Professor Dowell's Head

Professor Dowell's Head, a 1925 science fiction and horror story later expanded into a novel, was written by Russian author Alexander Belyaev. It centers on a doctor who secretly brings his former boss’s severed head back to life and then relies on it to direct his subsequent research.

The plot begins with Professor Dowell and his assistant, Dr. Kern, investigating how to sustain life in detached body parts. Kern murders Dowell, keeps the professor’s head alive, and forces it to reveal scientific knowledge. When a new assistant, the trained medic Marie Loren, uncovers the scheme, Kern has her locked away in a fake asylum for unwanted people. Kern then transplants a young woman’s head onto a new body—the body of a friend’s girlfriend. The woman flees, and Dowell’s son, along with his friend, recognizes the body and frees Marie. Kern tries to claim the inventions as his own, but Dowell’s son and Marie help the professor’s head appear before cameras to expose the truth. The head speaks and then dies. Disgraced, Kern is executed by a police detective.

The story first appeared in the Moscow daily *The Worker’s Gazette* from June 16 to July 6, 1925.

In 1980, *Library Journal* gave the book a positive review, calling it “an extraordinary tale” and comparing it to *Frankenstein* and Kafka’s works. David Kirby praised Antonina W. Bouis’s translation as “fluid” and the novel as “lively and readable,” interpreting it as an allegory for the Soviet revolution, with Dowell resembling leaders who could not foresee “the horrible ends to which his activities would lead.” Nick B. Williams of the *Los Angeles Times* noted that Belyaev continued the “Poe-esque” tradition into “the realm of modern pseudo-science,” advising, “if squeamish, skip it. If not, read and revel.” Less than three months after the story’s release, surgeon Sergei Brukhonenko performed similar experiments, which the Soviet press often compared to the tale.

The novel was adapted into several films. A very loose adaptation, *Professor Dowell’s Testament* (1984), directed by Leonid Menaker, used only the basic premise and made many changes. Another adaptation, *The Head in the House* (1989), was produced by China’s Xi’an Film Studio.

English translations include a 1980 edition by Antonia W. Bouis (Macmillan Publishing) and a 2021 edition by Carl Engel (King Tide Press).