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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 891.7342
EAN: 9780679760801
ISBN: 0679760806
Label: Vintage
Manufacturer: Vintage
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 384
Publication Date: 1996-03-19
Publisher: Vintage
Product Release Date: 1996-03-19
Studio: Vintage

Surely no stranger work exists in the annals of protest literature than The Master and Margarita. Written during the Soviet crackdown of the 1930s, when Mikhail Bulgakov's works were effectively banned, it wraps its anti-Stalinist message in a complex allegory of good and evil. Or would that be the other way around? The book's chief character is Satan, who appears in the guise of a foreigner and self-proclaimed black magician named Woland. Accompanied by a talking black tomcat and a "translator" wearing a jockey's cap and cracked pince-nez, Woland wreaks havoc throughout literary Moscow. First he predicts that the head of noted editor Berlioz will be cut off; when it is, he appropriates Berlioz's apartment. (A puzzled relative receives the following telegram: "Have just been run over by streetcar at Patriarch's Ponds funeral Friday three afternoon come Berlioz.") Woland and his minions transport one bureaucrat to Yalta, make another one disappear entirely except for his suit, and frighten several others so badly that they end up in a psychiatric hospital. In fact, it seems half of Moscow shows up in the bin, demanding to be placed in a locked cell for protection.

Meanwhile, a few doors down in the hospital lives the true object of Woland's visit: the author of an unpublished novel about Pontius Pilate. This Master--as he calls himself--has been driven mad by rejection, broken not only by editors' harsh criticism of his novel but, Bulgakov suggests, by political persecution as well. Yet Pilate's story becomes a kind of parallel narrative, appearing in different forms throughout Bulgakov's novel: as a manuscript read by the Master's indefatigable love, Margarita, as a scene dreamed by the poet--and fellow lunatic--Ivan Homeless, and even as a story told by Woland himself. Since we see this narrative from so many different points of view, who is truly its author? Given that the Master's novel and this one end the same way, are they in fact the same book? These are only a few of the many questions Bulgakov provokes, in a novel that reads like a set of infinitely nested Russian dolls: inside one narrative there is another, and then another, and yet another. His devil is not only entertaining, he is necessary: "What would your good be doing if there were no evil, and what would the earth look like if shadows disappeared from it?"

Unsurprisingly--in view of its frequent, scarcely disguised references to interrogation and terror--Bulgakov's masterwork was not published until 1967, almost three decades after his death. Yet one wonders if the world was really ready for this book in the late 1930s, if, indeed, we are ready for it now. Shocking, touching, and scathingly funny, it is a novel like no other. Woland may reattach heads or produce 10-ruble notes from the air, but Bulgakov proves the true magician here. The Master and Margarita is a different book each time it is opened. --Mary Park

Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Best book ever written
Review: Pontius Pilate and Moscow's citizens are oddly coupled in this examination of the new class of soviet people. Even without the social commentary, this is a beautiful and engaging atypical love story. Best read with Goethe's Faust. Margarita is the Russian version of Margaret/Gretchen.

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Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Alice in Wonderland for children who didn't believe cold war proganda
Review: Turn of the century Russia before the Cold War had always inspired a lost hope for the past, at least within myself. Historical accounts of this period are filled with hope, vitality and a sense of renewal of heroic proportions. Until I read this novel. Master and the Margarita, the skillful imagery, allegory, and vast plain of fantasy allowes a reader to grasp a dimension of post-serf Russia in an entirely new light.

I can't help but to fall in love with Behemoth the cat, like I had with historical characters of a national movement which was the started the USSR. Seductive overtones of the circus characters allowed me to recognize a dark side of which I had identified as a antagonized enemy during the Cold War.

Grew up really not wanting to find Russia unlikable, didn't for once put any faith into the propaganda machine. Entirely unwilling to find fault for the communistas, little thought went into how the intelligentsia viewed the Kremlin. Repression of outspoken works from the Russian intelligentsias led me to believe there was no unrest.

Understanding now that repression of works such as "Master and Margarita " has the same effect as negative propaganda.

Mikhail gave me a gift in this novel, the ability to lose my innocence in regards to a political movement I had previously found unfailing. Through the use of seductive characters in a spellbinding journey it wasn't as painful.

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Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Not the most enjoyable translation
Review: I've been a fan of 19th and 20th century Russian novels for years, having read all of Dostoevsky's major novels, Gogol short stories, Gogol's Dead Souls, and now this. Up until now, I have had no cause to doubt Pevear and Volokhonsky's translations-having read Dostoevsky's The Idiot and Demons by them, and all the Gogol works done by them as well. However, before buying a translation of The Master and Margarita in a bookstore, I took about an hour and a half comparing three different translations--theirs, Ginsburg's, and another one that was relatively new. I ended up buying the Ginsburg, even as I knew what painstaking work Pevear and Volokhonsky do. In this case though, I quickly dismissed the third translation (whose name escapes me) and eventually decided on the Ginsburg. It was more fun to read, and the author's delight in oddity, satire, and feelings for his characters came through much more. This is, as some of you probably know, quite a bit in the style of Gogol's Dead Souls, and the similarity came through the most in the Ginsburg translation.

The husband and wife team of Pevear and Volokhonsky has done great work so far, but that's no reason to read any more of their translations without comparing others (I've also read a lot of critical reviews about their Tolstoy translations). Ginsburg is a great translator, she's also done a good rendering of Notes from Underground, which I recommend as well.

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Customer Rating:
Review Summary: No principles for life in here
Review: I understand that this book is considered one of the greatest novels of the 20th century. Ok - but I don't see it. It is wild with imagination, and pretty funny, but there is nothing 'great' about it. There are no principles here to improve the life of the reader. There is nothing here I can take away - not even a better comprehension of human nature. I'm not qualified to talk about the translation, but I don't think my complains are with the actual wording, but with the overall theme.

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Customer Rating:
Review Summary: The Master and Margarita (Review)
Review: Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita provides a scathing social commentary on life in Russia during Stalinism. This Gnostic work taking place in the 1930s serves as an excellent new historical look on life under Socialism. Bulgakov's masterpiece, which was censored and unpublished until 1972, tells the story of Satan's visit to Moscow and all the unusual events that take place while he's there. Much of the imagery and pranks Satan pulls are symbolic of serious problems facing the average Muscovite. This book will help you, the reader, to understand some of the problems facing 1930s Russia. Bulgakov is one of the most authoritative authors to write on the topic of Socialism, as he had first-hand experience with several of issues addressed in the work. This novel provides an interesting perspective on the ills of Stalinism and it should be read by anyone looking for a creative way to read about those ills. The story is told by a third person omniscient narrator (presumed to be Bulgakov himself) and is divided into two main sections. The first section focuses on the coming of Satan and introduces the characters on which the story focuses, and the second section focuses on the Master and Margarita's love story and the conclusion of Satan's time in Moscow. I recommend this book to anyone looking for a novel which will challenge them on a personal, intellectual, and spiritual level, as well as to anyone doing research on Socialism/Stalinism.

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