The Master and Margarita

I read the Everyman's Library Glenny Translation.

This is a mixture of the bizarre and the familiar. The writing itself is a bit of both, the story subject is a bit of both and the characters are a bit of both. I thoroughly enjoyed the 'flashbacks' and almost wish the whole story was just those events, but I also enjoyed the chaotic and seemingly random way the modern part of the story developed, not that I even fully understood it all, mayhaps a second read is in order. It is not a difficult read like Dostoevsky or Tolstoy, I think I was at around a page a minute for most of it, it was more or less that, as an American, Russian names are a bit more difficult to follow. I found myself paging back a few times wondering... who was that now? Altogether enjoyable and I will have a look at his other novels too.

Before writing a book review, I always attempt to determine what the intent of the author was and how successfully the desired effect was achieved. So what, exactly, is the purpose of Bulgakov's "The Master and Margarita?"

Is it to satire the literary intelligentsia of the Soviets? Is it to criticize the over-regulation and policies of the government? Is it to bash the atheistic policy of the state? Is it to provide an insightful account of Pontius Pilate and the crucifixion? Is it to reveal the vanities and greed of money inherent in society as a whole? Or is it simply to provide a humorous tale of the shenanigans of Satan incarnate and his demonic entourage?

The answer, of course, to all of these questions is yes. "The Master and Margarita" is an enigmatic, unique, and even bizarre novel at times, that will challenge the reader. At first, the intent of Bulgakov is not entirely clear, as the first chapters detail the strange (and seemingly unrelated) tales of ordinary Muscovites and their encounter with an enigmatic foreigner, Woland, and his interpreter and talking black cat. Interspersed in this tale of Stalinist Moscow is the seemingly unrelated (and misplaced) story of a guilt-ridden Pontius Pilate and the crucifixion of two thousand years prior. The third subplot, and a link between the first two, is the story of the "master", an author whose book about Pontius Pilate was widely criticized by the literary Soviet elite, and his vivacious and adulterous lover, Margarita.

Bulgakov does not directly bash the atrocities of the Soviets and collectivism, but through his interrelated tales, he paints a subtle criticism of the institutions and ideals of the Soviets. The fact that his tale (albeit embellished) of Pontius Pilate and the crucifixion is given as fact, this would, of course, directly counter the official state's atheism. The emphasis on official documents and passports provides a window into the life of a Muscovite, for if there is no official document, then that person does not exist.

This is not a novel that should be read piecemeal, as it is best to read it in large sections at a time. The chapters alternate between characters (and millennia) frequently, as a link does not emerge until later. Since this is a Russian novel with a large cast of characters, the names can certainly be confusing and intimidating to keep straight. Overall, I was initially perplexed at the complexity of the novel, but as it progressed, it become more enjoyable.

This is certainly a unique novel. Although it may be difficult to read at first, I would recommend it as an insightful, and humorous, tale of Stalinist Moscow.

I am Russian, and have read this novel (which is my favorite Russian novel), in Russian. However, for some reason, a week ago I decided to look through Michael Glenny's translation of this novel and I was shocked by the various little mistakes in the text. In the very first dialog, one of the main characters asks for a glass of Narzan (which is a famous brand of mineral water in Russia), which M.Glenny translates as lemonade. Close, but no cigar...And it goes further like this. That leads me to believe that the translator probably was not familiar with nuances of Russian language, or may be simply didn't care. Nevertheless, I know that it had been the only one English translation available since 1967 and thanks Mr.Glenny for that. Now we have Mirra Ginsburg's more accurate translation (I have checked), which makes me happy. The novel is truly fascinating. A really remarkable person wrote it. Bulgakov was a doctor by profession, he received an exellent education in the pre-Revolutionary Russia and lived through the horrors and turmoil of the Revolution of 1917 and the Civil war. This is a wonderful satire on Communism and a biblical story. This novel populated by very interesting characters, one of them is "unknown visitor" Woland, who is the Satan visiting Moscow with his entourage. Woland is a complex figure, a diabolical seducer, father of lies - the Devil himself, but also "he, who has brought the light" - Lucifer. He laughs at the Soviet Communists, who mistakenly think that they have rooted out all evil and have build a society which is even beyond the good and evil. In the clash with Woland they watch how the "perfect" and godless society crumbles down. Please read it, and you will enjoy it, because the novel goes beyond Russian culture to the world of archetypal characters and events that have meaning to all humans.

I have always loved Russian literature, but this one is so different from a Tolstoy or Dostoevsky novel -- of course, it was written in, effectively, another country (Stalinist Russia).

The book is strangely haunting. The reader has to get used to long flights of fantasy, almost like an imaginative childrens' book with super-natural happenings (the devil, his consorts including a very drole cat, as well as a witch and her lover). Alongside this is a completely straight retelling of St. Matthew's gospel and an, ultimately, repentant Pontius Pilate which is truly beautiful, descriptive prose that makes you feel as if you were there.

Read this book -- it's like no other you will have read. Possibly, One Hundred Years of Solitude has something of the flavor with, of course, a totally different subject matter. It's sometimes difficult to keep all the (probably) unfamiliar Russian names straight, but persevere, it's well worth it. You may well find it haunts you too for a long while afterwards and, like me, you will strongly recommend it to all your friends.

Every so often, in a vast ammount of writers and works of Art out there, one stumbles upon a true gem. He may not yet conceive it as a true gem, but, as the process of reading and diving into the authors world progresses, so does the radiant brilliance of a gem starts to shine, and everything aorund it simply falls into the darkness...into the nothingness.

To say that Master and Margarite is gem in its fullest, isn't any kind of bold statement. True, you hear that phrase allmost on a daily schedule basis, whenever someone talks about books, trying to assure you that the book they have in mind will change your world and the way how you think». Well, I will not say anythnig like that regarding the Bulgakov work. Simply because it is not true. This kind of book would never be enlisted on any of the top-sellers, and «hits» lists out there, it simply isn't that kind of book. It does not offer cheap philosophy worthy of a soap-opera, it does not give «simple, yet brilliant sollutions» to everyday problems, it does not have powerfull and mind boggling characters (alas, this may be wrong, but in the context I'm talking off isn't), so why should annyone read it.

That is the good question. And one of the simplest answer will be given here. Apart of great work of Russian realist, this is the one of the greatest books that mother Russia has given birth to in century that has passed. It's simple brilliance astonishes one on a single glance. Even if you are going to write academic seminar titled «Reminiscences of Stallinistic dictatorship in Master and Margarita» as one of my friends did, or you just want to sit back and enjoy yourself, you'll find material for everything inside these pages. Without any kind of attempt to hollistic method of any kind.

Bulgakov put lot of elegance, and witty remarks in his writing, but here he is displaying his talent at its best. There are many studies of this bok out there on internet, and on dusty shelves in old libraries, graet number of critics dulled their writing pencil writing about this book. And it deserves to be so. By means of writing (and reading) we keep history (and Art) remembered, as we are (in a way obliged to do). This is the book full of wonders, which shouldn't be forgotten. What one has to do is very simple. One oly has to read it...and do so again...

Mikhail Bulgakov lived during the Stalin era in the Soviet Union. Most of his work, this title included, was banned by Soviet authorities during his lifetime. It was only many years after his death that this book was published. The book is a wonderful myth, filled with both real and mythological characters, and considers the corruptability and mortality of man. The plot involves the appearance of Satan and his retinue, including a large, black tom cat who drinks vodka, and their impact of the good comrades of the city of Moscow. People encoutering the mysterious Prof. Woland try to deal with him and his powers in a rational fashion, but soon learn that this is no way to approach the devil. The mysterious Professor soon takes over the lives of those who cross his path, sending one to an asylum and another to Yalta while a third winds up dead due to "sunflower oil". Also included in the text are stories of the passion of Christ and a sympathetic portrait of Pontius Pilate and his struggles over the crucifixion. This is an excellent fable and should be read by anybody interested in Soviet literature, or literature in general

This is, simply put, the greatest piece of literature of the 20th century, quite possible of any century. The complex interweaving of plot, characters, themes and morals make Master and Margarita a novel that is enjoyable an infinite amount of times in an infinite number of ways. Among the innumerable superlatives I could dedicate to this book are the following: greatest satire of 1930s Russian society, particularly the literary society; greatest critique of the inherent hypocrisy of Socialism as it was practiced, namely, that the more people claim to disdain property, the more they use property as the foundation of their moral and social schemas; the most skillful manipulation of prosaic styles--that is, the narration changes distinctly from one chapter to the next, often because of change of point of view (the omniscient narrator's to the Master's novel's), and other times due to a general change of subject matter and mood; the most outrageous and hilarious plot ever; the most engaging and pointed criticism of the ethics of Christianity as practiced by modern believers.... The list could go on and on. Master and Margarita is a masterpiece in the true sense of the word.
As for this translation: I have used several different translations of this book, and this seems to be the best. It is heavily annotated; footnotes, denoted throughout the text, are collected in an appendix that takes up a good portion of the book, and this extra information provides a great deal of clarification to the reader, especially the non-Russian-speaking one. Much of this clarification is necessary to proper comprehension of the novel, while some of it is merely to provide a greater insight into the themes addressed and the environment in which the addressing was done. Textually, the translation also seems to be quite good. Unfortunately, my Russian is not excellent; I have read the original Russian, but I am afraid that my senses of nuance and fine shading of meaning are less than adequate to dissect a work of these proportions. From what I can tell, however, this translation is the most successful at remaining faithful to the actual words of Bulgakov while also staying true to the rhythm and style of his writing in a broader sense.
If you haven't read this book, buy it now. You'll want to read it again and again--quite possibly because you didn't understand it the first time, but certainly because there is no end to the rewards that immersion in Bulgakov's world can impart on a reader.

Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita is a magical realist novel that explores obsession, an artistic underground, the death of Christ, the unraveling of society when given the chance, and the complexities of what happens when a relationship ends. The narrative is a complex series of opening matryoshka dolls, revealing satire within commentary within plot within characterization and back to satire, and in many ways it is almost interdimensional, managing a postmodern juggling act while winking to the audience from its bloodied, severed head. While there are many things to unpack from this text, it is the combination of postmodern point of view and narrative tone that appears to be the biggest technical achievements in Bulgakov's work.

The hyperbolized, witty verbiage of the piece shows intense awareness on the part of Bulgakov to use humorous imagery to its maximum benefit. While there are many examples of hyperbolized imagery throughout the novel, there are a few outlying examples. In an overly theatrical scene where true black magic of the three antagonists is being used to hypnotize the citizens, in one moment the "theater was swept with joy...and happy laughter" as audience members reach and grab for money falling from the ceiling, the next they "scream in unison" as a character is beheaded before them and "blood spurted in fountains from the torn arteries" of his neck but is then restored to an "audience (that) never noticed it," and finally the audience "besieged the stage" when a completely indulgent free shop unfolds out of nowhere (138-145). This leads to a community fervor that carries the people of this bizarre environment for the rest of the novel. When an animated, disembodied suit is furiously "absorbed in work" toward the middle of the novel, it is "oblivious of the wild confusion around it," even as other characters are "scream(ing)" and others "shoot out (of the room) like a bullet" (202-3). Finally, toward the end of the novel, a frantic scene begins when "Margarita rose a meter above the ground and struck the chandelier (and) two bulbs exploded and the crystal pendants flew in all directions" (258). When these exaggerated magical moments happen as a result of pushing through social, visual, and physical laws, the community is in distressed fury that creates a humorous and terrifying environment for the characters. It is through essential exploded imagery that the irony and humor are convincing and relevant to the characters and satiric counterparts to Russian history and culture.

This same humorous tone is most beneficial to characterization. In many parts of the novel when characters are in the midst of absolute terror, the tonal contrast to the seriousness of their plight presents ironic language that disarms the horror of the audience. At the beginning of the novel at the decapitation death of Berlioz, in a fit of confusion the narrative reels at a variety of images that lead the character under a streetcar – and like a scene from a modern sitcom, the ironic, deadpan narrative voice describes a moment "in Berlioz' brain (when) someone cried out frantically 'Really?'" (49). In many instances, the characters' uneventful reactions to terrifying and ridiculous moments such as this are in stark contrast to those moments when the mediocre is given earth-shattering importance. Another example is when the draft of a novel goes missing and when recounting the story, the Master "became so incoherent that the listener could gather only that some disaster had befallen (him)" (160). Even dialogue is used to communicate irony and sarcasm, such as when the night's magician asked, "could there be crooks in Moscow?" And followed it up with the "bartender smil(ing) so bitterly that every doubt vanished: yes, there were crooks in Moscow" (224). As irony is the backbone of comedy, the manner in which Bulgakov presents his characters as being reactionary in a manner opposite of our expectations contributes to his humorous tone many times throughout the text.

Finally, the narrator is like a slapstick Greek chorus, constantly stepping outside of the narrative and breaking the fourth wall to wink at the audience and provide a variety of humorous commentaries on the novel's characters and events. The narrator is constantly speaking clearly and directly to us, "frankly speaking" interjections that provide us commentary for characters they know intimately and can contextualize in the novel's ridiculous and magical Moscow (6). An extended example occurs at the beginning of Chapter 19 when the narrator begs the audience to "follow me, my reader, and only me," and continues on to editorialize the relationship between the Master and Margarita, observing "even my heart, the heart of an honest narrator, but nonetheless a stranger," has an opinion on the relationship presented in the novel (235-6). Even in the smallest examples the narrator will interject small editorial cliches that boundlessly characterize and contextualize events and behaviors, such as the addition of language such as "for some reason" (307), "what took place after that...is unknown" (112), "of course we cannot say for certainty..." (360), and "we do not know what other fantastical events took place in Moscow that night..." (232) that all lead to an explanation (or lack of explanation) of the bizarre surrounding events.

Bulgakov's humorous tone and its myriad examples throughout the novel contributes to a narrative that both delights and defamiliarizes the audience with reality. His masterful execution of using the disembodied narrator who ignores the fourth wall and a humorous and satirical narrative tone create an atmosphere that is truly unlike any novel of his era. The Master and Margarita is truly an incredible achievement in narrative fiction, reminiscent of many of the tricks employed by James Joyce and Laurence Sterne, and the language, magical realism, pacing, and approach are unparalleled in Russian literature.

I immediately added this to my favorite books shelf and enjoyed every moment with it. I am looking forward to many more readings in the future.

This book is worth well more than 5 stars, but unfortunately that is all I am able to give it in this review. This book (the Diana Burgin & Katherine Tiernan O'Conner translation) deals with Moscow in the 1930's and what happens when the devil shows up unexpectedly one day. He doesn't arrive alone, however; he is accompanied by a beautiful (but naked) witch, a sidekick named Bezdomny who dons a broken pince-nez and a talking black cat who has a weakness for chess and vodka. A series of hilarious events events occurs, causing chaos all over Moscow and several people land in a mental institution as a result of these events. This book has frequently been compared to Goethe's "Faust" with its underlying theme of good vs evil and if the reader is familiar with Faust, the similarities between these two books will become immediately obvious. At the back of the book are the footnotes explaining some of the more obscure details that a non-native Russian probably wouldn't understand, such as various departments in the Soviet government, names of prominent Russians at that time, certain untranslatable words, etc. I particularly enjoyed this translation because it was an easy, smooth flowing read and I had no difficulties understanding what was going on. This book should be especially read by anyone who has a passion (or curiosity) for Russian literature or culture because this book was not allowed to be published during the author's lifetime..and the author knew that he would never see his book in print, but he wrote it anyway; and the literary world is all the better because he insisted on writing it.

I read this book a while ago in the Russian original so don't know about this particular translation/edition. The novel is a very bold and subversive book from both a literary and thematic/philosophical approach considering it was written in the peak of early Stalinism in the Soviet Union. In fact, Bulgakov had a long battle with the censors about this work and his others and many were banned.

I don't remember the details well at all, but the novel is a surreal blend of the literary and intellectual world in Moscow in the 1930s and the encounter between Jesus and Pontius Pilate in Jerusalem. The two main settings intertwine and mirror each other as the "true" story of Jesus is told by Woland - the devil who comes to Moscow with his minions including a talking cat. The notions of good and evil draw much from the brilliant Faust but are carried over to the hypocrisy, despair and seeds of goodness in the Moscow setting.

The title describes some of the main characters - the Master who is a writer whose work is rejected leading to his extended melancholy and Margarita, his love. The interplay between them, the rest of the literary world and Woland (Satan) and his minions leads to what I can only describe as a completely topsy-turvy novel that is incredibly rich in ideas many of whom will be missed by those who've never had the misfortune to experience Moscow in the late 20s and early 30s and those who have read this only once (or not at all). Fortunately, the second condition is easily fixed! I guess for me, the necessary cure is a reread of this amazing work.

The novel is a masterpiece therefore it so much more disappointing that the translation which is quite good misses important parts. I have read The Master and Margarita before and was excited to see it in an English translation. I was appalled, though, that entire passages were missing. I wrote to the publisher and their response was far from satisfying which I still find very disturbing--how do I know that I am not getting an incomplete version next time I buy from them? (I have avoided them since.)

Three stars are a compromise. The novel deserves 5 stars, the translation is good for the content it covers, but its incompleteness and the publisher's reaction deserve zero stars.

One hot spring evening two men sit on a bench at Patriarchs Ponds: Berlioz, editor of a literary magazine and Ivan Nikolayevich, a poet. The editor is lecturing his poet friend on the err of his ways in portraying the fictional Jesus in his recent poetic endeavour as a man, albeit a flawed man, but nonetheless a man who did in fact exist in the most mortal sense of the word. During their heated conversation, a tall foreign stranger, who goes by the name Woland and professes to be a professor and an expert in black magic, approaches them as he is very interested in their debate on the existence of Jesus and claims to have been on the balcony the day Pontius Pilate condemned the prophet to death. After a lengthy discussion, Woland prophesizes Berlioz' eminent demise, and then all hell breaks loose.

I have wanted to read this book for many years, and it just kept slipping out of my head until a few months ago when I stumbled upon it while browsing at a small Indie book store. I am a huge fan of Russian Literature, so I am a little embarrassed to admit that I kept forgetting about it all these years, but there was no time like the present to read it. Banned Book week was upon us, and Bulgakov's masterwork was banned in Russia and not released in English until the 1960's in a censored version. We don't have to worry about this anymore and can now read one of many wonderful translations. I do suggest that if you are hunting down a copy, make sure you get a decent translation. The one I purchased, this edition, had a lengthy commentary section that goes over some of the finer points of Russian Politics during the 1930's, and so it made the read more enjoyable.

The story is a complex allegory: part social satire, part contemporary historical, part romance, part farce, part political irony, part theological pontification, yes, this book, written in the theatrical style of a playwright, is magical realism at its finest. The book moves back and forth between three converging storylines: Woland, or rather Satan, and his retinue's descent upon the unsuspecting citizens of Moscow; the heartbreaking unconventional love story between the Master and Margarita; and The Master's own novel, which explores Pontius Pilate's great guilt. However, Woland is not your conventional Satan, often appearing very sympathetic and thoughtful; Yeshua is not the Jesus we are accustomed to; and Pilate manages to redeem himself. I won't say how, because that will ruin it. Now Woland doesn't come to Moscow to reek havoc, nor does he come to whisper in the collective Muscovite ear in order to bring out the worst in people, he merely allows Moscow's disingenuous to come face to face with their own hypocrisy. Where Yeshua teaches, Woland provokes, but in the end, their goal is the same, and that's the religious rub of the story: the two are equal and share the same hope for humanity in the end. There is a lot of allusion to the New Testament as well as folklore representations of Pilate and other Biblical characters as Heresy in all its many forms is the main theme running throughout all three plotlines. Each Moscow miscreant, much like in Dante's Inferno, receives the punishment fitting for their crime. Even The Master's punishment fits his crime. In this Faustian part of the tale, the Master is condemned to an insane asylum because of his cowardice. Cowardice, Yeshua says, is the greatest of all sins. The Master, having received negative commentary in a review of his unpublished novel, broke under the weight of the criticism and lost faith, in himself and his work, and only through Margarita's sacrifice, would he finish the novel and achieve peace, which Yeshua, as requested by Woland, grants him in the end: Peace not Light, or rather not salvation.

This story explores a lot of odd and awkward existential angles and does it with finesse and a black humour blacker than the fur on the pickle-eating, vodka-drinking, gun-toting Behemoth, Satan's Black Cat. The story has a full on narrator who interjects with a vengeance, and the narrative style is operatic and slapstick all at the same time. Besides the main characters: Woland, The Master, and Margarita, there is a litany of other minor characters within the main narrative and also within the Master's inner novel, and all the characters reflect nicely the main themes of the story: Good and Evil, Heresy, Cowardice, Faith, Death, Freedom, Guilt, and Sacrifice or devotional love among others. And so the characters are deliberately grotesque and superficial, ordinary and archetypal. Satan's retinue is particularly diverse: the grotesquely dressed valet Koroviev (Fagotto); a fast-talking black cat who walks on his hind legs and is big as a hog, Behemoth; the fanged little wall-eyed hitman Azazello; the demon Abaddon; and the naked red-headed witch Hella. There is a lot of anti-religious propaganda of the day weaved into the narrative, and so there is a lot of parody: Margarita's stations of the cross as she welcomes the guests at Satan's spring ball, and The Massolit writers' last supper of a sort as they argue over who will go to the summer retreat being two of them. To write a proper review of this book is an exercise in futility because there is just so much going on thematically, philosophically, and theologically, it would take extensive study of the text and essays of great length to capture all its nuances. But you don't have to do all that to just plain old enjoy the story. It's heartbreaking, horrific, action packed, confusing, hilarious, and if you didn't have faith in the cosmos before you read it, you just might afterwards. You don't even need to know much about Russian politics of the time to enjoy the satire, and the language is sublime:

"Gods, my Gods! 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. And without regret he forsakes the mists of the earth, its swamps and rivers, and sinks into the arms of death with a light heart ..."

I highly recommend that all writers read this book: the lessons in structure, language, characterization, and theme are well beyond what one will get in a style guide. Bulgakov's articulation of his thesis is flawless, even if the original manuscript has been butchered over the years by clumsy editors and translators.

The Master and Margarita is truly one of the great novels of the 20th century. Hilarious, lyrical, insightful, and profound; Bulgakov's masterpiece will make you think, make you feel, and make you challenge yourself and your beliefs on good and evil. I'll mention that this review refers to the Burgin/O'Connor translation. I've read this translation twice, and I love it. I can't compare it to other translations though, as I haven't read any. I plan on reading the Pevear/Volokhonsky translation soon; I've read several translations by them, and all have been wonderful. One caveat about the Burgin/O'Connor edition: the endnotes, written by Bulgakov's biographer Ellendea Proffer, offer far too much opinion. She should not be telling us how to think, and how to feel about this novel. But that doesn't spoil this awe-inspiring novel.

Don't let the misleading the store editorial review discourage you -- this novel is far, far more than "protest literature" directed at a long-gone tyranny. It is a meditation on good and evil, raising theological and epistemological questions of the deepest sort.

It is also an intellectually dense and witty work, with an engaging plot and vivid characters. It is enormous fun to read.

Commenting specifically on the Burgin/O'Connor translation (without benefit of being able to have read the original Russian): The translation is quite readable, without conveying the illusion that the novel was originally written in English. The translators claim to have tried to stick close to the oddities of the original, which results in an intentionally odd (in a good way) English prose style as well. I only recall one truly awkward passage in the translation, a passage which in the original turns on the usage of the formal versus informal second-person -- the archaic "you"/"thou" distinction, which is now almost impossible to translate effectively into modern English.

The Burgin/O'Connor edition includes highly useful endnotes elucidating some of the more critical but potentially unfamiliar references to Moscow geography, Soviet politics, Russian poetry, 19th-century French opera, biblical scholarship, ancient wine vintages, etc., and also includes explanations of textual decisions (the work was left incomplete at Bulgakov's death.) The endnotes are succinct and limited to a handful of key references per chapter.

Attempts at scholarly analysis of the novel as a whole are, mercifully, left to the very end and kept quite short.

The book was written between the two world wars and is set in the Soviet Union. Weirdest things start to happen when Satan with his assistants appears in Moscow. The bureaucrats of the Socialist state just can't handle the confusion that results and a good laugh is guaranteed for you.

Back in the 80s, I described the contents of the book as "the triumph of the Dark Forces in the capital of Materialism". But they don't just mess up things - some victims of the Soviet state are actually helped out of their hopeless situations.

This book is better read in original than translated. If you are fluent in Russian, you better invest some time and money into finding a Russian version. (I lately found one on the Net.) You won't be sorry.

One thing you should note, too, is that there are two versions of the novel. The version released in the Soviet Union was a censored one. It lacks a few phrases here and there and one whole chapter. The original version was published by Russian emigrants in France or Germany or something. When buying a translated copy, you might want to take a look at the title page to see which version it was translated from.

The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
(written between 1928 – 1949, first published in 1967)

To much has been sad already about this novel.
The only proper thing to do is just read it and then again and …

Let me just add that The Master and Margarita is about us.
Positive, negative, positively negative and negatively positive, just like we are. The novel delicately points out the fight in each and every one of us. The characters are sympathetic and antipathetic at the same time.
The Master prefers to stay in the Asylum to save himself the pain of living, as we perhaps sometimes like to do. Margarita is just a spoiled brat, she believes that all other people should trade her with respect, be good to her and that her life is great and she has to do nothing to deserve this. Well is that so different from what we like to believe often?

Sympathy for the devil
Hundreds of pop musicians are inspired by The Master and Margarita, the most famous perhaps Sympathy for the devil by The Rolling Stones. It surely has the same play with good and evil.

And for anyone interested in Mikhail Bulgakov or The Master and Margarita the Mikhail Bulgakov Museum in Kyiv (http://www.bulgakov.org.ua/) is well worth a visit.

The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov

This is like Dante's Inferno meets Monty Python. This is like Hellraiser meets The Marx Brothers. This is like Milton's Paradise Lost meets The Far Side.

It is absurd.

It is also one of the funniest and best novels I have read in a long time. Every chapter is abounding with clever quips, absurdist action, and poignant observations. There is a great literary observation going on here on what makes an artist suffer for his art. Another: What is art considered by those in leagues with government control? It also makes you think about the value of good and evil, and why we are so bent on considering one thing evil and another good with punitive absolution. It shows situation as being more complicated than anything really is. And to say that the Devil is an evil thing...well, in this book, it seems like both an overstatement & oversimplification.

One interesting about this novel is things are written as an account; as they happen. There is no real character development. But you learn much about the people (and demons) within the work as they involve themselves within everyone else--much like real life. Because in real life, we do not have our encounters developed for us with all background information known: we experience it...just as everyone else in this novel does, too. Do not expect easy explanations. Just enjoy it as one would enjoy any wild ride in which everywhere one looks there is something new and fascinating.

I have read "The Master and Margarita" three times, and I am sure that I will read it again. I was very lucky because all three times I read it in Russian, and even the best translation can not compare to the original. Every time I would find something new in the book, it would turn to me by different facets. "The Master and Margarita" is deep, very well written book with unforgettable characters. In fact, it is not one novel but three. First, about the adventures of Devil and his entourage in the 1920-th Moscow; second, about Pontius Pilatus and Jesus in Jerusalem, and the third one, about the Master, the writer who wrote the second novel, and his eternal and true love, Margarita. The story about Master and Margarita is the story of Bulgakov and his wife and muse, Elena. All three stories are connected and intertwine. All three of them end with the exactly same phrase. So, what is the book about? Good, evil, betrayal, talent, love, forgiveness? Yes, it is. But it is so much more.

Unfortunately, the translation I have is the terrible Michael Glenny one, the one that was stocked in the campus bookstore when I got this book for a Modern Russian Lit class. It has numerous typos, some "translations" of proper names (Richardovna instead of Rikhardovna, George instead of Georgiy, Claudia instead of Klavdiya), and misleading transliteration. I'm sure the book will be even better in the more updated translations.

Most Russian novels are long, dark, and depressing, but this book is only a bit over 500 pages, and instead of being sad and pessimistic, is lively and funny. The Devil and a hilarious retinue of friends decide to pay a visit to Moskvá (according to the back of my edition, it's 1920), and immediately begin to wreak havoc everywhere they go and to cause weird and unexplainable things to happen, many of which get people in serious enough trouble to get arrested, turn into vampires, or be sent to the insane asylum. He first appears by Patriarch's Pond, where the writers Misha Berlioz and Ivan Bezdomniy (lit. "homeless") are discussing why the latter's anti-religion poem isn't acceptable, since despite deriding religion, it treats the things in the Bible as though they really happened. Berlioz is telling his friend just why they didn't when the Devil (called Woland) comes up and starts to tell them they're both wrong, and he knows, since he was there at the Crucifixion. Based on all of the weird stuff he's saying, they believe he is insane (they already know he's a foreign visitor) and decide to secretly call the asylum on him. But the Devil turns the tables on them, and right away everyone thinks Bezdomniy is the nut. The Devil also predicted the gruesome demise of Berlioz, and no one believes Bezdomniy's explanations for what really happened. He is quickly taken to the insane asylum, while the Devil and his friends move into Berlioz's old apartment just like he predicted they would. In his retinue are Azazello (who has red hair, a huge fang, and a walleye), Hella, a naked female vampire serving as his maid, Koroviyev-Faggot (pr. Fah-GOAT, not the other way), his interpreter, who has a broken pince-nez and wears checkered clothing, and my favourite, a hilarious huge black cat named Behemoth. Behemoth talks, drinks alcohol, plays tricks on people, smokes cigars, wears a tuxedo and bowtie, plays chess, walks upright, gilds his whiskers, and shoots a Browning perfectly. His antics often annoy the others, but he's annoying in a funny and endearing way.

The story from whence the title comes doesn't start until Part Two. An unnamed Master wrote a book about the Passion and Pontius Pilate, a story which is being told throughout the book, and it not only offended the censors, it also drastically went against everything in the Bible. In depression, he burned all copies of his book but for one chapter which his mistress Margarita pulled out of the fire. The Master is now in the same insane asylum as Bezdomniy and the other people who have been sent there since the Devil came to town, and despairs of ever getting out or seeing Margarita again. Margarita in turn loves him so much she is willing to sell her soul to the Devil and his friends just to free him, not even caring what getting in league with these people may entail.

Besides the hilarious main story, I also liked the Master's retelling of the Passion. Like Berlioz and Woland were saying in the beginning, people only take the Bible's word for it because we have no other version of those events to go by. People don't even bother to critically examine what other people tell us, don't want to find out if it's truth, lies, reality, unreality, myth, or historical fact. Who's to say that the Master's version is any more accurate or inaccurate than the Biblical version and Pontius wasn't a sympathetic figure, Jesus wasn't a confused vagabond and coward, there was no Resurrection, or that any of the other people in events in this unique retelling did or didn't happen?

Bulgakov's Master and Margarita is one of the best novels to have come out of Russia in the twentieth century. Written during the repression of the Stalinist '30s Bulgakov literally risked his life to write this. In fact it wasn't published until 26 years after his death, even then in abreviatted form.
I won't add to what others have said of the substance of the novel except it operates on a personal, political and theological levels. From each reading you'll take something from this gem.
I have read both the Glenny and the Burgin/O'Connor translations(My Russian is only at an intermediate level so I did not attempt it in its native tongue). Glenny's translation is extremely readable and flows like great literature. He does make mistakes in his choice of words but you won't go wrong with it. It was the version that got me hooked on Bulgakov.
Burgin/O'Connor come very close to Bulgakov's Russian with the added bonus of notes and an essay at the back of the novel. While less flowing than Glenny it's more accurate and also a wonderful read. Grab a copy of either and you won't be sorry.
One of the great books of the 20th century.

Bulgakov's Master and Margarita is one of the best novels to have come out of Russia in the twentieth century. Written during the repression of the Stalinist '30s Bulgakov literally risked his life to write this. In fact it wasn't published until 26 years after his death, even then in abreviatted form.
I won't add to what others have said of the substance of the novel except it operates on a personal, political and theological levels. From each reading you'll take something from this gem.
I have read both the Glenny and the Burgin/O'Connor translations(My Russian is only at an intermediate level so I did not attempt it in its native tongue). Glenny's translation is extremely readable and flows like great literature. He does make mistakes in his choice of words but you won't go wrong with it. It was the version that got me hooked on Bulgakov.
Burgin/O'Connor come very close to Bulgakov's Russian with the added bonus of notes and an essay at the back of the novel. While less flowing than Glenny it's more accurate and also a wonderful read. Grab a copy of either and you won't be sorry.
One of the great books of the 20th century.

I am not going to argue over who has the better translation. I will just say that this is MY translation; Glenny captures the Prussian mannerisms of Satan's posse to a "T."

Now on to the novel:

I know of no other writer who has so accurately described life as it is. Bulgakov was a savant, not only a soldier and doctor but also a man with a clear grasp on philosophy, aesthetics and power relations. Very often these types of men wonder aimlessly about life until they wind up in a mental ward (as does the Master).

The decisions in life are the following: (1) join the power elite in their lies, schemes, and general mess, as does the character Bezdomney. (2) Fight against the system of manipulative priestcraft, as does Christ. Or (3) Escape the system entirely and life a live of autonomy away from the liars who control the world.

The Master (within us) takes the third option.

Remember not to write bad poetry.

review The bulk of this novel is descriptions of pranks played by Satan's retinue on bureaucrats and other citizens of soviet-era Moscow. It is a little like Terry Southern's The Magic Christian. The pranks fit in a tradition associated with the Faust legend; there are lots in Marlowe's Faust, Goethe's Faust, and Boito's, Mephistopheles, for example. The book has a reputation as a satire of Soviet bureaucracy in the tradition of Gogol or of Dostoyevsky's The Double, but, while you get a sense of what it was like to be a member of one of the all-important writers organizations, to live in their quarters, to face living in overcrowded apartments, and to live in fear of institutionalization in psychiatric hospitals, it is not a satire in the sense that sharply delineates a perspective on his victims. There are a lot of yucks in this book, but the jokes could be on the pretentious and greedy of any nation. The prose style is inconsistent. Part of the book is taken up by several chapters of a conventional historical novel about Pontius Pilate' role in Jesus' crucifixion. Toward the endof the novel, the prose grows more lush and romantic. There is a witch's Sabbath, and the final ride into the darkness of eternity by Satan, his retinue, and a couple of the recently dead, has a Gothic, elegiac quality. There are surprising hits of feminism in Margarita's enthusiastic response to becoming a witch. Characterization is imaginative rather than deep. There are six major characters, Satan, his retinue , and the titular master and Margarita, who by the way, don't appear until about a third of the way through the novel. There are dozens of minor characters, amusing little caricatures of Soviet types. The plot is hard to follow. The book's strengths are imagination, the wealth of secondary characters, and ingenuity of the jokes played by the retinue.

It is little hard to understand why Pontius Pilot is so prominent in this work. Pilate embodies the conflict in early Christianity about whether Christ was killed by the Romans (a version of history preferred by early Christians who were a Jewish sect) or by the Jews (a version preferred by the Church after it become the Roman state religion) and embodies the problems inherent in the concept of predestination, that is -- was Pilate personally guilty of ordering Christ's execution, or was he merely playing a necessary part in a predestined sacred drama. But it is not clear how either conflict fits into the book as a whole. Pilate may represent a darker version of the Soviet bureaucracy.

The novel bares an epigraph from Goethe's Faust where Mephistopheles says, "I am part of that power which eternally wills evil and eternally works good." This observation made a little more sense out of various parts of the book including role of Pilate.

The book was written in fits and starts over many years during which Bulgakov suffered the alternation of favor with dangerous disfavor many artists suffered in Stalin's time and suffered also upheavals in his personal life. Perhaps if we understood these misfortunes better we would understand the book better. But would that make it better?

This book has got it all -- decapitations, crucifixions, vodka-drinking cats, and naked women flying on broomsticks. What's more, it is a refreshing change of pace from the 19th century works that most people think of when they hear the term "Russian literature." Bulgakov is no Tolstoi or Dostoevskiy, and I mean that as a compliment. All three are top-notch writers, each in his own way. But where Bulgakov differs from the latter two is in his ability to infuse his work with a light-heartedness, even when the subject matter is serious. While Tolstoi is known for epic tales on the grandest of scales, and Dostoevskiy for his penetrating insights into the darkness of the human soul, Bulgakov breaks from his predecessors by creating fiction with flare, stories that dance off the page, with an undeniable element of humor that is extremely rare in Russian literature.
This edition of Master and Margarita is a bit choppy in the translation, but it more than makes up for that minor flaw by providing an excellent set of comments on the text at the back of the book. This is one of those books that is so much easier to appreciate the more you understand the historical references and the social context of the story. Bulgakov, in addition to be a master of the pen, was also a capable historian and keen observer of society and politics. His novels, particularly this one, make this clear. In Master and Margarita, thanks to its novel-within-a-novel structure, you have not one but two socio-historical portraits, both of them exceptionally accurate. Bulgakov showed no fear of the Communist censors, depicting with remarkable honesty the Soviet Union of the 1930s. (No wonder this book didn't see the light of day for several decades.) But perhaps more impressive is his portrayal of a period which he did not witness first-hand. Through the character of the Master, Bulgakov relates a completely unorthodox, though not at all unbelievable, account of Jesus' trial and crucifixion from the perspective of Pontius Pilate, who comes across as most sympathetic and likeable.
As one would expect, the two stories are flawlessly woven together. Parallel plot lines and similarities between the characters in each story make the novel that much richer, that much more of a literary achievement. It is no surprise that most Russians consider this to be their finest example of 20th century literature.

Woland (Satan) and his crew come to 1930s Moscow and wrecks havoc on the city, targeting the MASSOLIT (Moscow Association of Writers) and the Variety Theater. He enlists Margarita as hostess of his Grand Ball. But her only wish is to find her lover, the Master, who wrote about Pontius Pilate's trial of Yeshua Ha-Notsri and whom the secret police has taken away.

The Master and Margarita is a slapstick comedy worthy of Albert and Costello, but also a social satire that targets not only the artistic establishments under the Soviet Union but also of our entire modern society. Woland (Satan) comes to Moscow to punish Berlioz, Likhodeyev and other literary and artistic figures for their greed and cruelty. The Master wrote about the meeting between Pontius Pilate and Yeshua Ha-Notsri to seek spirituality amid the Marxist materialist culture but ends up in jail and then the lunatic asylum.

The Master and Margarita is about good and evil, where one evil overcomes another, but is also about love beyond life. Even when Margarita wasn't sure whether the Master was dead or alive, she devoted herself to him. And in the end, they both die from the poison wine, but their spirits spend eternity together in limbo, eternal love in the wasteland of existence.

The Master and Margarita is magical realism but also a grim depiction of life where the wicked is punished by a greater evil. We are amused when Woland punishes Berlioz and his colleagues, but we couldn't find light amid the darkness.

We may laugh at the absurdities that befall Belioz and his friends; we may tremble at the ways Woland and his gang punish the wicked; we may lament that Ivan gives up writing poetry; we may shed tears when the Master and Margarita die and we may cheer when they can spend eternity together. We can read The Master and Margarita at many different levels and can reflect on the starkness in our modern society but at the same time we can enjoy the amusing and moving story.

I gave 5 stars To Bulgakov . Translation deserves less then 3 .
I know , it is unpossible to translate a book the perfect way after author's death . The only right way , I think , is the way how I did with mine : I read to translators every frase , than I ecsplained the feeling , which I wanted readers to have . I Wanted readers not to read it , but feel it . And this , what translation of this book lost .
And from my point of view : this is not about GOD or evil , It is about you ! Yes , for most of us -- the real world is a grey and unwanted . It is a world to escape , not a world to live in . And Bulgakov makes an exellent point : your world is , what you make it . You don't wait for someone to make it perfect ! YOU make it the way you want it . In his scenario: ALL you need- is LOVE . And I surrunder ... he said it the way , I hope I can say it one day ... but it is only hope .
For me - THE best book ever written ... it did change all my life for better . And if one day , just one person will say it about my books ... I'll die a happy man...

The Master and Margarita. For me, the title of this novel conjures up images of ninjas drinking cocktails; the book itself contains images that make that seem banal. Pop culture legend has it that this book was given to Mick Jagger by Marianne Faithfull and is the inspiration for the classic, Sympathy For The Devil.

Anyway, a bit about the origins of this book...

Mikhail Bulgakov started writing this in 1928 and after becoming disheartened with the future for a writer within the Soviet Union, burning the original manuscript and various redrafts, the third version was finished in 1937. The book was banned in the Soviet Union for 27 years due to its subversive nature and comments on Stalin's bureaucracy. Unfortunately, due to the Communist regime, Bulgakov never got to see this book, widely considered to be one of the greatest novels of the 20th century, published. Bulgakov died blind and in poverty in 1940.

The Master and Margarita sees the Devil, in the form of a foreign professor, visiting Moscow of the 1930s, a Communist and atheist city riddled with corruption and fear, accompanied by: a valet, a demonic hitman, a witch, the angel of death and my personal favourite, a 6 foot tall black cat called Behemoth who has a penchant for guns and trouble. This troupe arrive and begin to unleash their own special brand of havoc on Moscow's elite...

This particular branch of the story is played out against another, in the form of the trial conducted 2000 years ago of a self-proclaimed prophet and the deliberations of one Pontius Pilate over the man's fate...

These two stories are married up with a third narrative, revealing to the reader the titular characters; the Master being a fairly insane young writer (Bulgakov himself?) and Margarita, his adulteress lover who will do anything to restore the Master's lost novel and return them both to their former state of bliss.

The novel truly is a blasphemous and cynical political satire that is without doubt one of the craziest rides I've ever been on in book form. Although I have branded it a "political satire", the novel traverses many themes: the nature of the human condition, the battle between good and evil on many levels and the inherent wrong within the bureaucracy of the Soviet political machine. Similarly, the book has truly funny moments but also quite horrific parts; what else are you to expect when you have the Devil ride into town with a six foot tall black cat and demons in tow?!

My major difficulty with this book was its flow. As a translation from the original Russian, I fear that much may have been lost and the English version seems stunted in parts. For me, this is quite common as I have wrestled with other books such as Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment for the same reason.

Others have criticised the book for mirroring Goethe's Faust. I would submit to you that this is indeed a valid point in that it explores similar themes of deals with the devil, redemption and trust but I am of the opinion that The Master and Margarita can be read on many levels from the absurd to its observations on the shallowness and vanity of people that seem to be as applicable today as they were in the Soviet Union of the 1930s.

There is no question that The Master and Margarita is a highly influential book and it is truly a triumph when you consider that in Stalinist Russia, had Bulgakov been caught with the manuscript for a novel such as The Master and Margarita which satirised the State, he would have undoubtedly been sent to a prison camp in Siberia, without trial.

Just as that other great Russian literary genius Chekhov, Bulgakov was a doctor by profession. His father was a theologian. The combination endowed him with a deep knowledge of both disciplines and it shows in thsi excellent novel.
It's almost unfair to call this book a novel. It is a sarchastic and ironic condemnation of Stalinist Russia; indeed, the novel was forbidden until the quiet thaw that occurred for many years. Bulgakov seems to borrow from Faust, the New Testament and Dante's divine comedy as the devil and his entourage of a witch and a cat who loves chess and vodka visit Moscow. Their visit is welcomed by a writer(master) and his helper (Margarita). The 'Master' is writing a novel about Pontius Pilate and Margarita visits the depths of hell on his behalf. In the background of this almost mythological tale, the novel provides an excellent account of Soviet life in the 1930's.

I've always been a fan of Russian novels, ever since I read my first Dostoevsky novel at the age of 10...(okay, it was a Classics Illustrated comic book version of Crime and Punishment!)but had never run across anything by Bulgakov until a few years ago. A Russian friend of mine really pressed me to read the book. I bought it, but it just stayed on the shelf until a few weeks ago. All I can say is, I didn't know what I was missing. Master and Margarita is a wickedly funny, sad, frightening, and ultimately haunting masterpiece of fiction.
Bulgakov was one of the first generation of Soviet writers who flourished in the 20s, during the short lived Soviet Experimental movement, and then suffered horribly after the stregnthening of Stalin's regime. Bugakov was primarily a man of the Theater, and something of a theatrical quality hangs on to this book. The chapters have an almost tableaux style construction. When the Stalinist purges began, Bulgakov was began work on Master and Margarita, pretty much to please himself. He knew that he would never live to see it published.
The novel itself is nearly impossible to describe. It consists of three separate plots. On the surface is the visit to Moscow, of the Devil in the guise of a professor named Woland, and his henchmen, two grotesque disfigured men, a naked woman and a cat who plays chess among other things. The group proceeds to essentially terrorize the city's intellectual community, mostly by exposing each character's inner hypocracy. The satire of communist society in this section is quite biting, and uproariously funny. Embedded in this story is a "novel within a novel" ...the story of Pontius Pilate and his encounter with the itinerant spiritual man, Yeshua. Finally, there is the story of the separated lovers, the Master and Margarita, who interweave between the other two stories. They live in the present day Moscow, but the Master ostensibly wrote the manuscript which told the story of Pontius Pilate.
This rich and complicated stew of a book works on so many different levels. At it's most obvious, it is a scathing attack on communism and the cultural elite's complicity with the evils of the system. It is also rather pitiless in it's exposure of the greed, corruption and mendacity of human nature. But Bulgakov is not a conventional moralist. The Devil as Woland is an evil figure...sometimes a terrifying figure, and yet he ends up as the instrument of the redemption of both the Master and Margarita. There is a deep spiritual viewpoint at work here...Early in the novel, Yeshua tells Pilate that, "all men are good", to Pilate's incredulity. In the context of the novel, Yeshua seems hopelessly naive, but by the end of the novel, you wonder if this may actually not be the author's central point. Even the devil is capable of some good here.
This book contains a whole world. Characters change in dizzying fasion and events go by with lightening speed. And yet, by the last pages there is a haunting beauty, an almost incandescent light that shines over the prose. Some of these final images stay etched in my brain even now, several weeks after finishing.
I highly recommend that anyone read this book. It may be one of the greatest novels of the 20th century. It certainly is the greatest Russian novel of the last 100 years!

In 1998, I was witness to a stage production of THE MASTER AND MARGARITA at the Winnipeg, Manitoba Fringe Festival. A troupe from Detroit, I believe, had translated the novel to the stage. I had never heard of the novel, but went simply because it sounded interesting.
For two hours, I sat transfixed. Never before or since have I had such a satisfying theatrical experience. It's hard to describe, but the use of the stage itself, the language, the acting, the ideas, all added up to something I suspect I will never have again to such a degree. I went back three more times.
I finally decided to sit down and read the novel itself, and true to the play, it is complex, disturbing, at times astonishing, at times confusing. I am reminded of the movie adaptation of THE ENGLISH PATIENT, an unfilmable novel filmed magnificently. This is just such a novel.
As in the play, how do you describe such a tale? It follows the exploits of the Devil in Russia, but also centres on a failed novelist and his lover, a giant cat, an insane poet, a mother who killed her child. This story is not content to sit still.
Why four stars and not five? Because this novel, like the best ones, demands to be read again, to be further understood and savoured. Perhaps I will change it later on, when I reread it. I will read it again.

If you were forced to read Russian literature in high school and felt like you just didn't get it, or worse felt like you were being tortured like I did, give this book a chance. With a few more years on my bones I now appreciate those other works, but had I been introduced to this book back then, I wouldn't have felt that all Russian literature was like eating a bowl of dust while being hit over the head repeatedly with a rubber mallet.
Written with a wry and twisted sense of humor, this fantastic tale is set in the early Soviet Union. The book starts with two members of the writers guild having a conversation about Jesus when the Devil shows up. He joins the discussion, predicts the soon to be death of one of the characters, and when this actually comes to pass, it plunges his friend over the edge. You can take it from there, but it's a far cry from the "suffering is good for the soul" style from Dostoevsky and Tolstoy.
By the way, the quality of these everyman's library classics are top notch and a bargain for what you get.

"The Master and Margarita" is quite simply required reading for anyone who wishes to be friends with modern Russians. Everyone in modern Russia has read this book. Almost everyone loves it. Ask anyone what their favorite book was...and they will say "Master i Margarita". So despite its tediousness...not reading the book would be like not reading "Gone With the Wind."

Russians will always laugh if you say "I don't want to slip on sunflower oil and fall down and get my head cut off by a passing tram car." This is what happened to Berlioz at the beginning of the book, and knowing about this puts you in a special "insiders club" among Russians, that will make you seem less of a foreigner to them.

Plus, don't forget, the comical star of the entire book is the talking cat "Behemoth"! Russians say "Begemot" and any reference to this wonderfully mischievous cat will make Russians squeal with laughter. Try it. I am not kidding. Naming your own cat Begemot will endear you to any Russian.

The book is tedious only in that it gets too fantastical, too dreamlike in many parts (and if you don't know the layout of Moscow's center and don't want to experience Moscow as part of your life, the book would be crushingly boring). But then you realize that, in Stalin's Russia of the 1930s, the world of a Russian was like a dream (nightmare) that never ended and a love like Margarita's would be priceless in that atmosphere (possibly any atmosphere). This is a love story, reflecting Bulgakov's love for his wife Elena whom he met at the outdoor restaurant at the writers' club that forms a central location for the story.

Bulgakov was apparently addicted to drugs in his last years, and faded out of existence on drugs just like one of his main characters does at the end of the book. Stalin never had to have Bulgakov executed. Stalin just sent anyone to the Gulag who became friends with Bulgakov. Stalin somehow admired Bulgakov and allowed him to live in a basement apartment with his wife Elena, who divorced a Soviet military officer to be with Bulgakov.

Many Russians do not know that Master and Margarita uses real-life events much more than they may have thought.

The Devil's Ball is the most important scene in the book...and it reflects the February 1937 (or 36) ball at the American Embassy in which exotic animals were used. In the book, a meddlesome "major" gets his head cut off by Satan (Woland) at the ball. In reality, a real NKVD major bothered Bulgakov and his wife at that ball and later tried to get Stalin to execute the pair. Stalin, amusingly, decided to execute the major instead. This is a true story and is even more interesting than its own fictional account. Master and Margarita is less fiction than many believe.

If you go to Moscow, take the subway to Mendelevskaya Metro Stantsiya and walk 300 meters to the Patriarchal Ponds (now one big square pond) where the book opens with two communist poseurs chatting. Walk up to the side with the small restaurant. Facing the restaurant from the left side of the pond, look to your left and one of those benches is where the fictional conversation took place. Berlioz got his head cut off at the small gate to the park on your left.

On any given spring, summer or fall day...you will probably meet someone at the gate who, like you, is specifically standing there because they loved the book and wanted to see where "it all began" (as morbid as that sounds, considering that we are talking about a man slipping and sliding head first under a tram). Very few other spots on Earth get that kind of "literary landmark" appeal. I can think of the stone steps at the beach at Lyme in England where a fictional girl breaks her leg trying to impress the captain in Jane Austen's "Persuasion"...and this spot is now a Jane Austen landmark for those who are "in the know."

Go out the gate and turn to the right and head diagonally towards Pushkin Square. Within 7 or 8 minutes you will be nearing the McDonalds Restaurant on Pushkin Square...but well before that on your right you will pass an unimposing 300 year old building that is still a school for young writers: It is now called House of Gorky (Dom Gorkova). In the book it was called Dom Griboyedeva (House of Griboyedov). In Soviet times (when the book was written) the place was called Dom Gertsina (Hertsin House). This is the "Soviet writers house" where the talking cat, Begemot (Behemoth), wreaks havoc and eventually burns the place down before running to the west down the beautiful park ring which is still located on the other side of the building.

Near the end of the book, the devil sits on the roof of the national library and many of the main characters fly off to the Sparrow Hills near Moscow State University where many of the characters leave the Earth to go to Heaven or Hell. By using such familiar landmarks, Bulgakov guaranteed that this work would hit the emotions of his fellow citizens and become the timeless classic it now is.

Now you are ready to walk into any Russian market, grab a bottle of Sunflower oil, and say to the cashier "Nadeus shto ya ni budu pokskolznutsya s maslom i otrezit menya golovu." (I hope I don't slip with this oil and get my head cut off).

The tales in this book are a testament to an unbounded imagination. Reading it, you can't tell what's real and what's a fantasy and you can never predict where the story might go.

Throughout the book, humor, sarcasm, irony, and outrageousness abound. The style of writing is original, very unique, and brazen. I have read pieces of the book many times because I enjoy the mastery and artfulness of this author and his unconventional style.

Only a writer as skilled as Bulgakov could pull off a story that interweaves the crucifixion of Jesus into a Faustian tale featuring the devil. But The Master and Margarita is so much more than the typical good versus evil novel. It's also an eye-opening social and political commentary, one that's so scathingly obvious that it didn't see the light of day until forty years after Bulgakov's death. The deep themes and hidden undertones are everywhere, but you don't need a Ph.D. in literature or a Master's degree in Russian history to enjoy this book. Although a little slow-going at first, the action quickly picks up in part two and the chapters leading up to Satan's ball will have you breathlessly ripping through the pages. The dark and bitter cold Moscow provides a fitting backdrop for this well-deserving classic.

This is Bulgakov's magnum opus. "Master and Margarita" was written in the years 1929-1940. It was completed months before Bulgakov's death. The book was posthumously published in the Soviet Union in the mid 1960s, with some provocative passages censored by the paranoid communist ideological machine. This is one of the most imaginative allegories I have ever encountered. Bulgakov's imagery and satire ran a scathing trace along the fabric of the Soviet society, oppressed by totalitarian institutions and bureaucratic narrow-mindedness. There is here also a story within a story--a retelling of the confrontation between Jesus and Pontius Pilate. Bulgakov's raises the issue of meaning of love, faith, forgiveness, and human decency. This also is a funny novel. And I think that to truly appreciate all of its nuances one should read it in Russian, and I am privileged to be able to do so. However, this book is not beyond the average English-speaking reader, on the contrary, most people will enjoy reading it for its sheer humour and inventiveness, even if they are not familiar with the society which is allegorically depicted here.
I prefer this translation to other translations. It feels accurate and natural. The flow of narrative is smooth and enticing. In the real world, Bulgakov seems to show, love does not always conquer all, but it remains unconquered even in the face of oppression and tragedy.
Michael Hart

A great big thank you to Professor White, in whose 20th Century Russian Prose class I read this book! The book has many levels - and even if you look no further than the very surface, it is a bizarre yet hilarious story. If you put more thought into the reading, it delves in to themes of good and evil and all that good stuff (and thankfully, Bulghakov is much more eloquent than I am). It was several years ago that I read this so I don't remember many of the details, but I do remember that it was my favorite piece that we read in the course. I lent my copy to a friend and I never got it back, which is too bad because I'm dying to read it again. One of these days when I can justify spending the money on a book I've already read, I'll get myself another copy. Until then, I'll just leave you with my highest recommendation! By the way, you do not at all need an extensive background in all things Russian in order to read this book. I am a scientist, not a historian, and I loved it!

This is a beautiful, tragic, and uniquely written work. However, much of its beauty depends on Bulgakov's command of the Russian language, and the English translation does not manage to bring across the full magnificence of this book. This novel is inaccessible to Americans for one further reason. It is, in a way, a political and social commentary, and to those who do not know the times in which Bulgakov wrote, who do not understand his veiled thrusts at the Soviet system. . .this book has no meaning. Do not imagine for a moment that it is merely a fantasy, or even a philosophical novel (though that is partially true), it is first and foremost a commentary on the Russian society of the time. And without understand of that society, the book will have little meaning to the reader. If you have enough Russian at your disposal to read the original, do it! If not, read this translation, but I fear that a great deal of the magic, the beautiful language, the unique power of the written word that characterizes Bulgakov will be lost to you.

Are the dachas allocated to those with the most talent or those at the top? Ivan Nikolayich is taken in his underwear to the lunatic asylum. The poet Ryukhin takes him there. After sleeping Ivan feels better. He remembers that Berlioz is dead. He finds the building he is in to be wonderfully equipped. It seems that Ivan is in the hospital because he went to a restaurant in his undershorts and because he wanted to tell everyone about Pontius Pilate. Ivan draws Pontius Pilate and a cat walking on its hind legs.
Rimsky, manager of a Variety Show, is driven nearly mad by the telegrams of a magician supposedly from Yalta. A mysterious person, Varenkha, disappears and then suddenly reappears in the story. Nikanor Ivanovich is supposed to turn over his foreign currency. Until his dream Nikanor Ivanovich knew nothing of the works of Pushkin. Nikanor Ivanovich claims that he has no foreign currency.
At the Variety Theater there is concern because Rimsky is nowhere to be found. The aliens bureau has never heard of anyone called Woland, the black magician. Berlioz's nephew tries to claim his inheritance. Ivan's beloved mistress is called Margarita. Margarita flies silently at second story heighth.
Woland, Margarita, and the cat attempt to play chess. Margarita calls the author of a novel about Pontius Pilate, Master to Woland's surprise. The cat jumps off of a pile of manuscripts. No one can say whether the figures are real or imagined. Woland says the Master's novel is unfinished.
I had trouble following the allegory. I will take responsibility for being a poor reader in this instance. The book is splendid.

Written in the darkest years of Russia's unfathomably brutal totalitarian dictatorship, long before the idea of "postmodernism" had arisen, Bulgakov's brilliantly crafted, mischievously conceived masterpiece boldly challenges the tenets of his time and culture, rejecting both traditional religious dogma and modern atheism while having quite a bit of fun with the story of Faust. The Devil is raised up as a kind of anti-hero; Pontius Pilate is portrayed as a conflicted and guilt-ridden bureaucrat; and the Devil's followers and retinue are shown as both more powerful and more free than the common masses.

Far from a paean to sociopathy and dropping out, however, and despite its phantasmic form and plot, The Master and Margarita is in fact a work of deep humanistic Romanticism in the Russian literary tradition. Bulgakov's title characters manage to escape the constraints of their lives and exult in true freedom by the only means available to them: by rejecting society around them and living by their emotions, by fleeing society's brutal imposition of mediocrity and meaninglessness, and by trusting their inner integrity, thereby exposing the culture they are fleeing for its degraded venality and materialistic status-seeking.

Subversively, it is only those characters who follow the Devil who can be free and be granted absolution. The Devil offers not only darkness but contrasts, and notes that light cannot be appreciated without shadows--a subtle but serious critique of Communism's ideology and aesthetics (both of which caused Bulgakov much suffering in his life). Only the Devil can restore an artist and his lover to what they truly yearn for: the peaceful daily idealism of doing good work and loving one another. Perhaps in a better world, the Devil would not be required for such liberation; in Bulgakov's Moscow, however, he definitely is. In Bulgakov's world, the primary imperative is to restore a sense that the Devil exists, that ethics exist, that integrity exists and that it can be violated.

The narrative's fragmented, multi-perspective style reflects the imperatives of the society in which the characters are embedded. Most are painted sketchily, even mechanically, defined by their functions and their status. Don't look for deep Tolstoyesque psychological portraits here: these are mechanical people in a mechanical society in which fear rules. Liberation for Bulgakov's characters comes through resurgent Romanticism, not analysis or intellectuality. As the title characters start to discover their freedom, the language itself becomes more sweeping and heroic, more emotional, and more narrative. The themes of the novel are therefore borne out not only through the story and the characters, but through the way the story is itself told. A staggering achievement of the novelist's craft.

I only wish I were able to read it in the original Russian -- I am sure we can only appreciate a fraction of the richness of the text in translated form. However, this translation is a wonderful read. (I read the Vintage edition translated by Diana Burgin and Katherine Tiernan O'Connor; Penguin Classics has another translation.) I recommend reviewing the endnotes and comments for each chapter after reading it, so you can appreciate the references before moving on. The chapters are short.

Highly recommended!

I went into this novel knowing next to nothing about Russian or Soviet culture, but as it is often cited as one of the most important books to come out of Russia, I decided to give it a whirl. I was surprised by how fun the story was, how slick and cool the characters are. It was definitely tough to dive into - The first few chapters are disjointed and packed with confusing details - but it is worth working through. The details come together to produce a fantastical story that left my thoughts returning to the characters again and again. I cannot say much about the accuracy of the translation, but in terms of reading quality, it was very smooth and natural sounding, which is hard to find in translated stories.