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English title: A Young Doctor's Notebook or A Country Doctor's NotebookWavered between 4 or 5 stars, because of course there were some slightly weaker stories in the collection and it could be argued that the stories start to get repetitive, but I think I'm going call it 4.5 stars. It's a solid collection, beautifully written, and touching on important themes in the medical profession.These nine short stories follow the early years in the career of a newly qualified doctor, who is sent to work in remote, rural hospital. They are semi-autobiographical as Bulgakov himself spent 18 months working as a doctor, before quitting medicine to focus on his literature. This was a really interesting collection to read, knowing that Bulgakov was drawing on his own experiences, and because it's very different to the surreal style most people will recognise in Bulgakov's most well-known works (e.g. [b:The Master and Margarita 117833 The Master and Margarita Mikhail Bulgakov https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1327867963s/117833.jpg 876183]). Following the day-to-day life of a doctor, this collection is focused on the surprisingly ordinary, and this is reflected in Bulgakov's choice of imagery and metaphors. The most complex metaphor he uses is light vs. darkness (such as, the contrast between day and night, the white of the snow and the inside of a hospital, the light from is bedside lamp as the doctor attempts to gain knowledge from his textbooks...). Other than that, the imagery is plain and to-the-point.Even using this straight-forward style, Bulgakov's Russian is exquisitely beautiful. I also had a library copy of Misha Glenny's English translation beside me just in case, but I only glanced at it a couple of times. Sadly, I think a lot was lost in the translation. Even if the events and words were translated directly, I feel the a lot of the deep melancholy, sadness, and self-doubt of the doctor-narrator was lost somewhat in the English translation, while it's conveyed beautifully in the Russian even when not spoken in words.I also don't quite understand Glenny's decision to translate the title as A Country Doctor's Notebook. A major theme throughout the whole collection is the doctor's inexperience, due to the fact that he is young and very newly qualified. His lack of confidence in his abilities is a direct consequence of being thrown into a situation he feels utterly under-prepared for and unworthy of. This aspect of the collection really resonated with me, as a young twenty-something myself, and I think the narrator's lack of confidence is something many could relate to, whether you're attempting a career in medicine or not. Therefore, I really think the “young/youthful” element in the original collection's title is important.Of course, the “country” element is significant, as it highlights the narrator's complete solitude and desire for any kind of help or guidance when he has no one more experienced than himself to rely on. Another theme is the doctor's need to battle against the superstition and ignorance of many of his patients.My favourite stories in the collection were ‘Полотенце с петухом' (‘Towel with a Rooster', translated as ‘The Embroided Towel' by Glenny), describing the narrator's arrival, ‘Вьюга' (‘The Blizzard') when the narrator is forced to travel in dangerous conditions to reach a patient, ‘Стальное горло' (‘Steel Throat') depicting the doctor's struggle to deal with a particular difficult set of ignorant (and scared) family members of a patient, and ‘Морфий' (‘Morphine'), the longest story in the collection and heart-wrenching account of mental health issues in the medical profession and addiction. I was really impressed with Bulgakov's approach in this particular story, demonstrating the stigma attached to mental health, especially when you consider that these stories were written in the 1920s. Overall, I really enjoyed this insight into the life of a doctor in this time period, as well as Bulgakov's wonderful way with words. The only story I felt didn't quite fit with the rest of the collection was the final one, ‘Я убил' (‘I Killed') and apparently that was not included in the only other English translation available, by Hugh Aplin, which makes a lot of sense to me. I'd like to get a look at that edition sometime to see if I prefer Aplin's translation to Glenny's.