Summary by Chapter of Professor Dowell’s Head

Setting and Time of Action

The events of the novel take place in the 20th century in Paris, France.

Main Characters

Professor Kern – A scientist, ambitious, unprincipled, and cruel man, ready to do anything to achieve his goal.

Marie Laurent – Kern’s assistant, a brave, decent, and resolute young woman.

Professor Dowell – A brilliant scientist, a courageous experimental surgeon.

Arthur Dowell – Professor Dowell’s son.

Armand Larre – An artist, a close friend of Arthur.

Briket – A bar singer whose head was reanimated by Professor Kern.

Other Characters

John – Professor Kern’s devoted servant.

Toma Bush – A worker whose head was reanimated by Kern.

Red Martha – Briket’s friend, a vulgar person.

Jean – Martha’s husband, a robber.

Madame Laurent – Marie’s mother, a kind and open woman.

Shaub – An artist, Larre’s acquaintance, an athlete.

Doctor Ravinot – The owner of a psychiatric hospital, a vile, mercenary man.

Summary by Chapter

Chapter 1. The First Meeting Marie Laurent comes to interview for a job as an assistant to Professor Kern. She is hired under one strict condition: she must remain silent about everything she sees in the professor’s laboratory, or face “extremely unpleasant” consequences. Servant John leads Marie into the laboratory, where she sees a human head, without a torso, which “silently moved its lips.” She immediately realizes the head belongs to the recently deceased Professor Dowell, a famous scientist. Kern claims he managed to bring back to life only Dowell’s head, who “suffered from an incurable ailment.”

Chapter 2. The Secret of the Forbidden Valve Marie’s duties include “monitoring the apparatuses that maintained the head’s life.” Kern strictly forbids her from opening a specific valve on the cylinder that feeds the head, which can hear, understand, and react with facial expressions. One day, Marie risks opening the forbidden valve, which allows “the head to speak.”

Chapter 3. The Head Speaks Marie tells no one of her discovery, but opens the valve at every opportunity to talk with Professor Dowell’s head, with whom she develops “friendly relations.” Dowell reveals that Professor Kern forced him into joint scientific collaboration.

Chapter 4. Victims of the Big City Since learning the head’s secret, Marie “grew to hate Kern” but could do nothing. One day, Kern announces that “two fresh corpses” will soon arrive at the laboratory, from which he will create “a pair of well-speaking heads” to demonstrate at a scientific society meeting.

Chapter 5. New Laboratory Residents With Dowell’s help, Kern manages to reanimate two heads. The male head belongs to Toma, a simple worker hit by a car, and the female head belongs to Briket, a bar singer accidentally shot during a skirmish.

Chapter 6. The Heads Entertain Themselves The new heads find it difficult to adjust to life without a body. Unlike Professor Dowell, they are unaccustomed to intellectual work and openly suffer in their new state. Toma and Briket constantly complain, increasing Marie’s workload.

Chapter 7. Heaven and Earth The persistent Briket persuades Professor Kern to attach “someone’s body” to her. The scientist, dreaming of worldwide fame, decides that “to assemble one living person from two perished people—that would be grand.” This thought completely consumes Kern, and he begins the necessary preparations.

Chapter 8. Vice and Virtue In a conversation with Kern, Marie suggests it is more important to return Professor Dowell’s head to a “normal life” than Toma or Briket. The professor dislikes this defense and discovers that Marie violated his ban and has been conversing with Dowell. Through blackmail, Kern forces his assistant to inform her family that she cannot return home due to high work commitments. Kern’s laboratory effectively becomes a prison for the girl.

Chapter 9. Dead Diana Kern finds a suitable body at the scene of a railway disaster. The operation to join the head and body is successful, and soon Briket is able to speak and even sing. Marie is surprised: Briket hits high notes atrociously, “but the lower notes were charming.” She checks the newspapers and discovers that the body, with a noticeable mole on the left shoulder, belonged to the famous Italian actress Angelica Guy.

Chapter 10. The Escaped Exhibit Briket is soon allowed to walk. Everything is fine, but Kern is worried only by a “small sore on the foot” of the patient. Briket is thrilled with her new, young, and graceful body. She dreams of escaping the laboratory to cause a “furore among her frivolous friends.” Realizing Kern will not let her go voluntarily, Briket decides to flee.

Chapter 11. The Song Sung to the End At the “Chat Noir” cabaret, Briket finds her close friend Red Martha and Martha’s husband Jean, whose specialty “was safe-cracking.” She does not tell them about her amazing transformation, only that she escaped from the hospital. Jean offers to take Briket with them to the Riviera for a sea vacation, and she agrees.

Chapter 12. The Enigmatic Woman At the Mediterranean resort, Briket is destined to meet the artist Armand Larre, the beloved of Angelica Guy, whose body Briket now “wears.” Larre seeks help from his close friend, Arthur Dowell, the professor’s son, to uncover the mystery of this enigmatic woman.

Chapter 13. A Merry Stroll A few days later, Larre manages to meet “Briket, her friend, and Jean.” In a private conversation, Larre, who immediately suspects foul play, forces Briket to admit that the body of the deceased Italian actress was sewn onto her head. She asks him not to betray her to Kern, and Larre, in turn, demands that Briket tell Professor Dowell’s son everything. The friends decide to return immediately to Paris to break into Kern’s laboratory. On the way, Briket’s foot, which has a small sore, begins to hurt unbearably.

Chapter 14. Kern’s Victim While searching for Kern, Arthur “decides to act very cautiously.” He first tries to contact Marie Laurent, but learns from the girl’s mother that Kern has had her committed to an asylum for the mentally ill. Meanwhile, Briket’s foot has “become very swollen and blue.” Larre, who is starting to feel an inexplicable attraction to the girl, learns that she has gone to Kern to ask him to cure her.

Chapter 15. Ravinot’s Asylum Calling on the help of the young artist Shaub, Arthur and Larre head to the psychiatric hospital of Doctor Ravinot. They find that it is “not a hospital, but a prison, surrounded by a stone wall” and carefully guarded. Once in the asylum, Marie realizes that most of the patients committed there are completely healthy people who were inconvenient to their relatives.

Chapter 16. The Newcomer Marie is so morally defeated that she “contemplates suicide for the first time in her life.” But she soon changes her mind thanks to a newcomer, who turns out to be Arthur Dowell. He warns the girl that he will help her escape from the prison.

Chapter 17. The Escape Arthur manages to unlock the door to Marie’s ward, and together they reach the high wall. The girl manages to climb over it, but Arthur is less fortunate: he is spotted by the nurses, who have been alerted. He is put in a straitjacket and taken to an isolation cell.

Chapter 18. Between Life and Death Doctor Ravinot begins to test numerous psychological tricks on his prisoner, but they are all ineffective. He is about to poison Arthur with gas, but his friends arrive in time to rescue him.

Chapter 19. Without a Body Again Upon examining the runaway, Professor Kern sees that “the leg was swollen up to the knee and blackened.” Although he regrets “mutilating the body, obtained and reanimated with such effort,” he is forced to amputate the leg. Blood poisoning soon begins, and the professor, wishing to save at least part of his exhibit, separates Briket’s head from the body.

Chapter 20. Toma Dies for the Second Time Meanwhile, “Toma’s head withered every day.” One day, he “tried to hold back the air stream with his mouth,” and the strong air pressure displaced his head, significantly loosening the tubes “inserted into the blood vessels of the neck.” By the time Kern noticed that Toma’s head looked unwell, it was too late.

Chapter 21. The Conspirators Kern, understanding that there is no time to lose, decides to demonstrate Briket’s living head to the public. Marie plans to sneak into the scientific society meeting to publicly accuse “Kern to his face of being a murderer, a criminal, a thief.”

Chapter 22. The Spoiled Triumph In the huge, crowded hall, the “head’s performance made an extraordinary impression.” Unable to restrain herself, Marie accuses Kern of lies and hypocrisy. The girl declares that “he stole Professor Dowell’s work,” and Kern’s long-awaited triumph is hopelessly ruined.

Chapter 23. The Last Meeting The next morning, Arthur Dowell obtains police permission for a search of Professor Kern’s premises. In the laboratory, besides Briket’s exhausted head, there is a “shaved head of an elderly man with a huge fleshy nose.” Marie realizes that this is the head of the professor, deliberately disfigured by Kern. Before his death, Dowell manages to say goodbye to his son. The police are about to conduct an interrogation, but “a shot rings out from Kern’s study.”

What is the Outcome?

Professor Kern – Commits suicide by shooting himself when the police arrive with a search warrant the day after the failed conference.

Marie Laurent – Reveals the entire truth about Kern during the demonstration of Briket’s living head, thereby spoiling his triumph.

Professor Dowell – Dies definitively after managing to say goodbye to his son.

Arthur Dowell – Obtains a search warrant, meets his father’s head at Kern’s laboratory, and manages to say goodbye to him.

Briket – Loses her body again, appears as a head at Kern’s conference.