001 |issn=1879-2499 |pmc=2743238 |pmid=19442924 }}</ref>
The novel was adapted into several films. * The novel was very loosely adapted to film under the title ''Professor Dowell's Testament'' (1984) by director {{Ill|Leonid Menaker|ru|Менакер, Леонид Исаакович}}. The film only used the basic premise of the novel and made numerous changes to the characters and story.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Performing Brains on Screen |date=2022 |publisher=Amsterdam University Press |isbn=978-90-485-4155-3 |editor-last=Vidal |editor-first=Fernando |pages=87–126 |language=en |chapter=Naked Brains and Living Heads}}</ref> * ''{{Ill|The Head in the House|zh|凶宅美人头}}'' ({{lang-zh|凶宅美人头|}}), a Chinese film adaptation, was made by the Xi'an Film Studio in 1989.<ref>{{Cite web |title=凶宅美人头 (1989) |url=https://www.1905.com/mdb/film/46912/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210113085624/https://www.1905.com/mdb/film/46912/ |archive-date=2021-01-13 |access-date=2021-01-12 |website=1905 |language=zh}}</ref><ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Young |first=Jesse |date=2022-04-15 |title=A Chinese Horror Story: What's Spooked the Horror Film Industry in China? |url=https://www.theworldofchinese.com/2022/04/what-spooked-chinas-horror-film-industry/ |access-date=2024-02-20 |magazine=The World of Chinese |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Li |first=Hua |title=Chinese Science Fiction during the Post-Mao Cultural Thaw |date=2021-12-31 |publisher=University of Toronto Press |isbn=978-1-4875-3780-7 |page=149 |language=en-CA |chapter=Posthuman Conditions in Xiao Jianheng’s SF Narratives |doi=10.3138/9781487537807 |quote=Hu Qingsheng and Liu Yichuan’s The Head in the House (''Xiongzhai meiren tou'', 1989) drew upon Alexander Belyaev’s SF narrative ''Professor Dowell’s Head'' (1925), merely switching the setting from Russia to China and transforming the narrative into a SF thriller.}}</ref>
==English translations== * {{Cite book |last=Beliaev |first=Alexander |title=Professor Dowell's Head |date=1980 |publisher=Macmillan Publishing |isbn=978-0-02-508370-7 |edition=1. print |series=Best of Soviet SF |location=New York |language=en-US |translator-last=Bouis |translator-first=Antonia W. |translator-link=Antonina W. Bouis}} * {{Cite book |last=Belyaev |first=Alexander |title=Professor Dowell's Head |date=2021-11-03 |publisher=King Tide Press |isbn=979-8-9851497-0-8 |location=Philadelphia |language=en-US |translator-last=Engel |translator-first=Carl}}
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *[http://uartlib.org/en/exclusive/professor-dowells-head/ Illustrations of Ukrainian graphic artist Alexander Dovhal to Professor Dowell`s Head] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150129113211/https://uartlib.org/en/exclusive/professor-dowells-head/|date=2015-01-29}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Professor Dowell's Head}} Category:1925 debut novels Category:1925 Russian novels Category:1925 science fiction novels Category:1920s horror novels Category:Russian science fiction novels Category:Soviet science fiction novels Category:Science fiction horror novels Category:Novels by Alexander Belyaev Category:Novels about human experimentation Category:Fiction about resurrection Category:Russian novels adapted into films Category:Science fiction novels adapted into films Category:Horror novels adapted into films