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The Master and Margaritaby Mikhail Bulgakov
Staff Pick
"Manuscripts don't burn" — that's what the man said. It's impossible to destroy the last thing that one has loved, as memory trumps death. This holds true for Mikhail Bulgakov's novel The Master and Margarita: he burned his own copy down to nothing, then proceeded to rewrite the entire book from memory. The most famous of his works, The Master and Margarita is the tale of the heartbroken Master (he's a writer; he wears a hat) and his beloved Margarita (she glows; she flies), and both are very, very special. Then again, it is also the tale of the devil, with his attendant charmers/demons, and that of Pontius Pilate and his own great love. Pilate regrets putting the best company he's ever known to death, and he wants to set the business aright. Note: it is not necessary to subscribe to any sort of religion to enjoy this book, as it is too beautiful to be solely evangelical.
A hilarious attack on the hypocrisy of early Soviet Moscow that is as much a commentary on Stalin's political propaganda as it is on all forms of patriotism. The characters are hilarious and the story is as gripping as any I have ever read. Synopses & ReviewsPublisher Comments:I first read Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita on a balcony of the Hotel Metropole in Saigon on three summer evenings in 1971. The tropical air was heavy and full of the smells of cordite and motorcycle exhaust and rotting fish and wood-fire stoves, and the horizon flared ambiguously, perhaps from heat lightning, perhaps from bombs. Later each night, as was my custom, I would wander out into the steamy back alleys of the city, where no one ever seemed to sleep, and crouch in doorways with the people and listen to the stories of their culture and their ancestors and their ongoing lives. Bulgakov taught me to hear something in those stories that I had not yet clearly heard. One could call it, in terms that would soon thereafter gain wide currency, "magical realism". The deadpan mix of the fantastic and the realistic was at the heart of the Vietnamese mythos. It is at the heart of the present zeitgeist. And it was not invented by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, as wonderful as his One Hundred Years of Solitude is. Garcia Marquez's landmark work of magical realism was predated by nearly three decades by Bulgakov's brilliant masterpiece of a novel. That summer in Saigon a vodka-swilling, talking black cat, a coven of beautiful naked witches, Pontius Pilate, and a whole cast of benighted writers of Stalinist Moscow and Satan himself all took up permanent residence in my creative unconscious. Their presence, perhaps more than anything else from the realm of literature, has helped shape the work I am most proud of. I'm often asked for a list of favorite authors. Here is my advice. Read Bulgakov. Look around you at the new century. He will show you things you need to see. Review:"One of the truly great Russian novels of this century." The New York Times Book Review Synopsis:Suppressed in the Soviet Union for twenty-six years, Mikhail Bulgakov's masterpiece is an ironic parable of power and its corruption, good and evil, and human frailty and the strength of love. Featuring Satan, accompanied by a retinue that includes the large, fast-talking, vodka drinking black tom cat Behemoth, the beautiful Margarita, her beloved - a distraught writer known only as the Master - Pontius Pilate, and Jesus Christ, The Master and Margarita combines fable, fantasy, political satire, and slapstick comedy into a wildly entertaining and unforgettable tale that is commonly considered one of the greatest novels ever to come out of the Soviet Union. "A wild surrealistic romp.... Brilliantly flamboyant and outrageous."-Joyce Carol Oates, The Detroit News; "Fine, funny, imaginative.... The Master and Margarita stands squarely in the great Gogolesque tradition of satiric narrative."-Saul Maloff, Newsweek; "Funny, devilish, brilliant satire.... It's literature of the highest order and . . . it will deliver a full measure of enjoyment and enlightenment."-Publisher's Weekly; "A rich, funny, moving and bitter novel.... Vast and boisterous entertainment."-The New York Times Synopsis:Mikhail Bulgakov's devastating satire of Soviet life was written during the darkest period of Stalin's regime. Combining two distinct yet interwoven parts-one set in ancient Jerusalem, one in contemporary Moscow-the novel veers from moods of wild theatricality with violent storms, vampire attacks, and a Satanic ball; to such somber scenes as the meeting of Pilate and Yeshua, and the murder of Judas in the moonlit garden of Gethsemane; to the substanceless, circus-like reality of Moscow. Its central characters, Woland (Satan) and his retinue-including the vodka-drinking, black cat, Behemoth; the poet, Ivan Homeless; Pontius Pilate; and a writer known only as The Master, and his passionate companion, Margarita-exist in a world that blends fantasy and chilling realism, an artful collage of grostesqueries, dark comedy, and timeless ethical questions. Although completed in 1940, The Master and Margarita was not published in Moscow until 1966, when the first part appeared in the magazine Moskva. It was an immediate and enduring success: Audiences responded with great enthusiasm to its expression of artistic and spiritual freedom. This new translation has been created from the complete and unabridged Russian texts. What Our Readers Are SayingAdd a comment for a chance to win!
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