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Mikhail Afanasevich Bulgakov,Richard Pevear,Larissa Volokhonsky | 432 pages | 20 Jun 2011 | Ltd | 9780140455465 | English | London, The Master and Margarita by

Symbols All Symbols. Theme Wheel. A concise biography of Mikhail Bulgakov plus historical and literary context for The Master and Margarita. A quick-reference summary: The Master and Margarita on a single page. In-depth summary and analysis of every chapter of The Master and Margarita. Visual theme-tracking, too. Explanations, analysis, and visualizations of The Master and Margarita 's themes. The Master and Margarita 's important quotes, sortable by theme, character, or chapter. Description, analysis, and timelines for The Master and Margarita 's characters. Explanations of The Master and Margarita 's symbols, and tracking of where they appear. An interactive data visualization of The Master and Margarita 's plot and themes. Looking beyond the religious environment in which he grew up, Bulgakov developed an early interest in theater and did well in his education, especially drawn to literature by writers such as Gogol, Pushkin, and Dostoyevsky. He then served in the , during which he contracted typhus; the disease nearly killed him and made him decide to abandon his career as a doctor. Around , Bulgakov married again; by the end of the decade he almost left , depressed by the poor critical reception of his work and ongoing battles with Soviet censorship. In the late s, Bulgakov worked as a librettist and consultant at the Bolshoi Theater, but faced the same frustrations that had plagued him before. He died in the Spring of from kidney problems, almost thirty years before this novel would first be published thanks to the efforts of Yelena. The novel is consistently—and comically—critical of authorities and shows up the follies of a state exerting too much of an interfering influence on its people. With censors quick to ban any work criticizing the state and its leadership, it never looked likely that The Master and Margarita could be published at the time. Other Books Related to The Master and Margarita The Master and Margarita is a remarkably wide-ranging novel that mixes elements of political , dark comedy, magical realism, Christian theology, and philosophy into a unique whole. Its influences are many and its own subsequent influence is worldwide. In terms of Russian influences, likely candidates are the fantastical humor of and the unflinching moral complexity of . Critics have also noticed how much the book adheres to the principles of Mennipean satire, a Greek form that took great delight in mocking the airs and pretensions of everyday society—much like and his gang. Cite This Page. Never Talk with Strangers 2. 3. The Seventh Proof 4. The Chase 5. Schizophrenia, as was Said 7. A Naughty Apartment 8. The Combat between the Professor and the Poet 9. News from Ivan Splits in Two Black Magic and Its Exposure The Hero Enters Glory to the Cock! The Execution An Unquiet Day Margarita By Candlelight The Extraction of the Master The Burial The End of Apartment No. The Last Adventures of Koroviev and The Fate of the Master and Margarita is Decided On Sparrow Hills Forgiveness and Eternal Refuge Epilogue Notes. When you buy a book, we donate a book. Sign in. Join Our Authors for Virtual Events. May 03, ISBN Add to Cart. Also available from:. Jan 01, ISBN Jun 21, ISBN Available from:. Paperback 2 —. Add to Cart Add to Cart. About The Master and Margarita A masterful translation of one of the great novels of the 20th century Nothing in the whole of literature compares with The Master and Margarita. Also in Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition. Also by Mikhail Bulgakov. See all books by Mikhail Bulgakov. Product Details. Inspired by Your Browsing History. Crime and Punishment. Fyodor Dostoevsky. Pale Fire. Vladimir Nabokov. East of Eden. John Steinbeck. . The Pearl. The Trial. Notes from Underground. Twelve Angry Men. Reginald Rose. Another Country. James Baldwin. The Stories of John Cheever. John Cheever. The Master and Margarita - Wikipedia

As doctors the same profession that Bulgakov belonged to, by the way! Well, the gestalt here is - it's a true masterpiece. He wrote it during the times when the reaction to such novels would have been the same as Woland has when hearing Master say he wrote a novel about Pontius Pilate: " About what, about what? About whom? It's amazing! And you couldn't find a different subject? This was a suffocating atmosphere, and the only way Bulgakov survived it was that he for reasons unknown enjoyed the whimsical favor of the tyrant. This fear is everywhere, on every single page. From the poor unfortunate Berlioz in the early chapters, who without much hesitation is about to contact the authorities to report about a suspicious 'foreigner' to the unnamed people conducting the investigation of the strange events and puling the victims in for questioning to Rimskiy sending Varenukha with a packet of information for the 'right people' to Master's terrifying and unheard story starting with 'them' knocking on his window and ending with him broken in the mental institution The fear is everywhere, thinly veiled. And yet it is never named, even once - the name of those causing the fear, never alluded to - no need for it, it's obvious anyway, and besides there's that age-long superstition about not naming the name of evil, which, funnily, in this novel is definitely NOT the Devil. Only Margarita has the guts to ultimately ask, "Do you want to arrest me? It can be sidesplittingly funny one second, and in the next moment become painfully sad and very depressing. Not surprisingly - in the Russian tradition humor and sadness have always walked hand in hand; therefore, for instance, Russian clowns are the saddest clowns in the entire universe, trust me. This funny sadness manages to evoke the widest spectrum of emotional responses from me every single time I read this book, never ever failing at this. The humanity that Woland wanted to observe in the Variety theatre, until he came to the sad but true conclusion that not much changed in them. The cowardice - the vice that Pilate feels Yeshua Ha-Nozri was implicitly accusing him of. The greed and love of money, leading to heinous crimes like treason and deceit and treachery. The egoism and vanity and self-absorption just think of the talentless poet Ryukhin's anger at the seemingly lucky circumstances of Pushkin's fame! This is all there, sadly exposed and gently or sometimes not that gently condemned. The consequences of this humanity shown in their extreme - think of Ryukhin's craving for immortality and Pilate's terror at facing it. And yet we see one bright light of a redeeming quality in the mankind, the one that makes even Woland cringe - mercy. Just think of people's reactions in the scene with George Bengalsky's head, Master freeing Pilate from centuries of doom, and - most touchingly of all - Margarita's unforgettable and selfless act of mercy towards Frieda. All that makes us not ashamed of being human. All that makes us worthy not of the light, the naked light that Woland so derisively talked about, but of peace. Just peace. I can write endless essays about each chapter, approach it from each imaginable angle, analyze each one precisely and masterfully crafted phrase. I could do it for days - and yet still not pay due respect to this incredible work of art. Because it has the best kind of immortality. Because its depth is unrivaled. Because it is the work of an incredible genius. And so I will stop my feeble attempts to do it justice and instead will remain behind, like the needled memory of poor Professor Ponyrev, formerly Ivanushka Bezdomny, Master's last and only pupil, left to remember the unbelievable that he once witnessed and that broke his heart and soul. And I will finish with the lines from this novel that I had memorized back when I was twelve, just as awed by this book as I am now the words that seem to pale when translated from their native Russian into English, alas! And master's memory, the restless, needled memory, began to fade. Someone was setting master free, just like he himself set free the hero he created. This hero left into the abyss, left irrevocably, forgiven on the eve of Sunday son of astrologer-king, the cruel fifth Procurator of Judea, equestrian Pontius Pilate. Jul 26, Jason rated it did not like it Shelves: , reviewed , flames-on-the-side-of-my-face , groupthink. This book is an interminable slog. But for me, it earns nothing. There are articles in the Journal of Biological Chemistry that have more successfully held my attention than this Bulgakovian bore. Exhibit A To start, the characterization in this book is near zero. Although there is a point where some barely discernable personality traits become apparent in one or two of the characters, by the time the reader makes it this far the show is nearly over. And if by curtain call the reader discovers Woland and his retinue to be even remotely interesting, it is not because of careful character construction. The thrill is in the palpability of finally being free of these people. If so, the demographic is not effectively targeted. The Faustian demon who comes to wreak havoc across Moscow does so seemingly at random, with little adherence to agenda. Bartenders, ticket sellers, poets, little old ladies—they are all ambushed. Here are some of my favorites. To tell the truth, it took Arkady Apollonovich not a second, not a minute, but a quarter of a minute to get to the phone. I ask this question in complete earnestness: is this supposed to be funny? I have absolutely no idea. Quite naturally there was speculation that he had escaped abroad, but he never showed up there either. The bartender drew his head into his shoulders, so that it would become obvious that he was a poor man. Yeah, I give. Jan 12, Ilse rated it it was amazing Recommends it for: Each and everyone. Shelves: reviewed , favourites , russia. Love leaped out in front of us like a murderer in an alley leaping out of nowhere, and struck us both at once. As lightning strikes, as a Finnish knife strikes! It knocked me off my feet and pointed Love leaped out in front of us like a murderer in an alley leaping out of nowhere, and struck us both at once. Somewhere around , the devil and his cronies descend on Moscow, putting the entire city on edge by their diabolical humor and ditto magic tricks. The authorities can only look on, powerless. If she agrees to act as a hostess at the witches' Sabbath of the devil- naked - the devil will free her master, and Margarita and her Master will be together for all eternity and live happily ever after. My copy has been residing with friends for 11 years now, and noticing write-ups on it popping up this forum almost every day, I am craving to revisit it. Paintings by Danila Zhirov Nov 12, BlackOxford rated it it was amazing Shelves: slavic , favourites , philosophy-theology. Soviet Ghost Stories Stories, stories, all is stories: political stories, religious stories, scientific stories, even stories about stories. We live inside these stories. Like this one in The Master and Margarita. The story that we can more or less agree upon we call reality. But is it real? Story-making and telling is what we do as human beings. Through stories we create meaning out of thin air, in the same way that plants create their food from light, and usually with about the same level of cas Soviet Ghost Stories Stories, stories, all is stories: political stories, religious stories, scientific stories, even stories about stories. Through stories we create meaning out of thin air, in the same way that plants create their food from light, and usually with about the same level of casual unconsciousness. We then learn to share meaning and thereby create language and societies. We call this culture and have little idea what it means or how it works. What happens when stories, particularly stories about stories, are inhibited or forbidden? The most important result: society goes mad. And that part of society which becomes most mad is that of the professional story-tellers who, because they are the carriers of the essential human and cultural talent, become less than human. They are unable to tell the stories needed by the rest of us and enter a dream-like state of inexplicability and meaninglessness. The Master and Margarita is obviously a satire, a purposeful distortion of language to demonstrate its corrupt use. It is also obviously meant to recall the necessity for religious stories in a society that has degraded and mocked them. But for me the book is less about the corruption of Soviet society and its attitude toward the Christian religion and more about the even more fundamental beliefs that are the unspoken tenets of story-telling, that is to say, the philosophy of literature. In an important sense, literature is indistinguishable from religion. Religion cannot exist without it; but it is likely that literature could exist without religion. Literature precedes religion. Bulgakov notices this in his story of Christ before Pilate. And all because he records what I say incorrectly. Bulgakov here implicitly contrasts religion against literature in his expanded and reinterpreted version of the biblical story of 's condemnation and death; and he comes down decisively for literature as the more fundamental mode of thinking. The only thing beyond a text is This is not to say that literature should cause trouble for religion. The use of language is itself a religious experience even when it is used to parody religion as in Bulgakov's Communion of Sinners Ball and demonic Eucharist. Literature, consequently, exists as a spiritual and social rather than a material and merely sensory process. Materialism, of a Marxist, Capitalist, Scientific or any other sort, tells a story that cannot account for where its story comes from. Its causes cannot be enumerated and accounted for. Such a story is deficient and incomplete. Stories do not appear to be 'in nature' but they do comment upon nature. It is not inaccurate to say that they come from 'elsewhere. Without the existence of this infinitely fecund elsewhere, the realm of the spirit, there is no way to verify the stories we tell ourselves. As Bulgakov has a psychiatrist point out to one writer, "People can go around telling all sorts of stories! In time-honoured fashion, the intruders are portrayed as devils who are able to exploit the presumptuous conceits of this society, especially those of the literary elite of the MASSOLIT, the state-run literary guild. It is the writers who sense this intrusion first and it is they who are quite properly driven mad - or to their death - by it. Bulgakov's demonic characters are up-front in their challenge to cultural reality. They make a reductio ad absurdum by denying the reality of language and the society and the culture associated with it. There is nothing, and never was there anything either! From the writers, the plague induced by constrained and distorted story-telling spreads to minor government officials. The local housing officer is the first casualty and he instinctively recognises the problem, "Comrades! Such denial is patently a confirmation of what is being denied. It is through entertainment, 's stage vaudeville, that the condition is spread through the wider population. The presumably hidden or at least repressed culture of Soviet consumer society is shown for what it is - impressed as deeply as in any capitalist society by the linguistic distortions of brand names and wealth without purpose. The 'watching mass' has no idea that it is being shown itself, literally exposed, in all its mendacious cupidity. Even love, ultimately the cohesive force of marriage and family as well as society, is a product of language. The object that keeps them together while apart is of course the manuscript of the Master's book, an alternative . Any society that attempts to limit what love, in all its variants, might mean is doomed by its own contradictions; and not just the Soviet variety. Any theologically aware person must at some point confront the problem of evil. Evil demands a story. The existence of evil is typically explained with one of several largely inadequate theories: Evil is a spontaneous development of a rebellious force against the goodness of God and His works; Evil is not an autonomous force but merely the localised absence of the divine within creation; Evil is actually inherent in a world that was formed by a subsidiary god. This last theory has a number of designations but is usually associated with the third century CE Persian Mani. So- called Manichaeism is the perennial thinking persons solution to the problem of evil since it accounts for the available facts of life without the need to invent a number of questionable metaphysical entities. It needs only one such beast - the flawed demiurge, a satanic figure who made a few mistakes in the way he shaped the cosmos and we have been dealing with the consequences ever since. It becomes apparent in The Master and Margarita that Bulgakov rejects all the classical theological explanations for evil, especially Manichaeism. But the resulting theology is not easy to digest. He suggests that what appears as evil, the work of in the world, is in fact the disguised work of God. Bulgakov's contemporary, Carl Jung, termed this the Shadow and conceived it as an integral part of the divine. In The Master and Margarita, Bulgakov echoes Jung exactly in Satan's criticism of the evangelist Matthew: "Would you be so kind as to give a little thought to the question of what your good would be doing if evil did not exist, and how the earth would look if the shadows were to disappear from it? After all, shadows come from objects and people. Even within evil, God is present. He is present among the atrocious evil-doers of his demonic ball; among the crass bureaucrats and proletarian graspers in the audience of the Black Magician; among the scammers and players of the system who try to get one-up on their fellow citizens; in Pilate and in Judas. And presumably God is present and active therefore within and through Soviet society despite official protestations to the contrary. He tells a story. But in this story Satan as well as his devoted angels transform suddenly into their opposites, caring agents of human well-being; then into clownish Loki or Coyote trinitarian figures whose function is to play the fool with social institutions. There is no logic that can capture this divine turnaround from evil to love and play. But there is a narrative in which it can be described, and, on the basis of that description, be believed. The story also presents an alternative account of creation itself - as a text produced and protected by Adam and Eve, a couple which is bound together by it. Going beyond biblical bounds, religion itself is accounted for by the Master, the new Adam: "Of course, when people have been completely pillaged, like you and me, they seek salvation from a preternatural force! Blessed be the Name of the Lord. The situation is dire but not hopeless. Exile from the Garden means freedom as well as toil. This is a theme that demands great faith to assert. More than I have had at times certainly. View all 61 comments. Not Lucifer,not Satan,but God!!! Satan is God in a bad mood. God in a bad mood lays our souls to waste. God in a good mood plays games with us. The man he is describing is the devil. The devil is asking for sympathy because he claims the reason he is not to blame is because the devil does not make you do anything. He simply sets the stage, which is the nature of his game. Look up those points in time. Someone said. A masterful song for a masterpiece View all 33 comments. Nov 20, s. Bulgakov lovingly loads each page with semi-auto-biographical frustrations and sharp irony as he unleashes the powers of hell upon Soviet Moscow. Inspired by the epic in its various forms, notably the opera which our author frequently attended, Master and Margarita spins the story of a , Woland, and his cohorts as they wreck havoc upon the Moscow. This allows Bulgakov to deliver a potent slap in the face to all facets of the obdurate Soviet society that oppressed him and his contemporaries. Specifically targeted are those of the arts, particularly the authors of the times who used their words to tow the party line and the literary critics whom Bulgakov detested. Mass mockery is made of the numerous beaurocrats and departments, the ease in which a citizen can be arrested, and endless other events that make the daily life of the 20's seem utterly absurd. As the Master is not a far cry from Bulgakov himself, readers may notice a wonderful spiral into metafictional oblivion beginning here, and may begin to question the very notions and fabric of the novel they hold in their hands. Such as, who really is the intrusive narrator who whimsically guides us through this drama of demons, dreams and destiny, and where does the line between fiction and supposed-fact lie? However, I digress, and I return you to the tread of Pontius Pilate. Things are not always what they seem in this novel, and much of the dialogue and events are interestingly ironic. But yet, what is more flagrant to the upheld Soviet atheism than the devil himself preaching that Christ did in fact live? For how can they deny religion when the devil is right in their face? Bulgakov is a funny genius. And now, finally, I return to the Pilate thread, which itself is teeming with irony. For in the Pilate chapters, the reader will find a story that is seemingly biblical shorn of all religious implications and instead illuminating political plots and an attempt at a historically plausible event the Master was a historian, or so he says while the biblical allusions and quotations are found within the Moscow chapters instead. On the other hand, the modern Moscow, which denies religion is full of religious the 12 members seated at the MASSOLIT table, the severed head on a plate, etc. Each sentence of this book is a joy. The writing simply flows and is incredibly comical, plus the characters are very lovable. The Master, whom is a hero to all repressed authors, and his lovely Margarita are the gems within this story however. Anyone who is as enamored with the prose of Nikolai Gogol as I am should definitely read this novel. Nate has a wonderful review that highlights the differences between the many translations and was very helpful in my choosing of this text. I cannot stress more how incredible this book is. It is just an all-around good time and a marvelous example of magical-realism used to its highest capacity. Plus, the ending is a kick to the head. I read much of this through the subways of Boston recently while on a much-needed and exceptional vacation, and, like Pilate and his crucified friend, the memory of both have become one. How sad the earth is at eventide! How mysterious are the mists over the swamps. Anyone who has wandered in these mists, who has suffered a great deal before death, or flown above the earth, bearing a burden beyond his strength knows this. Someone who is exhausted knows this. How incredible is that? A poet "Homeless", as he calls himself, and a magazine editor, his gruff boss, Berlioz, are having a conversation, in a quiet, nondescript Moscow park, just before the start of the Second World War. Drinking, just harmless sodas, and discussing business, ordinary right? That's the last time in this novel, it is. An apparition appears in the sky, weird and unbelievable, a frightening seven foot transparent man, is seen floating above their heads, but only Berlioz spots it, he's obviously, the edi A poet "Homeless", as he calls himself, and a magazine editor, his gruff boss, Berlioz, are having a conversation, in a quiet, nondescript Moscow park, just before the start of the Second World War. An apparition appears in the sky, weird and unbelievable, a frightening seven foot transparent man, is seen floating above their heads, but only Berlioz spots it, he's obviously, the editor, a very sick man Later a foreign, debonair stranger, joins them on the next bench, they start an uncomfortable, lively, rather dangerous conversation about Jesus in the days of Stalinist Russia , if he really existed. The newcomer, a self - described black magic expert, tells the others, he saw Pontius Pilate and Jesus, personally! Naturally his startled companions, look at him with a little disbelief, the two close friends , think Professor Woland the name is discovered afterwards must be a spy or crazy, either way, authorities should be contacted immediately. Tragic results follow soon after, a wild, long, thrilling, death defying chase, through many city streets, ensues, strangest of all, a giant black Tom cat , who walks on two legs, and tries to get on a streetcar, but the heartless conductor, says no cats, refuses entry. But Behemoth , the big cat's name, does manage to get on the streetcar, they're very intelligent, resourceful, demanding animals. What the devil is going on? The charismatic professor, and his talented entourage, give the best magic show, on stage, ever seen in Moscow, by an astounded audience, it's so spectacular, incomprehensible and not explainable, that all the city wants to go also. Still ticket lines are numerous blocks in length, and growing, too bad you missed it! Meanwhile a married woman, Margarita, having an affair with an obscure, poor author, writing a novel, she calls him "Master", you guessed right , the book is about the Roman Governor of Judaea, Pontius Pilate. Mirroring Bulgakov's life, the manuscript is banned Countless, funny adventures follow, involving soaring humans, flying without a vehicle, the joys and terrors, looking down, you can imagine, and the destruction of fragile property, everywhere The highlight is Satan's loathsome Ball, presided over by the stunned Margarita, as the incredibly reluctant Queen, attended mostly by the dead A dream like, unworldly, vague, melancholic atmosphere permeates. Flamboyant, imaginative fable, a real classic. View all 30 comments. Nov 11, Jim Fonseca rated it it was amazing Shelves: russian-authors. More or less a novel, this book is also an allegory. Like Moby Dick, there are probably a dozen interpretations that can be given to it. The extensive local color comes from Moscow in the early Twentieth Century. The author wrote and revised it from to The main plot centers around a crowd of Russian literati - authors, theater goers and hangers-on, particularly one older world-weary author the Master and his beautiful young girlfriend Margarita. The devil and his sidekicks come More or less a novel, this book is also an allegory. The devil and his sidekicks come to town and a lot of evil doings ensue. If this were a modern Latin American novel, we would call it magical realism. Interspersed with the Moscow chapters is a mini historical novel that the Master is writing about Pontius Pilate and his agony over his decisions leading to the Crucifixion. Given that the in this era was promoting atheism, closing churches and persecuting religious folks, the main thesis seems to be summed up as follows: "Surely the devil is real, and if so, there must be a God. I wouldn't say that it's a book that I couldn't put down, but the plot moves and it kept my attention. One thing that struck me is that Moscow was "behind-the-times" apparently, and much of the plot felt like it was set in the late 's. But then a phone would ring or someone would arrive by plane and it jarred me back to the proper era. View all 19 comments. Oct 18, Lyn rated it really liked it. The Master and Margarita by Soviet era writer Mikhail Bulgakov seems to inspire strong emotions though most critics and commentators have been impressed with the satire. Le Monde listed the novel number 94 on its books of the century. I found it absurd, outrageous, inconsistent, but for the most part entertaining. The book is alternately set in s Moscow and during the execution of Yeshua Ha-Notsri, a translation as Jesus. The premise is that Satan and his demonic retinue has come for a visit to Moscow and this visit is used by Bulgakov as a means to critically observe the Soviet Russians. One of the most endearing scenes was the Satanic Ball hosted by Margarita and attended by the celebrated damned from Hell. Bulgakov's theme of the relationship between good and evil is a strong message that works well from the spirited, forced perspective allegory. All in all, this is an important work, though it may not be timeless as many of the references to Soviet life were not clear to this 21st century suburban American. This is one I may try to read again in a year or so as I may need to think about it more. View all 23 comments. Jun 06, Kevin Ansbro rated it it was amazing Shelves: awesome-premise , classic-literature , escapism , magical-realism , favourites , immorality , literature-for-grown-ups , years- ahead-of-its-time , allegory , human-cruelty. I needed a margarita after finishing The Master and Margarita! What a magnificent, turbulent read! This extravagant Russian allegory is an adult Alice in Wonderland, bursting at the seams with mischief, darkness and rambunctiousness. The ghosts of Faust and Dante must have sat on the author's shoulders as he worked tirelessly on this masterpiece. In short, this book was made for me! Come down from the "The devil went down to Moscow, he was looking for a soul to steal. I'm so glad we found each other! The Devil and his motley crew breeze into s Moscow and begin to reap havoc by reading people's minds, decapitating citizens and throwing an astonishing stage show that scandalises the local glitterati. The humour is riotous and the badinage so hilarious that I was holding my ribs, kicking my legs and Cossack dancing around the room! In tandem with all of this magic and mayhem please bear with me, dear reader is a travel back in time to the trial and eventual crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth. These subplot scenes are written in a completely different hist-fic style and are amazingly cinematic. The author's juxtaposition of the supernatural and the real is a constant stratagem throughout. It would take me all day to discuss the symbolism that underpins this incredible book, so I won't bore you with every detail. Suffice to say that Bulgakov sets out to satirise the Stalinist regime he was oppressed by was Orwell's Animal Farm inspired by this novel? The underlying parable jumps about all over the place — and sometimes out of windows on a broomstick! Heck, there is even a Magritte-style talking suit! I'd be lying if I said I'd grasped the significance of all of the author's philosophical analogies, but I certainly had a lot of fun trying. I loved this book; really loved it. And it's incredible to think that The Master and Margarita was fashioned in the s. It was years ahead of its time and is like no other novel I've ever read. Clearly, this book wouldn't be for everyone, but if you like your literature dark, magical, intellectual, thought-provoking and absurd, then you should find room for it on your shelves. This was a buddy read with my wonderful magical realism friend, Kimber Silver. Kimber's review Ona Love the review. This is already on my TBR list, but now, I really have to read it. Oct 20, AM. Terence M Spring is in My Step! Your writing and your Five Stars make the book sound fantastic, Kevin! This book by Bulgakov is a miracle - a magical text of incredible imagination that miraculously did not get its author shipped out to a gulag and forgotten. Miraculous that the book made it out of Stalinist Russia for our enjoyment. Miraculous as it is a work of sublime beauty and a fitting 20th C Faustian story. A must-read to understand a slice of reality under a totalitarian government. The writing is engaging and highly imaginative. I need to reread this one again! Just rereading tonight and This book by Bulgakov is a miracle - a magical text of incredible imagination that miraculously did not get its author shipped out to a gulag and forgotten. I love how the book shifts effortlessly from one absurd situation to the next. Amazing writing. View all 25 comments. This is a romp. While reading it I saw somewhere that Salman Rushdie said it was a major influence for him in the writing of The Satanic Verses. Several things about it surprise me. No doubt it's loaded with political subtext about Stalin's Russia; it was written during the years of the worst crimes of Stalin's regime. I speak here of "dekulakization," in which some 20 to 50 m This is a romp. I speak here of "dekulakization," in which some 20 to 50 million people died, many succumbing to cannibalism, and the Moscow show trials so carefully dissected by Robert Conquest in his The Great Terror. But I was oblivious to any such subtext while reading this novel. What struck me was the lively picture it gives one of Moscow in the s. The tenor of the city, its street life, not to mention the look of the place and the landscape surrounding it. The parks and public spaces. I had seen Moscow before in Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, but that was late 19th century Moscow, a provincial city parroting Parisian culture and language. I also remember--how can I forget? But here we have a Moscow bursting with life, with people enjoying their lives. Yet, it's also a Moscow that aspires to world dominance. It was that contradiction that was always foremost in my mind as I read. One wonders how Bulgakov did it? Turning out this fabulist masterpiece in the midst of such craziness, such instability. But all that aside the book is finally unlike anything I have ever read before. Description is really the book's strength: action and imagery. There's no plot to speak of. You can look elsewhere in these reviews for a description of the storyline. It's character driven. And it never flags. An absolutely astonishing book. View all 36 comments. A bitterly evil, yet hilarious and highly political disclosure of Stalins regime. The devil disguised as Prof. Voland and his entourage, causing trouble in Moscow The story of "The Master and Margarita" tells about the devil visiting Moscow, causing confusion and "evil" that exposes the repression of society. The devils doing evolves around a writer the Master , whom they locked into a mental institution for writing a story and making claims that are inconsistent with the states ideology of athei A bitterly evil, yet hilarious and highly political disclosure of Stalins regime. The devils doing evolves around a writer the Master , whom they locked into a mental institution for writing a story and making claims that are inconsistent with the states ideology of atheism. Furthermore the appearance of the devil himself makes the same statement: "Surely the devil is real, and if so, there must be a God. The imposition of the system, however, reached a climax of tyranny under , causing increasing state paranoia, censorship, mass imprisonment, and executions. It was within this suffocating and fearfull atmosphere that Bulgakov wrote "The Master and Margarita". Michael Bulgakov The book signals artistic freedom. Bulgakov started writing in , but burned the first manuscript in just as the Master does as he could not see a future as a writer under this political repression. He restarted one year later but had some unfinished sentences and loose ends until he died. It only appeared years later, still censored, but the readers managed to spread the parts that were cut out in secret and added them in handwriting themselves. In Soviet society a writer could only exist, if he had the favor of the government—meaning to always meet the ideological approval of the government. Therefore the approoved writers of that time were not producing literature, but no more than state propaganda. Most of them were send to prison in Siberia or murdered. Maltschenko was killed by Stalins police and retouched from the picture after left vs. It states that good and evil do not exist independently from one another, but that each in fact requires the other. Doing so, it also comments on the never-changing nature of humanity itself. The society, who is suffering under the system, is still mostly dominated by cowardliness, the greed and love of money, treason, deceit, egoism and self-absorption. It can be found on every single page. View all 35 comments. There was something devilish and demonic in the time itself so the devil with his demons descended unto the capital city. First of all, the man described did not limp on any leg, and was neither short nor enormous, but simply tall. As for his teeth, he had platinum crowns on the left side and gold on the right. He was wearing an expensive grey suit and imported shoes of a matching colour. His grey beret was cocked rakishly over one ear; under his arm he carried a stick with a black knob shaped li There was something devilish and demonic in the time itself so the devil with his demons descended unto the capital city. He looked to be a little over forty. Mouth somehow twisted. Right eye black, left — for some reason — green. Dark eyebrows, but one higher than the other. In short, a foreigner. But in the time of evil even the doings of Satan seem to turn into the rather good deeds. The tale is eternal and the story of Faust, and Mephistopheles repeats over and over again, all the way through the ages. In the grotesque Soviet times the tale becomes especially grotesque and fabulous… Follow me, reader! Who told you that there is no true, faithful, eternal love in this world! Follow me, my reader, and me alone, and I will show you such a love! The master was mistaken when with bitterness he told Ivanushka in the hospital, at that hour when the night was falling past midnight, that she had forgotten him. That could not be. She had, of course, not forgotten him. First of all let us reveal the secret which the master did not wish to reveal to Ivanushka. Everything the master told the poor poet about her was the exact truth. He described his beloved correctly. She was beautiful and intelligent. Love is pristine and ever since the serpent revealed it to Adam and Eve, Satan himself could do nothing against love. View all 7 comments. And one can't quite get to the bottom of "The Master and Margarita"--a trippy, satirical, hard-to-classify classic of the mid-century Russian variety. It remains an almost mystical experience. Strange, exciting literary terrain is traversed and it truly titillates the senses. It is a panorama with no beginning and no end--which begins at the beginning of Christian times and ends It stays in the mind--there is soo much to ponder here. The details are mostly red herrings--but are they? Deja vu is not uncommon. It's like being inside nesting dolls that are degutted, with jewels for entrails! Surreal doesn't befit it, nor does "parable. An opera of wondrous dimensions! You'll enjoy it View all 14 comments. Oct 16, Steve rated it liked it. There once was a book praised as boff That caused others to pan it and scoff So who wrote this thing Whence sentiments swing? The culture was smothered by Stalin He purged those he felt failed to fall in. So how to respond Sans magical wand? The book has been said to have layers With multiple plotlines and players. Can naked truth sate the naysayers? Bli There once was a book praised as boff That caused others to pan it and scoff So who wrote this thing Whence sentiments swing? Blind fools in their presence would cower. And smug Party folks Were easy to hoax. No tears, though, when bureaucrats sour. The hope is that art survives might. And how does good shine without bad? Is bad the worst trait to be had? The group which we all thank Kris and Mary for running so well has been great for providing discussions and links to help interpret the symbols, themes and historical context. But this, too, makes original thoughts about it hard to come by. Anyway, this is my justification for punting, and instead trying perhaps too hard just to be different. I will say that I never really lost myself in the story nor cared about the thinly drawn characters. The greater pleasure was in trying to figure out the different elements of the allegory, what the broader questions were, and how Stalinist oppression may have driven it. The axe he was grinding to counter the shush on creative freedom continues to resonate. Is there a religious angle? What about moral judgment; free will vs. Others have done a much better job addressing the main themes: good vs. As an example of his character, he tried cheating at chess. Three stars is a cop-out, I know. I was caught between extremes. The story and characters failed to draw me in, but it was an interesting exercise in interpretation. Shelves: russian-author , , ugh , lit-fic. This is was one of them had I chosen to read the censo This is not a review. My humble apologies to those who love this book. All I can recall is something fluid and magical. My experience this time was quite different. It was a new translation, and I was initially skeptical about its merits. Ultimately, I think I was unduely critical of the translation. At the beginning, I read, almost seeking fault in the text. I did find it, too, stiff and wooden expressions, but after a while I willed myself to overlook them. If I continued to swim against the stream, I would never let this work win me over again. I stopped struggling, and let the stream take me to the source of its meaning. After a while, I stopped noticing that the carpet was frayed or that the paint on the wall was chipped. It started to feel like a lounge room again and I got comfortable on my couch. Stalin ascended to power in and immediately took drastic steps to drag the Soviet economy into the twentieth century. Collectivisation saw major inroads into personal and creative freedom, while the rest of the world looked on, not without its own problems, moving towards a second great war. The arts were expected to reinforce the culture of Socialism, and Socialist Realism was imposed on artists. The formal radicalism that had flowered at the same time as the Revolution was clipped and discarded. Only, one Mikhail Bulgakov found that Socialist Realism was not the appropriate vehicle for the tales he wanted to tell. Between and his death in , Bulgakov started to construct his story his own way. He was capable of descriptive realism, but he had also mastered the stylings of fairy tales and the parable structure of the Bible. These styles flew around his head and poured onto the page, only to be rejected, altered, rearranged, burnt, rewritten, reconstructed and published in different iterations. His progress was plagued by both institutional and personal censorship. Still, the structure and substance of what he wanted to say was firmly etched in his mind. After one spate of burning, when he sat down to rewrite it, his wife asked how he could remember it. He gave this work all of his heart, he committed it to memory and then into writing, so that those around him could have the heart required to change what they saw around them. The Materialist conception of History predicted and dictated that Socialism would one day overthrow Capitalism in each country. However, the timing in each country was not certain, which left scope for the subjective intervention of a Revolutionary Vanguard. The more premature the Revolution, the more despotic would be the measures required to retain power against Counter-Revolutionary forces. The firm hand of Stalin did not waver from the task, indeed he seemed to thrive on it. He turned society on itself. He turned child against parent, sibling against sibling, friend against friend, lover against lover, neighbor against neighbor, student against teacher, writer against artist. In the process, he destroyed the fabric of society, the threads that hold it together. Love, trust, respect, truth. In their place grew fear, hatred, suspicion, paranoia, falsity, propaganda, opportunism, careerism, cynicism. Ironically, or perhaps intentionally, the security forces that preserved the State were responsible for the greatest insecurity in the people it was designed to serve. Normality in a Normative State Social and political norms were imposed from above by the State. The normal ceased to be individual and became a dictate of the State. The normal was captive to the social norms of the collective. Totalitarianism destroyed things of ordinary beauty by turning them into the mundane. However, his enemies inflicted the greatest damage possible on an author by denying him the right to publish and therefore denying him the lifeblood that every artist needs, an audience. Thus, Bulgakov died a broken man, and potentially with a broken heart. Yet, he had the foresight to make his own plight the implicit subject of his novel. The Master of the title is much like Bulgakov personally. Margarita is much like his third wife, the wife at the time of his death. The State was a Totalitarian Dictatorship that had destroyed civil society and turned people upon themselves. Truth was manipulated. So life under Totalitarianism, life in a Totalitarian State defies the imagination. Imagination Defies the State Bulgakov recognized that the converse was also true. Whatever the personal cost, it takes an act of the imagination, an act of fantasy to defy a Totalitarian State. Totalitarianism wants control of your mind. Therefore, you can only defy Totalitarianism in your mind. To defy it otherwise is to put your life at risk. To do so inevitably means that you will vanish or disappear. Even if the man, the author, is broken, the power of his fantasy, the product of his imagination cannot be broken, at least once it has escaped captivity or destruction and been published. The fantasy is constructed with the vividness of a fairy tale that can be learned and told orally, so that its outline cannot be forgotten. It can be reconstructed after consecutive burnings. Its memorability constituted its greatest danger, the greatest threat to the State. External Websites. See Article History. Britannica Quiz. Name the Novelist. Get exclusive access to content from our First Edition with your subscription. Subscribe today. Learn More in these related Britannica articles:. It tells of the Devil and his retinue visiting Soviet Russia, where they play practical jokes of metaphysical and political significance. A novel…. The central…. Novel , an invented prose narrative of considerable length and a certain complexity that deals imaginatively with human experience, usually through a connected sequence of events involving a group of persons in a specific setting. Within its broad framework, the genre of the novel has encompassed an extensive range of types…. History at your fingertips. Sign up here to see what happened On This Day , every day in your inbox! The Master and Margarita Summary | GradeSaver

Vladimir Nabokov. East of Eden. John Steinbeck. Anna Karenina. The Pearl. The Trial. Notes from Underground. Twelve Angry Men. Reginald Rose. Another Country. James Baldwin. The Stories of John Cheever. John Cheever. Animal Farm. George Orwell. Doctor Zhivago. Boris Pasternak. The Annotated Lolita. Go Tell It on the Mountain. Kurt Vonnegut. The Beautiful and Damned. Scott Fitzgerald. The Satanic Verses. Salman Rushdie. White Noise. The Sirens of Titan. The Noise of Time. Julian Barnes. On the Road. Jack Kerouac. The Plague. Albert Camus. The Crucible. Arthur Miller. The Moon Is Down. Fences Movie tie-in. August Wilson. God Bless You, Mr. He restarted one year later but had some unfinished sentences and loose ends until he died. It only appeared years later, still censored, but the readers managed to spread the parts that were cut out in secret and added them in handwriting themselves. In Soviet society a writer could only exist, if he had the favor of the government—meaning to always meet the ideological approval of the government. Therefore the approoved writers of that time were not producing literature, but no more than state propaganda. Most of them were send to prison in Siberia or murdered. Maltschenko was killed by Stalins police and retouched from the picture after left vs. It states that good and evil do not exist independently from one another, but that each in fact requires the other. Doing so, it also comments on the never-changing nature of humanity itself. The society, who is suffering under the system, is still mostly dominated by cowardliness, the greed and love of money, treason, deceit, egoism and self-absorption. It can be found on every single page. View all 35 comments. There was something devilish and demonic in the time itself so the devil with his demons descended unto the capital city. First of all, the man described did not limp on any leg, and was neither short nor enormous, but simply tall. As for his teeth, he had platinum crowns on the left side and gold on the right. He was wearing an expensive grey suit and imported shoes of a matching colour. His grey beret was cocked rakishly over one ear; under his arm he carried a stick with a black knob shaped li There was something devilish and demonic in the time itself so the devil with his demons descended unto the capital city. He looked to be a little over forty. Mouth somehow twisted. Right eye black, left — for some reason — green. Dark eyebrows, but one higher than the other. In short, a foreigner. But in the time of evil even the doings of Satan seem to turn into the rather good deeds. The tale is eternal and the story of Faust, Gretchen and Mephistopheles repeats over and over again, all the way through the ages. In the grotesque Soviet times the tale becomes especially grotesque and fabulous… Follow me, reader! Who told you that there is no true, faithful, eternal love in this world! Follow me, my reader, and me alone, and I will show you such a love! The master was mistaken when with bitterness he told Ivanushka in the hospital, at that hour when the night was falling past midnight, that she had forgotten him. That could not be. She had, of course, not forgotten him. First of all let us reveal the secret which the master did not wish to reveal to Ivanushka. Everything the master told the poor poet about her was the exact truth. He described his beloved correctly. She was beautiful and intelligent. Love is pristine and ever since the serpent revealed it to Adam and Eve, Satan himself could do nothing against love. View all 7 comments. And one can't quite get to the bottom of "The Master and Margarita"--a trippy, satirical, hard-to-classify classic of the mid-century Russian variety. It remains an almost mystical experience. Strange, exciting literary terrain is traversed and it truly titillates the senses. It is a panorama with no beginning and no end--which begins at the beginning of Christian times and ends It stays in the mind--there is soo much to ponder here. The details are mostly red herrings--but are they? Deja vu is not uncommon. It's like being inside nesting dolls that are degutted, with jewels for entrails! Surreal doesn't befit it, nor does "parable. An opera of wondrous dimensions! You'll enjoy it View all 14 comments. Oct 16, Steve rated it liked it. There once was a book praised as boff That caused others to pan it and scoff So who wrote this thing Whence sentiments swing? The culture was smothered by Stalin He purged those he felt failed to fall in. So how to respond Sans magical wand? The book has been said to have layers With multiple plotlines and players. Can naked truth sate the naysayers? Bli There once was a book praised as boff That caused others to pan it and scoff So who wrote this thing Whence sentiments swing? Blind fools in their presence would cower. And smug Party folks Were easy to hoax. No tears, though, when bureaucrats sour. The hope is that art survives might. And how does good shine without bad? Is bad the worst trait to be had? The group which we all thank Kris and Mary for running so well has been great for providing discussions and links to help interpret the symbols, themes and historical context. But this, too, makes original thoughts about it hard to come by. Anyway, this is my justification for punting, and instead trying perhaps too hard just to be different. I will say that I never really lost myself in the story nor cared about the thinly drawn characters. The greater pleasure was in trying to figure out the different elements of the allegory, what the broader questions were, and how Stalinist oppression may have driven it. The axe he was grinding to counter the shush on creative freedom continues to resonate. Is there a religious angle? What about moral judgment; free will vs. Others have done a much better job addressing the main themes: good vs. As an example of his character, he tried cheating at chess. Three stars is a cop-out, I know. I was caught between extremes. The story and characters failed to draw me in, but it was an interesting exercise in interpretation. Shelves: russian-author , , ugh , lit-fic. This is was one of them had I chosen to read the censo This is not a review. My humble apologies to those who love this book. All I can recall is something fluid and magical. My experience this time was quite different. It was a new translation, and I was initially skeptical about its merits. Ultimately, I think I was unduely critical of the translation. At the beginning, I read, almost seeking fault in the text. I did find it, too, stiff and wooden expressions, but after a while I willed myself to overlook them. If I continued to swim against the stream, I would never let this work win me over again. I stopped struggling, and let the stream take me to the source of its meaning. After a while, I stopped noticing that the carpet was frayed or that the paint on the wall was chipped. It started to feel like a lounge room again and I got comfortable on my couch. Stalin ascended to power in and immediately took drastic steps to drag the Soviet economy into the twentieth century. Collectivisation saw major inroads into personal and creative freedom, while the rest of the world looked on, not without its own problems, moving towards a second great war. The arts were expected to reinforce the culture of Socialism, and Socialist Realism was imposed on artists. The formal radicalism that had flowered at the same time as the Revolution was clipped and discarded. Only, one Mikhail Bulgakov found that Socialist Realism was not the appropriate vehicle for the tales he wanted to tell. Between and his death in , Bulgakov started to construct his story his own way. He was capable of descriptive realism, but he had also mastered the fantasy stylings of fairy tales and the parable structure of the Bible. These styles flew around his head and poured onto the page, only to be rejected, altered, rearranged, burnt, rewritten, reconstructed and published in different iterations. His progress was plagued by both institutional and personal censorship. Still, the structure and substance of what he wanted to say was firmly etched in his mind. After one spate of burning, when he sat down to rewrite it, his wife asked how he could remember it. He gave this work all of his heart, he committed it to memory and then into writing, so that those around him could have the heart required to change what they saw around them. The Materialist conception of History predicted and dictated that Socialism would one day overthrow Capitalism in each country. However, the timing in each country was not certain, which left scope for the subjective intervention of a Revolutionary Vanguard. The more premature the Revolution, the more despotic would be the measures required to retain power against Counter-Revolutionary forces. The firm hand of Stalin did not waver from the task, indeed he seemed to thrive on it. He turned society on itself. He turned child against parent, sibling against sibling, friend against friend, lover against lover, neighbor against neighbor, student against teacher, writer against artist. In the process, he destroyed the fabric of society, the threads that hold it together. Love, trust, respect, truth. In their place grew fear, hatred, suspicion, paranoia, falsity, propaganda, opportunism, careerism, cynicism. Ironically, or perhaps intentionally, the security forces that preserved the State were responsible for the greatest insecurity in the people it was designed to serve. Normality in a Normative State Social and political norms were imposed from above by the State. The normal ceased to be individual and became a dictate of the State. The normal was captive to the social norms of the collective. Totalitarianism destroyed things of ordinary beauty by turning them into the mundane. However, his enemies inflicted the greatest damage possible on an author by denying him the right to publish and therefore denying him the lifeblood that every artist needs, an audience. Thus, Bulgakov died a broken man, and potentially with a broken heart. Yet, he had the foresight to make his own plight the implicit subject of his novel. The Master of the title is much like Bulgakov personally. Margarita is much like his third wife, the wife at the time of his death. The State was a Totalitarian Dictatorship that had destroyed civil society and turned people upon themselves. Truth was manipulated. So life under Totalitarianism, life in a Totalitarian State defies the imagination. Imagination Defies the State Bulgakov recognized that the converse was also true. Whatever the personal cost, it takes an act of the imagination, an act of fantasy to defy a Totalitarian State. Totalitarianism wants control of your mind. Therefore, you can only defy Totalitarianism in your mind. To defy it otherwise is to put your life at risk. To do so inevitably means that you will vanish or disappear. Even if the man, the author, is broken, the power of his fantasy, the product of his imagination cannot be broken, at least once it has escaped captivity or destruction and been published. The fantasy is constructed with the vividness of a fairy tale that can be learned and told orally, so that its outline cannot be forgotten. It can be reconstructed after consecutive burnings. Its memorability constituted its greatest danger, the greatest threat to the State. It was engraved in and out of the Soul of Man under Socialism. It originates as and becomes and remains an act of the collective imagination, the collective consciousness. There, it cannot be destroyed. This is the secret of its power and its danger to the State. It would be tempting to comment about the redemptive power of Love. However, I think that might miss the point. Love is one of the primary qualities that suffers under Totalitarianism. There can be no Society, no Family, no Individuals without Love. If you quash Love, you destroy Society, the Family and the Individual. And this is what Stalin had achieved in the Soviet Union under Communism. Just as it was inspired by Liberty and Equality, two values promoted by the French Revolution, it valued Fraternity, a value that is less understood and discussed. Fraternity promotes the value not just of the Individual, but of the Individual in Society. It is concerned with the coexistence of Individuals and the relationship between them. In this sense, it is compatible with the social teachings of Jesus Christ, when divorced from the spiritual and religious content. Pilate personally seems to have questioned whether he should be killed, but he lacked the courage to allow him to live. In ordering his crucifixion, he almost killed off a philosophy of Fraternal Love, just as Stalin later destroyed faith in Socialism by attacking the Fraternalism at its heart. Pilate lacked the courage to defy Caesar. Likewise, few stood up to Stalin and survived. It is difficult to make them culpable in a Society where they might have disappeared, if they poked their head above the crowd. Bulgakov reserves his greatest scorn for those who did know the Truth. In his eyes, there is no greater coward than someone who knows the Truth and denies it. To the State, they constitute a flight risk. It takes the power of flight to liberate them from Totalitarianism. It takes a flight of fantasy to escape. They have to flee to be free. The Soviet Union could not tolerate a message that suggested that salvation might be elsewhere, whether on Earth or in Heaven. For those who remain, the salvation of the Master and Margarita is a folly. Yet, each full moon, the researcher Ivan Homeless can see that it is the world of Socialism that is a folly. In the world of the Master and Margarita, in the world of Love, the luminary Moon rules and plays, while on Earth, in the world of Socialism, lunacy prevails. Life therefore is a product of the internal dialectical operation of good and evil. Each of us can only hope that the product of the interaction is Love, that our Fall whether graceful or not, whether a Fall from Grace or towards it is to fall in Love, as it was for the Master and Margarita. If you fall, may you fall into the arms of Love. And when you do, may you remember the Master and Margarita. And the man who died at age 49 trying to tell us the Truth. View all 80 comments. I love this book, but I won't assume you're an idiotic bigot if you think it sucks. View all 18 comments. Rereading it now, I can see how brilliant that diamond really is. Jubilee edition It's difficult to explain the effect of this book. There is such a wild oscillation in it that swings us back and forth between two worlds: the world of Moscow - a wild circus with the devil Woland as ringmaster - and the world of Yershalaim Jerusalem. These are fictional reinventions that retain a basic truth. But perhaps there is one other world that Woland wreaks havoc with: the one we live in. He takes our ideas and gives them a wild spin. And what fun! Both Christian and Atheist get to see what a dog and pony show their ideas can be. The scenes with Pontius Pilate are poignant, and speak of the power of "goodness". Jesus is stripped of mythology and becomes Yeshua Ha-Nozri, a gifted and kindly person. His story here gives some insight into how that truly good man inspired a new religion. Miracles not required: these are reserved for the devil and his retinue, who make merry with the citizens of Moscow - fair game, whenever their hearts show the slightest crack of hypocrisy. This novel as a whole can be seen through the story of Pontius Pilate, the book within the book. He is a man who has been hardened almost completely. His encounter with Yeshua opens the possibility of redemption, something he had not even realized was needed. The tension builds as we go from the present to ancient past, from gritty reality to the magically surreal, from high farce to beautiful allegory. The character Yeshua is like Prince Myshkin. There are similar themes of greed, love, and the "Oh! Watch the superb TV . Listen to the soundtrack. Visit the website. Listen to Daniel Radcliff! Call Banga. Read the book. View all 46 comments. Oct 03, Beata rated it it was amazing Shelves: favorites. My beloved novel! A masterpiece! So many layers and themes! It is so rare that every time you read a book you discover something new. Shelves: classics , modern-fiction , book-club , magical-realism , russia. The Hell. Was That? This Russian novel was so wacky and schizophrenic that it gave me a headache. I had never heard of "The Master and Margarita" until a book club friend said it was one of her favorites. It comes weighted with a lot of praise -- it is considered one of the great Russian novels and has been listed as one of the best books of the 20th Century. I read a lot of glowing, 5-star reviews of this book, but I just didn't connect with it as others have. I didn't even like the book un What. I didn't even like the book until page , which was when Margarita finally showed up. The second half of the book is definitely better than the first half, which really plodded along in places. But I'm getting ahead of myself, so let's back up. According to the introduction, Bulgakov was upset about how Christ was portrayed in Soviet anti-religious propaganda, so he wrote a satire about what would happen if Satan suddenly appeared in Moscow. The novel pokes fun at the greed and pettiness of people, and at the rigid social order in Russian life. While I did have a few giggles at the hijinks that ensue when the devil starts making mischief -- and there's a talking cat! And I'm getting another one just thinking about trying to summarize the rest of the story, so forgive me if I pop some aspirin and recommend anyone who is interested in this novel to read Kris' excellent review. She got way more out of this book than I did. Bulgakov worked on the novel for more than a decade, but in several different versions because at one point he even burned the manuscript. One of its most famous quotes is that "manuscripts don't burn. View all 17 comments. Jun 06, Kimber Silver rated it it was amazing Shelves: epic-reads , family-drama , magical-realism , humor , must-read , delicious-writing. Like a multifaceted gem, each sparkling page of this fantastical Russian wonder drew me deeper into The Master and Margarita's brilliant world. I was soon "What would your good do if evil didn't exist, and what would the earth look like if all the shadows disappeared? I was soon running along the steamy streets of Moscow with a vibrant cast of characters, doing my best to keep up with their unbridled antics as they turned the city on its ear. A recurring theme reminiscent of a Faustian bargain is served with a large side of comedy and a big black cat as a dining companion. Most of all, it was a joy to be immersed within the pages of this multilayered novel. Thank you, Kevin Ansbro, for this fantastic buddy read! Kevin's review View all 64 comments. It would appear that poor old Berlioz was not the only one to lose his head, feels like mine has gone as well! While other writers of this time period put pen to paper in the darkest of ways under Stalin's reign, Mikhail Bulgakov decides to write about among other things, talking cats, naked witches, Pontius Pilate, invisible body cream, trumpet playing gorillas and danci Hmm While other writers of this time period put pen to paper in the darkest of ways under Stalin's reign, Mikhail Bulgakov decides to write about among other things, talking cats, naked witches, Pontius Pilate, invisible body cream, trumpet playing gorillas and dancing polar bears! The devil be told, I am still unable contemplate whether this is a work of utter genius or the ramblings of a complete nutcase!. At times it felt all over the place, throwing to much madness at you all at once, but it somehow manages to get away with, though I still don't know why. Two things I do know for sure, Bulgakov certainly had one hell of an imagination and this will have to be read again, not necessarily to try and make more sense of it all but just for the sheer experience of being taken on a devilishly wild ride around Moscow and beyond. View all 6 comments. I had cracked it open once before, and barely made past page 10 before giving up — but to be fair, my head was not in the right place for a book like that at the time. This time around, I needed to cleanse my brain of the memory of a clumsily written and disappointing read, and I just figured Bulgakov had waited on my shelf long enough, and that he would do the trick. Ivan meets a nameless writer only known as the Master, and the Master's mistress, Margarita, catches the Devil's eye and he asks her to host a ball. The theme of madness is right under the surface, as most of the characters who encounter Woland end up in a psychiatric hospital, believed by everyone else to be completely insane, when all they did was describe the events exactly as they had happened to them. I have always found that view fascinating, and closely echoing Taoism: one is separate and both at the same time. I feel like I will need to read it again to absorb more details, and also because while I enjoyed it, it's hard for me to put my finger on precisely what I loved about it. The strange characters, the absurd events, the wild plot? I get 4 stars for now, but who know what I'll think next time around? View all 10 comments. What is this novel through which I've ambled? Is it only that Doctor Bulgakov has rambled? Or some heady, unearthly wine I've sampled? I do believe that my brain has been scrambled! When the Russians write, you do expect some gloom; A lot of characters sitting around, awaiting doom: And guys wandering about like Leopold Bloom - Just marking time until they can enter the tomb But when on page one, you encounter the devil Come to visit Moscow, wine, dine and revel; With his motley crew of demons m What is this novel through which I've ambled? But when on page one, you encounter the devil Come to visit Moscow, wine, dine and revel; With his motley crew of demons medieval - You seriously doubt whether the author's on the level! But there is no time to think or even take a breath Before the dark one and team put you on meth And take you on a trail of destruction and death - - On each page, serious mayhem abideth! People go crazy and become alcoholic, Or on the streets in their birthday suit they frolic; While some of them become deeply melancholic: And the plot seems to be something quite diabolic - But no; there is a poor writer who needs succour For the wrath of Stalin at sometime he did incur: Now the Master is in a bit of a chukker With his unfinished novel, burnt up in rancour: He is in the madhouse, without joy or hope, Having almost reached the end of his rope: When surprise! And with his loved one, the Master is assisted to elope - And as Margarita and her lover are united, In a tranquil domain, their love again ignited - - the story of Pilate, the governor blighted By one misstep, his whole existence benighted That the Master has written; also finds its ending With Pilate and Jesus friends, and moonward wending And except for a Moscow subject to a rending There is nothing much left that's in any way offending What does the author mean? Through the three mutually intertwining story-streams? There is Master and Margarita, and the devil and his team Plus the story of Jesus with its altered theme; Was Doctor Bulgakov being purposefully weird To cock a snook at a regime which was universally feared? The Moscow he portrays does seem to appear With endless corruption, lust, and calumny smeared; But since this fantasy would never have seen the light In a country in the grip of the Stalinist blight: We must conclude that even for the author to write Such a satire, wouldn't have eased his plight; So maybe it has got a deeper philosophic vein? Something which lies buried, deep and unseen? Which when brought up to the light, with its dazzling sheen Would leave us gasping, as we find what it means? To be truthful, I don't know, nor do I care! Just blissfully happy to lounge in my chair, And romp my way through this wonderful affair! And my delight with other bookworms share This magical tale, unique and bizarre - Cannot be scored anything less than five stars! View all 24 comments. Nilanjana Haldar No words! I saved your review to my laptop to read it later. Exquisite design of a poem-cum-review for a novel. I wonder how delighted the autho No words! I wonder how delighted the author must have felt reading this I love poetry and I want to learn from this poem of yours Nandakishore Varma Nilanjana wrote: "No words! I wonder how d Nilanjana wrote: "No words! I wonder how delighted the author must have felt reading this I love poetry an But thanks! Jul 10, Bradley rated it it was amazing Shelves: shelf , fantasy , romance , mindfuq , fanboy-goes-squee , satire , urban-fantasy. There are very few things I can say about this novel except it's Brilliant, Brilliant, Brillant. That, and I am afraid I'm a total fanboy of all Russian novelists and this one in particular. And I thought Dostoyevski was good. This one is completely modern, absolutely unappreciated in his time, dead young, and hailed as one of Russia's most popular novelists. And for good reason. The satire, written in the 50's, lambasts Moscow's '30's and continues to be a threat to all Russia today There are very few things I can say about this novel except it's Brilliant, Brilliant, Brillant. The satire, written in the 50's, lambasts Moscow's '30's and continues to be a threat to all Russia today. It became super popular in the 60's America and was the direct inspiration for ' . Does this ring a few bells? Let's get down to the reality of this novel a bit. The Master is the novelist writing about Jesus and Pontus Pilate. He falls in love with a woman, and she with him, and her name is Margarita. She becomes a witch. And in the meantime, we've got ourselves a total retelling of Job, a satire that raises the level of Cons to all new heights. Did I mention I might have just found one of my favorite all-time books? The devil Woland comes to Moscow to have his annual spring ball of the full moon. He and his companions challenge corrupt bureaucrats and profiteers. The second story, set in Jerusalem , describes the inner struggle of Pontius Pilate before, during, and after the conviction and execution of Jesus. The third part tells the love story between a nameless writer in Moscow in the s and his lover, Margarita. He has written a novel on Pontius Pilate , a subject which was taboo in the officially anti-religious atheistic Soviet Union. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov. Works based on Faust. Historia von D.

The Master and Margarita ( film) - Wikipedia

Ivan falls asleep and dreams of the world of Pontius Pilate. Matthu Levi is watching the execution of Yeshua Ha-Nozri. After giving the condemned men a drink, the executioner puts them out of their misery by pricking them in the heart with a spear. Aphranius proclaims them dead, and then a storm begins. Matthu uses a stolen knife to cut all the prisoners down from the posts, and runs off with Yeshua's body. Back in Moscow, it is Friday morning, the day after Woland's show. Vasily Stepanovich Lastochkin , the bookkeeper, is in charge at the Variety Theater since all his superiors have disappeared mysteriously. After investigating officials dismiss the staff at the theater, he arrives at the Commission on Spectacles and Light Entertainment to report on the previous days events, to find Prokhor Petrovich , the chairman of the commission, to have disappeared; only his suit remains, and it is talking and conducting business as usual. His private secretary, Anna Richardovna , reports that it was Behemoth's doing. At the branch office of the Commission, Vasily Stepanovich finds the staff cursed to break out into song at certain intervals. In between bouts of involuntary singing, they beg for help because they cannot control their voices, and manage to explain that it was Koroviev's doing. At the financial office of the Entertainment Sector, Vasily Stepanovich is recognized as "one of those tricksters from the Variety Theater" and put under arrest. Maxamilian Andreyevich Poplavsky , Berlioz's uncle, is arriving in Moscow from Kiev after receiving a confusing telegram from Berlioz, stating that he had just been run over by a streetcar. Maxamilian Andreyevich hurries to Moscow not to attend his nephew's funeral, but because he is interested in inheriting the now vacant apartment on Sadovaya in Moscow. At apartment Number 50, he is confused by Koroviev and Behemoth, and beaten by . Soon after, Andrey Fokich Sokov , the bartender and manager of the buffet at the Variety Theater, arrives at apartment Number 50 because the fake money that Woland distributed was used at the bar, and put the bar out a lot of money. When Woland informs him that he will die of liver cancer in nine months, Sokov seeks out Professor Kuzmin , one of the best liver doctors in town, to demand that his cancer be removed. After Sokov leaves, Kuzmin is confronted by a sparrow, and by a character that seems to be Hella, Azazello, and Woland combined. On Friday, Margarita, who is distraught at the Master's disappearance, meets Azazello on a bench. Though she at first thinks he is insane, he confirms for her that the Master is in fact alive, and says that he will take her to see a foreigner who can reveal more information about her beloved to her. After giving her a little box with a magic cream inside and instructing her to rub it all over her body at half- past nine that evening, he disappears. At half-past nine, she does as she was told, and immediately transforms into a witch. Azazello calls her on the phone and tells her what to do; she flies from the window on a broom, becoming invisible. She flies to the critic Latunsky 's apartment and wrecks havoc there, flooding the building. Then she is overtaken by her maid Natasha , who has also rubbed the cream all over herself, riding a hog, whom Margarita realizes is Nikolay Ivanovich. Margarita lands on a bank and dives into the stream, then departs the island for a party in Moscow. Apartment Number 50 has been expanded by the fifth dimension, to Margarita's wonder. Koroviev explains to Margarita that she is to be the hostess at a ball thrown by Woland, and she agrees to assume the duties. At midnight, the group is transported to a huge hall, and they stop on a landing at the head of a staircase. At midnight, the guests begin to arrive: they leap from coffins that fall out of the fireplace. All the guests are introduced to Margarita, and all committed a heinous crime while they were alive. Baron Meigel enters; though he is not dead, he has apparently been eavesdropping; Abaddon and Azazello kill him. Woland and Margarita drink the Baron's blood. Then everything dissolves and she is returned to apartment Number 50; she enters through the open door in front of her. Margarita finds herself back in Woland's bedroom, where nothing has changed since the ball. After dinner, Margarita demands that the Master be returned to her. He appears, and Behemoth miraculously produces an intact copy of his burnt manuscript. Woland disposes of Aloisy Mogarych , who wrote a denunciation of the Master after reading Latunsky's article, and has moved into the basement apartment, so that the lovers can return there. Woland also grants Natasha's wish to remain a witch, and Nikolay Ivanovich and Varenukha's wishes to return home as humans. Margarita and the Master are returned to the little basement apartment, with the intact manuscript, which Margarita reads. A hurricane has overtaken Yershalayim, and Pilate meets in the palace with Aphranius, the head of his secret police. Pilate tells Aphranius that he has heard that there is a plot to kill Yehudah of Kerioth, who betrayed Yeshua Ha-Nozri, that night, and that the money paid him will be returned to the High Priest who paid it with a note. View all 7 comments. And one can't quite get to the bottom of "The Master and Margarita"--a trippy, satirical, hard-to-classify classic of the mid-century Russian variety. It remains an almost mystical experience. Strange, exciting literary terrain is traversed and it truly titillates the senses. It is a panorama with no beginning and no end--which begins at the beginning of Christian times and ends It stays in the mind--there is soo much to ponder here. The details are mostly red herrings--but are they? Deja vu is not uncommon. It's like being inside nesting dolls that are degutted, with jewels for entrails! Surreal doesn't befit it, nor does "parable. An opera of wondrous dimensions! You'll enjoy it View all 14 comments. Oct 16, Steve rated it liked it. There once was a book praised as boff That caused others to pan it and scoff So who wrote this thing Whence sentiments swing? The culture was smothered by Stalin He purged those he felt failed to fall in. So how to respond Sans magical wand? The book has been said to have layers With multiple plotlines and players. Can naked truth sate the naysayers? Bli There once was a book praised as boff That caused others to pan it and scoff So who wrote this thing Whence sentiments swing? Blind fools in their presence would cower. And smug Party folks Were easy to hoax. No tears, though, when bureaucrats sour. The hope is that art survives might. And how does good shine without bad? Is bad the worst trait to be had? The group which we all thank Kris and Mary for running so well has been great for providing discussions and links to help interpret the symbols, themes and historical context. But this, too, makes original thoughts about it hard to come by. Anyway, this is my justification for punting, and instead trying perhaps too hard just to be different. I will say that I never really lost myself in the story nor cared about the thinly drawn characters. The greater pleasure was in trying to figure out the different elements of the allegory, what the broader questions were, and how Stalinist oppression may have driven it. The axe he was grinding to counter the shush on creative freedom continues to resonate. Is there a religious angle? What about moral judgment; free will vs. Others have done a much better job addressing the main themes: good vs. As an example of his character, he tried cheating at chess. Three stars is a cop-out, I know. I was caught between extremes. The story and characters failed to draw me in, but it was an interesting exercise in interpretation. Shelves: russian-author , , ugh , lit-fic. This is was one of them had I chosen to read the censo This is not a review. My humble apologies to those who love this book. All I can recall is something fluid and magical. My experience this time was quite different. It was a new translation, and I was initially skeptical about its merits. Ultimately, I think I was unduely critical of the translation. At the beginning, I read, almost seeking fault in the text. I did find it, too, stiff and wooden expressions, but after a while I willed myself to overlook them. If I continued to swim against the stream, I would never let this work win me over again. I stopped struggling, and let the stream take me to the source of its meaning. After a while, I stopped noticing that the carpet was frayed or that the paint on the wall was chipped. It started to feel like a lounge room again and I got comfortable on my couch. Stalin ascended to power in and immediately took drastic steps to drag the Soviet economy into the twentieth century. Collectivisation saw major inroads into personal and creative freedom, while the rest of the world looked on, not without its own problems, moving towards a second great war. The arts were expected to reinforce the culture of Socialism, and Socialist Realism was imposed on artists. The formal radicalism that had flowered at the same time as the Revolution was clipped and discarded. Only, one Mikhail Bulgakov found that Socialist Realism was not the appropriate vehicle for the tales he wanted to tell. Between and his death in , Bulgakov started to construct his story his own way. He was capable of descriptive realism, but he had also mastered the fantasy stylings of fairy tales and the parable structure of the Bible. These styles flew around his head and poured onto the page, only to be rejected, altered, rearranged, burnt, rewritten, reconstructed and published in different iterations. His progress was plagued by both institutional and personal censorship. Still, the structure and substance of what he wanted to say was firmly etched in his mind. After one spate of burning, when he sat down to rewrite it, his wife asked how he could remember it. He gave this work all of his heart, he committed it to memory and then into writing, so that those around him could have the heart required to change what they saw around them. The Materialist conception of History predicted and dictated that Socialism would one day overthrow Capitalism in each country. However, the timing in each country was not certain, which left scope for the subjective intervention of a Revolutionary Vanguard. The more premature the Revolution, the more despotic would be the measures required to retain power against Counter-Revolutionary forces. The firm hand of Stalin did not waver from the task, indeed he seemed to thrive on it. He turned society on itself. He turned child against parent, sibling against sibling, friend against friend, lover against lover, neighbor against neighbor, student against teacher, writer against artist. In the process, he destroyed the fabric of society, the threads that hold it together. Love, trust, respect, truth. In their place grew fear, hatred, suspicion, paranoia, falsity, propaganda, opportunism, careerism, cynicism. Ironically, or perhaps intentionally, the security forces that preserved the State were responsible for the greatest insecurity in the people it was designed to serve. Normality in a Normative State Social and political norms were imposed from above by the State. The normal ceased to be individual and became a dictate of the State. The normal was captive to the social norms of the collective. Totalitarianism destroyed things of ordinary beauty by turning them into the mundane. However, his enemies inflicted the greatest damage possible on an author by denying him the right to publish and therefore denying him the lifeblood that every artist needs, an audience. Thus, Bulgakov died a broken man, and potentially with a broken heart. Yet, he had the foresight to make his own plight the implicit subject of his novel. The Master of the title is much like Bulgakov personally. Margarita is much like his third wife, the wife at the time of his death. The State was a Totalitarian Dictatorship that had destroyed civil society and turned people upon themselves. Truth was manipulated. So life under Totalitarianism, life in a Totalitarian State defies the imagination. Imagination Defies the State Bulgakov recognized that the converse was also true. Whatever the personal cost, it takes an act of the imagination, an act of fantasy to defy a Totalitarian State. Totalitarianism wants control of your mind. Therefore, you can only defy Totalitarianism in your mind. To defy it otherwise is to put your life at risk. To do so inevitably means that you will vanish or disappear. Even if the man, the author, is broken, the power of his fantasy, the product of his imagination cannot be broken, at least once it has escaped captivity or destruction and been published. The fantasy is constructed with the vividness of a fairy tale that can be learned and told orally, so that its outline cannot be forgotten. It can be reconstructed after consecutive burnings. Its memorability constituted its greatest danger, the greatest threat to the State. It was engraved in and out of the Soul of Man under Socialism. It originates as and becomes and remains an act of the collective imagination, the collective consciousness. There, it cannot be destroyed. This is the secret of its power and its danger to the State. It would be tempting to comment about the redemptive power of Love. However, I think that might miss the point. Love is one of the primary qualities that suffers under Totalitarianism. There can be no Society, no Family, no Individuals without Love. If you quash Love, you destroy Society, the Family and the Individual. And this is what Stalin had achieved in the Soviet Union under Communism. Just as it was inspired by Liberty and Equality, two values promoted by the French Revolution, it valued Fraternity, a value that is less understood and discussed. Fraternity promotes the value not just of the Individual, but of the Individual in Society. It is concerned with the coexistence of Individuals and the relationship between them. In this sense, it is compatible with the social teachings of Jesus Christ, when divorced from the spiritual and religious content. Pilate personally seems to have questioned whether he should be killed, but he lacked the courage to allow him to live. In ordering his crucifixion, he almost killed off a philosophy of Fraternal Love, just as Stalin later destroyed faith in Socialism by attacking the Fraternalism at its heart. Pilate lacked the courage to defy Caesar. Likewise, few stood up to Stalin and survived. It is difficult to make them culpable in a Society where they might have disappeared, if they poked their head above the crowd. Bulgakov reserves his greatest scorn for those who did know the Truth. In his eyes, there is no greater coward than someone who knows the Truth and denies it. To the State, they constitute a flight risk. It takes the power of flight to liberate them from Totalitarianism. It takes a flight of fantasy to escape. They have to flee to be free. The Soviet Union could not tolerate a message that suggested that salvation might be elsewhere, whether on Earth or in Heaven. For those who remain, the salvation of the Master and Margarita is a folly. Yet, each full moon, the researcher Ivan Homeless can see that it is the world of Socialism that is a folly. In the world of the Master and Margarita, in the world of Love, the luminary Moon rules and plays, while on Earth, in the world of Socialism, lunacy prevails. Life therefore is a product of the internal dialectical operation of good and evil. Each of us can only hope that the product of the interaction is Love, that our Fall whether graceful or not, whether a Fall from Grace or towards it is to fall in Love, as it was for the Master and Margarita. If you fall, may you fall into the arms of Love. And when you do, may you remember the Master and Margarita. And the man who died at age 49 trying to tell us the Truth. View all 80 comments. I love this book, but I won't assume you're an idiotic bigot if you think it sucks. View all 18 comments. Rereading it now, I can see how brilliant that diamond really is. Jubilee edition It's difficult to explain the effect of this book. There is such a wild oscillation in it that swings us back and forth between two worlds: the world of Moscow - a wild circus with the devil Woland as ringmaster - and the world of Yershalaim Jerusalem. These are fictional reinventions that retain a basic truth. But perhaps there is one other world that Woland wreaks havoc with: the one we live in. He takes our ideas and gives them a wild spin. And what fun! Both Christian and Atheist get to see what a dog and pony show their ideas can be. The scenes with Pontius Pilate are poignant, and speak of the power of "goodness". Jesus is stripped of mythology and becomes Yeshua Ha- Nozri, a gifted and kindly person. His story here gives some insight into how that truly good man inspired a new religion. Miracles not required: these are reserved for the devil and his retinue, who make merry with the citizens of Moscow - fair game, whenever their hearts show the slightest crack of hypocrisy. This novel as a whole can be seen through the story of Pontius Pilate, the book within the book. He is a man who has been hardened almost completely. His encounter with Yeshua opens the possibility of redemption, something he had not even realized was needed. The tension builds as we go from the present to ancient past, from gritty reality to the magically surreal, from high farce to beautiful allegory. The character Yeshua is like Prince Myshkin. There are similar themes of greed, love, and the "Oh! Watch the superb TV miniseries. Listen to the soundtrack. Visit the website. Listen to Daniel Radcliff! Call Banga. Read the book. View all 46 comments. Oct 03, Beata rated it it was amazing Shelves: favorites. My beloved novel! A masterpiece! So many layers and themes! It is so rare that every time you read a book you discover something new. Shelves: classics , modern- fiction , book-club , magical-realism , russia. The Hell. Was That? This Russian novel was so wacky and schizophrenic that it gave me a headache. I had never heard of "The Master and Margarita" until a book club friend said it was one of her favorites. It comes weighted with a lot of praise -- it is considered one of the great Russian novels and has been listed as one of the best books of the 20th Century. I read a lot of glowing, 5-star reviews of this book, but I just didn't connect with it as others have. I didn't even like the book un What. I didn't even like the book until page , which was when Margarita finally showed up. The second half of the book is definitely better than the first half, which really plodded along in places. But I'm getting ahead of myself, so let's back up. According to the introduction, Bulgakov was upset about how Christ was portrayed in Soviet anti-religious propaganda, so he wrote a satire about what would happen if Satan suddenly appeared in Moscow. The novel pokes fun at the greed and pettiness of people, and at the rigid social order in Russian life. While I did have a few giggles at the hijinks that ensue when the devil starts making mischief -- and there's a talking cat! And I'm getting another one just thinking about trying to summarize the rest of the story, so forgive me if I pop some aspirin and recommend anyone who is interested in this novel to read Kris' excellent review. She got way more out of this book than I did. Bulgakov worked on the novel for more than a decade, but in several different versions because at one point he even burned the manuscript. One of its most famous quotes is that "manuscripts don't burn. View all 17 comments. Jun 06, Kimber Silver rated it it was amazing Shelves: epic-reads , family-drama , magical-realism , humor , must-read , delicious-writing. Like a multifaceted gem, each sparkling page of this fantastical Russian wonder drew me deeper into The Master and Margarita's brilliant world. I was soon "What would your good do if evil didn't exist, and what would the earth look like if all the shadows disappeared? I was soon running along the steamy streets of Moscow with a vibrant cast of characters, doing my best to keep up with their unbridled antics as they turned the city on its ear. A recurring theme reminiscent of a Faustian bargain is served with a large side of comedy and a big black cat as a dining companion. Most of all, it was a joy to be immersed within the pages of this multilayered novel. Thank you, Kevin Ansbro, for this fantastic buddy read! Kevin's review View all 64 comments. It would appear that poor old Berlioz was not the only one to lose his head, feels like mine has gone as well! While other writers of this time period put pen to paper in the darkest of ways under Stalin's reign, Mikhail Bulgakov decides to write about among other things, talking cats, naked witches, Pontius Pilate, invisible body cream, trumpet playing gorillas and danci Hmm While other writers of this time period put pen to paper in the darkest of ways under Stalin's reign, Mikhail Bulgakov decides to write about among other things, talking cats, naked witches, Pontius Pilate, invisible body cream, trumpet playing gorillas and dancing polar bears! The devil be told, I am still unable contemplate whether this is a work of utter genius or the ramblings of a complete nutcase!. At times it felt all over the place, throwing to much madness at you all at once, but it somehow manages to get away with, though I still don't know why. Two things I do know for sure, Bulgakov certainly had one hell of an imagination and this will have to be read again, not necessarily to try and make more sense of it all but just for the sheer experience of being taken on a devilishly wild ride around Moscow and beyond. View all 6 comments. I had cracked it open once before, and barely made past page 10 before giving up — but to be fair, my head was not in the right place for a book like that at the time. This time around, I needed to cleanse my brain of the memory of a clumsily written and disappointing read, and I just figured Bulgakov had waited on my shelf long enough, and that he would do the trick. Ivan meets a nameless writer only known as the Master, and the Master's mistress, Margarita, catches the Devil's eye and he asks her to host a ball. The theme of madness is right under the surface, as most of the characters who encounter Woland end up in a psychiatric hospital, believed by everyone else to be completely insane, when all they did was describe the events exactly as they had happened to them. I have always found that view fascinating, and closely echoing Taoism: one is separate and both at the same time. I feel like I will need to read it again to absorb more details, and also because while I enjoyed it, it's hard for me to put my finger on precisely what I loved about it. The strange characters, the absurd events, the wild plot? I get 4 stars for now, but who know what I'll think next time around? View all 10 comments. What is this novel through which I've ambled? Is it only that Doctor Bulgakov has rambled? Or some heady, unearthly wine I've sampled? I do believe that my brain has been scrambled! When the Russians write, you do expect some gloom; A lot of characters sitting around, awaiting doom: And guys wandering about like Leopold Bloom - Just marking time until they can enter the tomb But when on page one, you encounter the devil Come to visit Moscow, wine, dine and revel; With his motley crew of demons m What is this novel through which I've ambled? But when on page one, you encounter the devil Come to visit Moscow, wine, dine and revel; With his motley crew of demons medieval - You seriously doubt whether the author's on the level! But there is no time to think or even take a breath Before the dark one and team put you on meth And take you on a trail of destruction and death - - On each page, serious mayhem abideth! People go crazy and become alcoholic, Or on the streets in their birthday suit they frolic; While some of them become deeply melancholic: And the plot seems to be something quite diabolic - But no; there is a poor writer who needs succour For the wrath of Stalin at sometime he did incur: Now the Master is in a bit of a chukker With his unfinished novel, burnt up in rancour: He is in the madhouse, without joy or hope, Having almost reached the end of his rope: When surprise! And with his loved one, the Master is assisted to elope - And as Margarita and her lover are united, In a tranquil domain, their love again ignited - - the story of Pilate, the governor blighted By one misstep, his whole existence benighted That the Master has written; also finds its ending With Pilate and Jesus friends, and moonward wending And except for a Moscow subject to a rending There is nothing much left that's in any way offending What does the author mean? Through the three mutually intertwining story-streams? There is Master and Margarita, and the devil and his team Plus the story of Jesus with its altered theme; Was Doctor Bulgakov being purposefully weird To cock a snook at a regime which was universally feared? The Moscow he portrays does seem to appear With endless corruption, lust, and calumny smeared; But since this fantasy would never have seen the light In a country in the grip of the Stalinist blight: We must conclude that even for the author to write Such a satire, wouldn't have eased his plight; So maybe it has got a deeper philosophic vein? Something which lies buried, deep and unseen? Which when brought up to the light, with its dazzling sheen Would leave us gasping, as we find what it means? To be truthful, I don't know, nor do I care! Just blissfully happy to lounge in my chair, And romp my way through this wonderful affair! And my delight with other bookworms share This magical tale, unique and bizarre - Cannot be scored anything less than five stars! View all 24 comments. Nilanjana Haldar No words! I saved your review to my laptop to read it later. Exquisite design of a poem-cum-review for a novel. I wonder how delighted the autho No words! I wonder how delighted the author must have felt reading this I love poetry and I want to learn from this poem of yours Nandakishore Varma Nilanjana wrote: "No words! I wonder how d Nilanjana wrote: "No words! I wonder how delighted the author must have felt reading this I love poetry an But thanks! Jul 10, Bradley rated it it was amazing Shelves: shelf , fantasy , romance , mindfuq , fanboy-goes-squee , satire , urban-fantasy. There are very few things I can say about this novel except it's Brilliant, Brilliant, Brillant. That, and I am afraid I'm a total fanboy of all Russian novelists and this one in particular. And I thought Dostoyevski was good. This one is completely modern, absolutely unappreciated in his time, dead young, and hailed as one of Russia's most popular novelists. And for good reason. The satire, written in the 50's, lambasts Moscow's '30's and continues to be a threat to all Russia today There are very few things I can say about this novel except it's Brilliant, Brilliant, Brillant. The satire, written in the 50's, lambasts Moscow's '30's and continues to be a threat to all Russia today. It became super popular in the 60's America and was the direct inspiration for The Rolling Stones' Sympathy for the Devil. Does this ring a few bells? Let's get down to the reality of this novel a bit. The Master is the novelist writing about Jesus and Pontus Pilate. He falls in love with a woman, and she with him, and her name is Margarita. She becomes a witch. And in the meantime, we've got ourselves a total retelling of Job, a satire that raises the level of Cons to all new heights. Did I mention I might have just found one of my favorite all-time books? This here is gonna have to fight for room on my top list of all time. Maybe it won't have to fight very hard. In fact, I might have to bump it up into the top 20 or maybe even top It's just that good. I was reminded a lot of Neil Gaiman's American Gods in a very good way. I was also reminded of a lot of modern comic masterpieces. In execution, it's half-Noir and all literary despair in the other. I'm in love. Maybe re-read all the greats, and then head back to this one and revel away. I knew that this was going to be a book that I loved the moment I learned that Satan was the main character. This is not due to any particular affinity for devil worship on my part, but because I love Tricksters in literature and in Western civilization you don't get a better trickster than the devil. Watching him turn Stalinist Moscow on its head proved to be one of the most amusing and engrossing things I've read all year. From the moment he first materializes as the black magician Woland at a I knew that this was going to be a book that I loved the moment I learned that Satan was the main character. From the moment he first materializes as the black magician Woland at a pond and predicts the impending death of the renowned writer he meets there after listening to the writer's various proofs as to why there can not be an actual god , the devil inspires a plague of madness as increasingly odd and impossible events occur to shock the strictly rational, science-based, citizens. Whether hosting a seance that leaves the ladies of Moscow in the street wearing nothing but their undergarments, teleporting hapless theatre owners to Yalta or haunting telephone lines, Woland and his retinue of demonic cohorts know exactly how to play upon the foibles of human nature and prove rather easily that, regardless of what the Soviets may claim about their forced evolution of humanity, humans are just as greedy, gullible, and ridiculous as they ever were. The heart of the book, however, belongs to the titular Master. An author hounded to the madhouse by the rabid criticisms leveled on his masterpiece by the Moscow literati, his book within the book about the Crucifixion from the point of view of Pontius Pilate is what I've found sticking with me in the days since finishing. It's no easy feat to make a sympathetic character of a bureaucrat who has been so forcefully demonized over the past two millennia but Bulgakov and through him, the Master performs an excellent bit of magic and you find yourself really feeling for Pilate as he is manipulated by forces outside of his control into killing Christ, who is sad that his apostle, Matthew, is twisting his words while recording them. Readers also enjoyed. Magical Realism. About Mikhail Bulgakov. Mikhail Bulgakov. He studied and briefly practised medicine and, after indigent wanderings through revolutionary Russia and the Caucasus, he settled in Moscow in His sympathetic portrayal of White characters in his stories, in the plays , which enjoyed great success at the in , and Flight , and his satirical treatment of the officials of the New Economic Plan, led to growing criticism, which became violent after the play The Purple Island. Fame, at home and abroad, was not to come until a quarter of a century after his death in Moscow in His family belonged to the intellectual elite of . Bulgakov and his brothers took part in the demonstration commemorating the death of . Bulgakov later graduated with honors from the Medical School of Kyiv University in He married his classmate Tatiana Lappa, who became his assistant at surgeries and in his doctor's office. He practiced medicine, specializing in venereal and other infectious diseases, from to he later wrote about the experience in "Notes of a Young Doctor. After the Civil War, he tried unsuccesfully to emigrate from Russia to reunite with his brother in Paris. Several times he was almost killed by opposing forces on both sides of the Russian Civil War, but soldiers needed doctors, so Bulgakov was left alive. In , Bulgakov moved to Moscow. Bugakov's own way of life and his witty criticism of the ugly realities of life in the Soviet Union caused him much trouble. Looking beyond the religious environment in which he grew up, Bulgakov developed an early interest in theater and did well in his education, especially drawn to literature by writers such as Gogol, Pushkin, and Dostoyevsky. He then served in the Russian Civil War, during which he contracted typhus; the disease nearly killed him and made him decide to abandon his career as a doctor. Around , Bulgakov married again; by the end of the decade he almost left Russia, depressed by the poor critical reception of his work and ongoing battles with Soviet censorship. In the late s, Bulgakov worked as a librettist and consultant at the Bolshoi Theater, but faced the same frustrations that had plagued him before. He died in the Spring of from kidney problems, almost thirty years before this novel would first be published thanks to the efforts of Yelena. The novel is consistently—and comically—critical of authorities and shows up the follies of a state exerting too much of an interfering influence on its people. With censors quick to ban any work criticizing the state and its leadership, it never looked likely that The Master and Margarita could be published at the time. Other Books Related to The Master and Margarita The Master and Margarita is a remarkably wide-ranging novel that mixes elements of political satire, dark comedy, magical realism, Christian theology, and philosophy into a unique whole. Its influences are many and its own subsequent influence is worldwide. In terms of Russian influences, likely candidates are the fantastical humor of Nikolai Gogol and the unflinching moral complexity of Fyodor Dostoevsky. Critics have also noticed how much the book adheres to the principles of Mennipean satire, a Greek form that took great delight in mocking the airs and pretensions of everyday society—much like Woland and his gang. 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