The Master and Margarita
by Mikhail Bulgakov
|
|
| published
|
1967
by Signet Books
|
| first published
| 1996 |
| binding
| paperback |
| isbn
|
|
| pages
| 384 |
| date added
|
03-03-08
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|
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It is difficult to read the Master and Margarita without an uncomfortable awareness of one’s lack of understanding and ability to viscerally relate to the 1920’s Soviet Russia Bulgakov was enthusiastically eviscerating, and therefore easy (and maybe more enjoyable) to read it from a purely acontextual, Formalistic point of view. That being said, it is precisely those times where Bulgakov allows himself to overtly attack his enemies and speechify slightly on the stultifying nature of bureauc...more
It is difficult to read the Master and Margarita without an uncomfortable awareness of one’s lack of understanding and ability to viscerally relate to the 1920’s Soviet Russia Bulgakov was enthusiastically eviscerating, and therefore easy (and maybe more enjoyable) to read it from a purely acontextual, Formalistic point of view. That being said, it is precisely those times where Bulgakov allows himself to overtly attack his enemies and speechify slightly on the stultifying nature of bureaucratic involvement in literature and creation which are least involving and intoxicating. And whatever else, The Master and Margarita is intoxicating and best enjoyed through a full surrender to its experience and the multiple, intersecting, complimenting, and possibly contradictory worlds it creates and presents.
Although the realities of the Master and Margarita as, in part, an anti-Stalinist statement, are undeniable, it is truly limiting to read it primarily as such. Maybe the most fruitful thing to keep in mind as a reader about the act of the book’s creation (as, has been said time and again, it is on one level a book about itself) and its historical context is that Bulgakov surely knew that there was absolutely no way that even a word of such a nutty, anarchic, stubborn, and anti-dogmatic book would ever be published while the Stalinist system survived. But he wrote it anyway. As readers we get to chew over the question, as is also explored and played with in the narrative, "Why?"
We expect Russian authors of certain generations to be moralists, and Bulgakov certainly falls within that sphere, but he is obstinate in both his determination to shrug at and even playfully celebrate behavior that would certainly have been viewed contemporarily as immoral, as well as to unflinchingly and determinedly state that there are, if not behaviors, than certainly states or stances, which are worthy of both redemption and praise, as well as damnation and ridicule. His Satan, in the form of Woland, is not really all that evil, and is more in partnership with Bulgakov’s Jesus, in the form of Yeshua, than he is in opposition, which the linear, moralistic (and in the novel, inaccurate) Matthew of the gospels, cannot grasp, but the uncompromising and obsessed artist (the Master) and lover of authenticity over doctrinaire comfort (Margarita) can.
In the end it is probably best to recognize one’s limitations as a contemporary, post-Soviet reader, give it a nod, and move on and simply enjoy the ride as an inspired, gleeful, and sometimes sophomoric attack on cowardice, inauthenticity, mediocrity, dogma (be it of the state or the spirit) and bourgeois comfort-seeking and morality while celebrating passion, love, lack of compromise, creativity, and the unfettered seeking of truth even while knowing that it is unlikely that such a search will result in definitive answers.
Regarding the translation: I originally read the Mirra Ginsburg translation, but at the strong recommendation of an Ukranian friend just read the Michael Glenny translation, which she said was better and more definitive. Although, as I am unable to read Russian, I can’t speak to the comparatively definitive nature of the two, after having compared several passages I can certainly say that the Glenny translation is more poetic and elicitous of Bulgakov’s gleefully whacked out vision.
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bookshelves:
continental-european,
fantasy,
magic-realism,
modern-fiction,
modernism,
russian
Read in February, 2008
What would happen if Satan were to alight on a modern metropolis like Moscow and wreak havoc in it? That's just one of the questions asked and answered in this twentieth-century Russian classic, which is said to have been the inspiration for the Rolling Stones song 'Sympathy for the Devil'.
You can see why Mick Jagger and his cronies would be intrigued by the devil as portrayed in The Master and Margarita. Bulgakov's Satan is not necessarily purely evil; he just punishes sceptics and ...more
What would happen if Satan were to alight on a modern metropolis like Moscow and wreak havoc in it? That's just one of the questions asked and answered in this twentieth-century Russian classic, which is said to have been the inspiration for the Rolling Stones song 'Sympathy for the Devil'.
You can see why Mick Jagger and his cronies would be intrigued by the devil as portrayed in The Master and Margarita. Bulgakov's Satan is not necessarily purely evil; he just punishes sceptics and greedy people, and does so in extremely creative ways. He has a lot of personality, and if that weren't enough, he also has a fascinating retinue of demons and zombies who gleefully go about creating their own brand of creative mischief. The result, as you might expect, is an orgy of chaos in which people get killed, scared out of their wits, humiliated and spirited away, usually in fairly inventive ways. It's hard not to admire Bulgakov's imagination in these scenes; he really does come up with some outrageous stuff, and except for the one chapter in which one of the main characters flies over Moscow on a broomstick, you'll buy it -- even the gun-toting cat who cannot be killed. That's how good his writing is.
It's not all wicked mayhem, though. Interwoven with the main story are descriptions of the last days of Pilate and Christ, which seem a bit disjointed at first but have a strangely beautiful quality. These, it turns out, are chapters from a book written by 'the master', an author (surely an autobiographical representation of Bulgakov himself) whose career has been ruined by the authorities. Soviet Russia is never mentioned in the book (its Moscow has a distinctly timeless flavour), but The Master and Margarita is in fact a surreal parody on what was happening during Bulgakov's lifetime, with Satan carrying out the purges Stalin was carrying out in real life. Among other things, Bulgakov satirises literary life in the Soviet Union, which for him wasn't a tremendous lot of fun. He also defends Christianity (albeit in a way the Church did not really appreciate), which in the atheistic Soviet Union was enough of a no-no that he never even tried getting the book published during his lifetime.
While I greatly enjoyed the panache with which Bulgakov describes the demons' exploits and the various layers he seems to weave into the story, I do have a few quibbles with the book. One is that the author comes up with a tremendous cast of characters, many of whom he leaves just a tad too soon for the reader to care about them. As a result, many parts of the book feel rather episodic, especially in the middle. Furthermore, Bulgakov occasionally lets his imagination get the better of him. Margarita's flight over Moscow was one step too far for me, although I have a feeling it will make more sense to me when I reread the book, which I certainly will at some point.
These are minor quibbles, though. For the most part, The Master and Margarita is a very successful, terrifically original and occasionally funny venture into surrealism with many layers which will undoubtedly make for rewarding rereading. I definitely look forward to rereading it.
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bookshelves:
summerreading08,
year-of-only-good-books
Read in June, 2008
recommended to Libby by:
My lovely sister
recommends it for:
Folklore fans, Lit buffs
Very little can prepare you for the wild ride that is Mikhail Bulgakov's "The Master and Margarita," especially if you've read other literature or folklore that have the devil as a character. What will be helpful, I suspect, is knowing a bit about the time and setting of the novel. Bulgakov wrote this book between 1930 and 1940 while living in Moscow under Stalin. The book is set in 1920, when everything was being taken under government control, from the distribution of food and bever...more
Very little can prepare you for the wild ride that is Mikhail Bulgakov's "The Master and Margarita," especially if you've read other literature or folklore that have the devil as a character. What will be helpful, I suspect, is knowing a bit about the time and setting of the novel. Bulgakov wrote this book between 1930 and 1940 while living in Moscow under Stalin. The book is set in 1920, when everything was being taken under government control, from the distribution of food and beverages to city living quarters. Foreign nationals, literature, currency, and influence were tightly controlled, if not banned, and the secret police had eyes everywhere, locking up citizens on the barest of evidence and shipping them off to labor camps in Siberia. If this weren't bad enough, opportunists played the system for their own selfish benefit, such as reporting one's neighbor to the secret police in order to move into the neighbor's apartment. Religion went from being state-sanctioned to all but banned, and churches were vandalized and looted. All published literature was so scrutinized that only the most coded dissent could get through the censors. Bulgakov went from being an acclaimed playwright to an artist dependent on the unpredictable whims of the regime, having plays produced at theatres, but then shut down shortly after opening.
"The Master and Margarita," is in part a frustrated artist's reaction to all of this, as the devil appears in Moscow and wreaks merry havoc on those people whose mediocrity allowed them to thrive under Stalin, but it is also a great deal more. There are two other narratives entwined with the devil's mischief: a retelling of the Christian crucifixion with Pontius Pilate as the main character, whose story is told by several different narrators, and the story of a writer known simply as The Master and his married lover Margarita. Bulgakov has a great deal of structural fun with these three stories, leaping from one to the other with ease and weaving threads from each story into the others. But ultimately, this book is much more than the stories that comprise it. It's at turns winsome and grotesque, horrifying and hilarious, but at its core a book about hope and intellectual honesty. Though Bulgakov's masterpiece wasn't published until after his death (and Stalin's), the devil's reassurance that no truth can ever be truly lost feels simultaneously prophetic and poignant.
I highly recommend this book for anybody seeking freedom from genre and cliche....less
bookshelves:
fiction
recommends it for:
Harry Potter fans, or people doing a survey of Russian writers
Russian authors are really impressing me lately. I've never read Tolstoy, and only cracked the surface on Dostoyevsky, but I keep coming across others that are demanding (in writing) a near-future trip to Russia absorb some weight in the planning department of my brain. We'll see.
Anyway, I read Master and Margarita because of I heard it inspired the Stones' song Sympathy for the Devil. I expected some sort of Da Vinci code es...more
Russian authors are really impressing me lately. I've never read Tolstoy, and only cracked the surface on Dostoyevsky, but I keep coming across others that are demanding (in writing) a near-future trip to Russia absorb some weight in the planning department of my brain. We'll see.
Anyway, I read Master and Margarita because of I heard it inspired the Stones' song Sympathy for the Devil. I expected some sort of Da Vinci code esque verisimilitude between the book and lyrics and which may've led to entire chat rooms dedicated to theories and cross-references, but like most of the Rolling Stones songs, they basically just ripped off some character names and basic plot points, if Mick Jagger even finished the book at all.
Coming off Don Quixote, which was written as a progression of adventures and histories, and Women by Bukowski, which was a repetition of penthouse letters with unhappy endings, it was refreshing to read a novel with narrative devices and a structure. Master and Margarita jumps around a lot, following some players in early 20th century Soviet society, as well as Satan and his his crew, with a quick jaunt back to the the time of Pontius Pilate. We don't even meet Margarita until 100 plus pages in. For Bulgakov's credit, it works. It kind of reminds me of the way Robert Altman did the movie of Prairie Home Companion, although in this case the radio theater show would be Satan and his plans for the town, as the central glue of the ensemble cast. Anyway, it worked for me.
What didn't work for me was the last hundred pages which turns a ghoulish fable, into the worst Harry Potter ripoff children's tale ever. I was so suprised that a Soviet writer could be that soft.
Also, I don't know why I thought either of these things, but I assumed this book would be far more sexual and seductive, but maybe I'm confusing it with Bonnie 'Prince' Billy's "Master and Everyone". I also wish it was scarier. Truly it was pretty G-rated, but with some Doestoyevsky psychological terror it could've been the greatest minor work of the 20th century. All in all, a pretty good read though. I don't know why the Star Rating system won't let me enter my three stars, but there you have it--3 stars....less
Read in February, 2008
This book started out nicely enough. It was your standard Satan (in the guise of foreign "consultant") strolling in the park predicts imminent decapitation of writers' association administrator via concurrence of oil spilled by Annuchka and a speeding, sharp-wheeled trolley. I know. You're rolling your eyes. Not that shopworn scenario again. Part 1 (of 2) is a grab bag of various (sometimes amusing) adventures, facilitated by Woland (the Devil) and his ragtag retinue comprised o...more
This book started out nicely enough. It was your standard Satan (in the guise of foreign "consultant") strolling in the park predicts imminent decapitation of writers' association administrator via concurrence of oil spilled by Annuchka and a speeding, sharp-wheeled trolley. I know. You're rolling your eyes. Not that shopworn scenario again. Part 1 (of 2) is a grab bag of various (sometimes amusing) adventures, facilitated by Woland (the Devil) and his ragtag retinue comprised of a large biped cat who talks, a man with checkered pants and a pince-nez with one lens missing and one cracked, a man with a fang (yes, only one), and a naked witch. Gradually, however, this book (especially the soporific second part) becomes a painful test of endurance. Bulgakov evidently loves detailed descriptions of objects and surroundings. (I call it the Anne Rice Syndrome. It is fatal.) Sad to say, I do not share his enthusiasm. Trust your readers, Mikhail! Throw us a few evocative details and move on. Don't bludgeon us with minutiae like storm fronts, jacket linings, and the quantity of microbes under a fingernail. Yes, I'm exaggerating. But I really did not enjoy this book, and therefore, if you have good taste like me, you will probably not enjoy it either. Go read Cancer Ward by Solzhenitsyn instead. Or go read the Do Not Remove tag on your mattress instead. Or give up reading altogether and become a hermit. Or send me $13.95 plus state sales tax so that I can buy a new book. (On the ascendant excretory rating scale, this book crapped its own bed, and then went over to the neighboring bed and crapped that one too. Two bed crappings for the price of one.)...less
Read in January, 2006
recommends it for:
Readers interested in Russia, recent Russian history, and Russian literature
I'd love to say I loved this book, especially as I was really looking forward to it as one of the masterpieces of 20th Century Russian modernism. I'm crazy about all that Eastern European surrealist stuff but somehow although I appreciated the warped picture it provided of Russian life under the Soviet system (more than justifying any amount of surrealism), it just didn't hang together for me as a story, which being an author myself is one of my preconceptions of how fiction should function. May...more
I'd love to say I loved this book, especially as I was really looking forward to it as one of the masterpieces of 20th Century Russian modernism. I'm crazy about all that Eastern European surrealist stuff but somehow although I appreciated the warped picture it provided of Russian life under the Soviet system (more than justifying any amount of surrealism), it just didn't hang together for me as a story, which being an author myself is one of my preconceptions of how fiction should function. Maybe I'm just misguided, but it's a bit tough when the major characters don't appear till halfway through the book. Still we get to spend time with both Jesus and the Devil in the flesh, and in the end Satan turns out to be not such a bad guy after all. He's just, more or less, got a job to do. So if this sounds like an interesting premise, check it out. It's definitely a must read for any serious student of Russian literature, and Bulgakov's personal history is fascinating -- he was protected during his lifetime, despite various purgings of the literati, by Stalin himself, who strangely enough happened to love one of Bulgakov's plays he'd seen performed. Meanwhile Bulgakov, who knew he was dying young of some terminal disease (I think it was TB, as usual, but I'm not sure) was working on his subversive masterpiece, which had not the slightest chance of being published under the Soviet system. Somehow the manuscript survived and was, remarkably, published decades later in the 1960's during a brief thaw in the authoritarian climate. It created a major sensation in the literary world of the time, particularly in its home country, only to be banned again. But the damage had been done -- many 'Bulgakovisms' leaked into the popular culture of the time, somewhat as lines from Shakespeare have leaked into our popular vernacular in the west, demonstrating once again the power of literature to make a difference... ...less
Read in April, 2008
A true masterpiece by a Soviet author on his deathbed. Recounts what happens when the Devil pays a five-day visit to 1930s Moscow and the attendant mischief that arises. A naked witch, a giant cat, a clownish choirmaster, and a fanged man make up his retinue. The novel explores the role of artists, Pontius Pilate, repression, and everything worthy of discussion. Not only that, it is extremely engaging, funny, a bit horrific, and passionate. The narrator, too, injects a unique voice into the stor...more
A true masterpiece by a Soviet author on his deathbed. Recounts what happens when the Devil pays a five-day visit to 1930s Moscow and the attendant mischief that arises. A naked witch, a giant cat, a clownish choirmaster, and a fanged man make up his retinue. The novel explores the role of artists, Pontius Pilate, repression, and everything worthy of discussion. Not only that, it is extremely engaging, funny, a bit horrific, and passionate. The narrator, too, injects a unique voice into the story: "We have no idea whether there were any other strange occurrences in Moscow that night, and we have no intention of trying to find out, since the time has come for us to proceed to Part Two of this true narrative. Follow me, reader!"
I would recommend the Burgin/O'Connor translation (1996) over the Glenny version (1992), not only for its useful commentary explaining Soviet-era cultural references, but for its style, which the translators assert keeps to the original Russian. Compare:
Burgin/O'Connor: "Meanwhile the sparrow landed on the inkstand, which had been given to the doctor as a gift, befouled it (I'm not kidding!), flew up in the air, hovered briefly, and then with a steely beak pecked furiously at the glass on the graduation photo of the class of 1894, shattering it to bits. After that, it flew out the window."
Glenny: "Meanwhile the sparrow had perched on his presentation inkstand, fouled it, then flew up, hung in the air and dived with shattering force at a photograph showing the whole class of '94 on graduation day, smashing the glass to smithereens. The bird then wheeled smartly and flew out the window."
Lastly, I'd like to note that the love story underlying the novel's plot (and titular characters) is, though brief, beautiful to experience, much like a reverse Paradise Lost. Highly recommended....less
bookshelves:
knock-your-socks-off
Read in November, 2007
It's the late 1920s in Moscow when the devil comes to town with his entourage, which includes a large vodka-swilling black cat named Behemoth. What happens with the devil visits a population that doesn't believe in anything? It's brilliant and quite funny. Bulgarov satirizes the Russian literary/intellectual scene, politics, society, religion, obviously, censorship. The second half has more fantastic elements, as women become witches and Satan's ball takes place in a small apartment (which remin...more
It's the late 1920s in Moscow when the devil comes to town with his entourage, which includes a large vodka-swilling black cat named Behemoth. What happens with the devil visits a population that doesn't believe in anything? It's brilliant and quite funny. Bulgarov satirizes the Russian literary/intellectual scene, politics, society, religion, obviously, censorship. The second half has more fantastic elements, as women become witches and Satan's ball takes place in a small apartment (which reminded me of some of the elements of Faerie in Strange and Norrell... also, there's a flying car at one point a la H. Potter). There are definite Gogolesque elements throughout the book, and allusions to Faust and related works (which I wouldn't have picked up without the endnotes and led me to think maybe I should read Faust).
This review isn't very clear, but take this from it: The book is good. And it's good in way that it can be read just for the words on the page and it's enjoyable and enriching, and it can be dealt with on a deeper basis as far as historical and literary context and enjoyed on that level as well. I was somewhere in the middle, I'd say.
I didn't really know what to expect from The Master and Margarita, having picked it up based on the fact that it's two of my friend's favorite book. Luckily, it's fantastic, hilarious, and so perfectly post-Gogol Russian. Interestingly, Bulgarov wrote the novel never expecting to see it published within his last time. The actual story of the story is quite illuminating.
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Read in August, 2008
A wild ride of a book! The devil comes to Stalin Moscow and wreaks utter havoc, most of which is extremely amusing. Yet this is not the evil Satan we normally encounter. He's actually a necessary aspect of what is necessary in our universe. What is Light if there is no Shadow? In more Christian terms (which you definitely don't need to be in order to get the point here) if you don't believe in the devil, then Christ also does not exist. So, in a roundabout way, the devil does good. And this Sata...more
A wild ride of a book! The devil comes to Stalin Moscow and wreaks utter havoc, most of which is extremely amusing. Yet this is not the evil Satan we normally encounter. He's actually a necessary aspect of what is necessary in our universe. What is Light if there is no Shadow? In more Christian terms (which you definitely don't need to be in order to get the point here) if you don't believe in the devil, then Christ also does not exist. So, in a roundabout way, the devil does good. And this Satan is even a somewhat likable character.
I'd write more right now but I'm on vacation using the office computer. I'm tempted to give this 5 stars, but due to the nature of the book, when it's over it's over and there's no compunction to go back and reread certain parts as I do with myvery favorites. And while the characters are rich, I'm not taking any away with me and pondering about their fate. However, this book breaks all usual modes, and it may break my past expectations of needing the same values as my other 5-star books.
Edited a few days later to upgrade to 5 stars. Couldn't stop thinking about it and feeling somewhat disturbed while I pondered it's meaning. There's alot of layers to this masterpiece, which warrants a second reading. I was so engrossed and amused with the antics stirred up in Moscow yet there's a whole other book about Pontius Pilate that the Master has written in quite a different style - beautiful, lyrical, quiet. The two stories are very connected, but it's the Pilate one that ended up haunting me....less
This book belongs to my favourites. you know, there are some books after you read them yuo feel somehow different about the world around you - well, that's what the book gave to me - the new understanding and appreciation of reality. i loved the satyr that Bulgakov used to decribe the Soviet society, each ide of that life - kind of absurd life it was. but even more i was fascinated by his Bible alusions - that was something really special in his story of Ieshua Ganozri (sorry for the spelling, i...more
This book belongs to my favourites. you know, there are some books after you read them yuo feel somehow different about the world around you - well, that's what the book gave to me - the new understanding and appreciation of reality. i loved the satyr that Bulgakov used to decribe the Soviet society, each ide of that life - kind of absurd life it was. but even more i was fascinated by his Bible alusions - that was something really special in his story of Ieshua Ganozri (sorry for the spelling, i'm not really sure how it is spelled in English translation, because i read it in Russian)- the philosopher, not saint, not prophet, not God - but a philosopher who was simply misunderstood by his people. When i read this book it was initial for me - it opened a new way of understanding the religion. it is sometimes said that Bulgakov made a new Gospel, the new story we couldn't imagine. and it was unexeptable to write something like that in 1930th in Soviet Union!!! But i don't think the book is just about the Soviets - it's not, if i say that it would be underestimation of what Bulgakov wrote. the book is about us - even now, about 70 years after it was writen it is up to date, cause most of the society faults and human hypocrisy described in "The Master and Margarita" can be seen in our developed and tolerant society.
My favourite scene is the first chapter of the book, when Woland is talking to Ivan Bezdomnuj and Berlioz, the passage about person contoroling its life. and Woland - the character is just one of the best demonic characters in world's literature. so like Mephistophel;) ...less
Read in May, 2008
I really enjoyed this book although I didn't understand it. It's very fantastical like a lot of Russian literature. The representation of Satan and God seems very modern - kind of matter of fact, political almost. By that I mean that they work within a system - two parties who may or may not hate each other but they work within this system and do their jobs. They make agreements about people and where they belong in the afterlife. Satan and his group seem to dole out justice well . All the peopl...more
I really enjoyed this book although I didn't understand it. It's very fantastical like a lot of Russian literature. The representation of Satan and God seems very modern - kind of matter of fact, political almost. By that I mean that they work within a system - two parties who may or may not hate each other but they work within this system and do their jobs. They make agreements about people and where they belong in the afterlife. Satan and his group seem to dole out justice well . All the people who are tormented are seen to be cowardly, greedy, thieving, cheating, hypocritical or worst of all unbelievers.
I don't understand how the story of Pontius Pilate relates to all of this or why writing this story brings salvation to the Master and Margarita. Is it that the Master believes, that Margarita loves or that the book is a true work or art (as opposed to the garbage that the other writers in the book publish)? Obviously this is a main part of the book so if anyone understands this I would love to hear their ideas. I don't know enough about Biblical or Faust stories to be able to follow the references and connections here.
Margarita is the most interesting character to me. She is open to Satan and is not scared into a lunatic asylum like the other characters who meet with him. She accepts Satan's deal without guilt and upholds her end of the bargain with stoic grace. Of course, I also loved the black cat Behemoth who like all cats is a wonderful jester. He and the others of Satin's retinue add devilishly fun satire and sometimes surprising heart to the story....less
Read in January, 2006
there are lots of songs that reference this book. i imagined it featured prominently in the "russian masters" portion of our literary allusions radio show.
* It is claimed that Mick Jagger was inspired by the novel in writing the song "Sympathy for the Devil".
* The grunge band Pearl Jam were influenced by the novel's confrontation between Yeshua Ha-Nozri and Pontius Pilate for the song, "Pilate" on their 1998 album "Yield".
* The L...more
there are lots of songs that reference this book. i imagined it featured prominently in the "russian masters" portion of our literary allusions radio show.
* It is claimed that Mick Jagger was inspired by the novel in writing the song "Sympathy for the Devil".
* The grunge band Pearl Jam were influenced by the novel's confrontation between Yeshua Ha-Nozri and Pontius Pilate for the song, "Pilate" on their 1998 album "Yield".
* The Lawrence Arms based their album The Greatest Story Ever Told on the book and several of its themes.
* The Franz Ferdinand song "Love and Destroy" was based on a scene where Margarita flies over Moscow on her way to the Walpurgis Night Ball.
* The Canadian group The Tea Party also were inspired by this book when they wrote their song "The Master and Margarita."
* Arlie Carstens sings the line "Bulgakov to Woland's crowd," on the Juno song "The French Letter" from their album A Future lived in Past Tense.
* Elefant, a New York City-based group, released The Black Magic Show in April 2006. The title and first track reference Satan's magic show.
* Brakes's song "Margarita" from the album The Beatific Visions was inspired by the novel.
* The German composer York Höller's opera Der Meister und Margarita was premiered in 1989 at the Paris Opéra and released on CD in 2000.
* Jolie Holland has said that the song "Amen" from her album Escondida was inspired by the book (Margarita's flight), and that she would devote an album to it in the future.
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Read in November, 2007
recommends it for:
anyone who can read
Having never read any of the 'great' Russian authors I approached the book with some trepidation, but that was tempered by the fact that this particular edition apparently once belonged to Beck!
The English translation (by Mirra Ginsberg) of this Bulgakov novel is so brilliant that I'm seriously considering learning Russian just to see how good the original text must have been..
The prose flows kineticly, bouncing the reader from the time of Pontius Pilate to 20th century Moscow to a ball i...more
Having never read any of the 'great' Russian authors I approached the book with some trepidation, but that was tempered by the fact that this particular edition apparently once belonged to Beck!
The English translation (by Mirra Ginsberg) of this Bulgakov novel is so brilliant that I'm seriously considering learning Russian just to see how good the original text must have been..
The prose flows kineticly, bouncing the reader from the time of Pontius Pilate to 20th century Moscow to a ball in honour of Satan and back again, all the while paying extreme attention to the tiniest minutiae of any one character's actions. Not suprisingly then, it manages to convey well the sense of chaos that descends on Moscow when a quad of ostensible black magicians come to town. The translated text conjures in my mind imagery somewhere Franz Kafka and Belleville Rendezvous although this can't have been the authors intention for reasons of terminus ante quem!
Whether there are political undertones to the book it is hard to tell as I know little of Russia during this period. Stalin, however deemed The Master and Margarita to be subversive and therefore saw fit to ban it and in fact all of Bulgakov's works (to go hand in hand with other 'subversive' works by Shostakovich, Eisenstein, etc). Most of these have now been post-humously published. I would thoroughly recommend you get hold of a copy any which way you can and jump on board for a non-stop fantastical riot....less
Read in January, 2008
This book will really mess with your equilibrium.
Set in Soviet Russia, it's a rich satire full of the supernatural. Although the world is unbelievable, the author expertly builds it, and you can't help but be submerged.
The language, even in translation, feels rich and fresh. And startling. Its surprising and funny at times, dark and nightmarish at others (I actually did have nightmares, that's how vivid it was).
Posing questions of good and evil, gods and devils, shadow and light, ...more
This book will really mess with your equilibrium.
Set in Soviet Russia, it's a rich satire full of the supernatural. Although the world is unbelievable, the author expertly builds it, and you can't help but be submerged.
The language, even in translation, feels rich and fresh. And startling. Its surprising and funny at times, dark and nightmarish at others (I actually did have nightmares, that's how vivid it was).
Posing questions of good and evil, gods and devils, shadow and light, the narrative creates a world where everything is possible (and sadly, albeit incorrectly, rationalize-able). The story's main focus is the Soviet Moscow, but also retells the story of Pilate and Yeshua. This story, although arguably overdone, is injected with new vitality and surprises, and the connection it has with the present narrative is rewarding.
The novel also complicates the relationship between the narrator, the author, the reader and the audience. With theater scenes, the above mentioned Pilate story, several characters are novelists and poets. It is an interesting dialogue, again done in a way which has not already been done.
The edition of the book I had provided notes in the back. These notes helped with some of the culturally specific material and discussed some issues in translating. This helped a lot with really seeing the breadth of the satire and the comment it was making specifically about Stalinist Russia. Although the themes aren't dead without this background, it certainly helps to understand where it is coming from....less
Read in June, 2005
From what I understand, there is supposed to be a lot of anti-Stalin satire in this book, but due to my limited knowledge of Stalin, I didn't see much of it. So based strictly on the plot/story, the book is really weird...but kind of cool. It basically can be broken down into four ongoing, intertwining narratives. My favorite characters were the group of evil misfits. The group is wicked, witty, and the best part of the book. For example, one of the devil's pals is a giant black tom cat that w...more
From what I understand, there is supposed to be a lot of anti-Stalin satire in this book, but due to my limited knowledge of Stalin, I didn't see much of it. So based strictly on the plot/story, the book is really weird...but kind of cool. It basically can be broken down into four ongoing, intertwining narratives. My favorite characters were the group of evil misfits. The group is wicked, witty, and the best part of the book. For example, one of the devil's pals is a giant black tom cat that walks on his hind legs, talks, and always impresses people because he is such a gentleman. They are always using their black magic to wreak havoc on the city.
So I basically didn't catch ANY of the symbolism of the book. But it was still fun to read about the hijinx of the fun-loving Devil and friends. My favorite part was the very last chapter of the book, when they have left Moscow. It tells about people capturing innocent black tom cats and dragging them down to the police office for interrogation. Funny stuff.
I enjoyed the book, but in an odd way. It was unlike any book I've read before. I found the Russian surnames to all be confusing. They all sound the same to me. I didn't really learn any neat morals or insights from the book, either...probably because I didn't understand them. So, I sort of recommend this book. I wouldn't put it at the top of my list, but I wouldn't cross it off the list either....less
bookshelves:
5q,
read-in-2007,
unexpectedly-terrific
Read in December, 2007
Upgraded to 5 stars, January 6th 2008 - this was one of my top 5 books read in 2007.
Written in the 1930's, not published until the late 1960's, a quarter-century after the author's death, this is an amazing book. Any short description I provide is necessarily reductive - it's a reworking of the Faust legend, with an embedded exploration of the story of Pontius Pilate, in which the devil and his retinue visit Stalinist Moscow. From this premise, the author produces a scathing satire of the po...more
Upgraded to 5 stars, January 6th 2008 - this was one of my top 5 books read in 2007.
Written in the 1930's, not published until the late 1960's, a quarter-century after the author's death, this is an amazing book. Any short description I provide is necessarily reductive - it's a reworking of the Faust legend, with an embedded exploration of the story of Pontius Pilate, in which the devil and his retinue visit Stalinist Moscow. From this premise, the author produces a scathing satire of the politics of his time (fully aware that the book would not, and could not, be published during his lifetime), as well as an extremely thought-provoking discussion of the role of the artist, and the necessity of mercy and forgiveness.
What I really liked about the book is the way he wraps some fairly deep themes into a hilarious story - we are given some hugely enjoyable tall tales by a mischievous, extremely funny narrator. The style is reminiscent of Flann O' Brien at his most coruscating; despite broad swipes at some fairly obvious targets, the overall story is uplifting, as the reader finally comes to the realization that Woland (the Satan-figure) is actually working on the same side as the Jesus-figure.
It's obvious why, upon its delayed publication, this book immediately achieved the status of a classic of modern Russian literature. A completely unexpected delight - I highly recommend this book. ...less
bookshelves:
read-2007,
surreal
Read in June, 2007
recommends it for:
everyone
It's the story of the devil coming to Moscow in the thirties, accompanied by a team of attendant demons who manifest themselves as a fat, petulant talking black cat, a naked enigmatic woman (with an eyepatch?), a red-headed befanged man and one other guy I can't quite remember.
Basically the devil comes to town and messes with everyone's shit by appealing to their vanity, their greed, their social aspirations and their insistence in the state-sponsored atheism of Soviet Russia. Since God and ...more
It's the story of the devil coming to Moscow in the thirties, accompanied by a team of attendant demons who manifest themselves as a fat, petulant talking black cat, a naked enigmatic woman (with an eyepatch?), a red-headed befanged man and one other guy I can't quite remember.
Basically the devil comes to town and messes with everyone's shit by appealing to their vanity, their greed, their social aspirations and their insistence in the state-sponsored atheism of Soviet Russia. Since God and the supernatural do not exist, none of the devil or his demons' pranks can actually be happening, but they are, and so the cognitive dissonance wreaks havoc across the city.
It's also the story of The Master, a novelist driven insane by his own novel(which tells the story of Pontius Pilate around the time of Christ's crucifixion), and his estranged mistress, Margarita, who becomes a witch at the devil's behest and accompanies him to a ball for all the residents of Hell before being reunited with the Master by the Devil.
The story of the Devil's holiday in Moscow is interjected by excerpts from the Master's novel about Pilate. Both stories are impeccably written. The Muscovite sections have a wicked satirical humour about them that is counterpointed by the ironic melancholy of the Pilate chapters.
There's a reason people rave about this book....less
Read in January, 2008
[trans. Mirra Ginsburg]
I can see why everybody gets so excited about this book, why it's innovative, why it's mind-twisting, why it's a masterpiece of protest literature, a masterpiece of symbolism, a masterpiece of...etc. But somehow, I didn't get into it the way I do into some of the staid old classics of Russian lit. (Which aren't, by the way, really staid.) I think it's one of those things that will just sit around tickling the back of my brain and having subtle effects, though. More...more
[trans. Mirra Ginsburg]
I can see why everybody gets so excited about this book, why it's innovative, why it's mind-twisting, why it's a masterpiece of protest literature, a masterpiece of symbolism, a masterpiece of...etc. But somehow, I didn't get into it the way I do into some of the staid old classics of Russian lit. (Which aren't, by the way, really staid.) I think it's one of those things that will just sit around tickling the back of my brain and having subtle effects, though. More good than engaging, perhaps.
I've seen one of Bulgakov's plays (Zoyka's Apartment), when I was in Petersburg, and the characterization and so on bowled me over; I think I was expecting the same thing, but with a few exceptions, Master and Margarita isn't so much about the characters. Exactly. Though maybe it is as much about them as Zoyka's Apartment was; maybe Bulgakov just needs good actors to make it completely work for me?
Bulgakov never actually finished the book by his own lights (apparently he was dictating revisions on his deathbed), so I had some editorial fun picking out the places where he hadn't filled out some strand or worked out the ramifications of some change. (Normally that sort of thing makes me tear my hair out, but hey, the guy can't help it if he died.)...less
recommends it for:
anyone
This book is utterly engrossing. It is one of those books that can be appreciated on very many levels. As I read it, I felt like I was enjoying it on a lower level, as many of the allusions and cultural referances completly slipped by me. As an adventure story, it is full of excitement. The devil is in moscow with a talking cat, several witches, and a naked vampire lady, among other escorts, and is stirring up a complete ruckus, eluding all attempts to stop him. There is also a love story mixed ...more
This book is utterly engrossing. It is one of those books that can be appreciated on very many levels. As I read it, I felt like I was enjoying it on a lower level, as many of the allusions and cultural referances completly slipped by me. As an adventure story, it is full of excitement. The devil is in moscow with a talking cat, several witches, and a naked vampire lady, among other escorts, and is stirring up a complete ruckus, eluding all attempts to stop him. There is also a love story mixed in, between someone who calls himself the master and Margarita. However, the author is not content to merely stick to love, satan, and violence. The author also sticks into the story a retelling of the tale of Pontius Pilate. The significance of this eluded me, since I was unfamiliar with the original. The story, as aforementioned, is rife with all manner of allusions and refernce, basically lashing out at anything and everything the author has an opinion on, from the literary elite to the government itself, which led to this book's censorship. Overall, this book is very fun, and recommended to anyone who can read, but especially people who have a background in soviet era russia and literature of that period....less
Read in January, 2008
This is another book my father recommended, and he and I have very similar taste in literature. (Caveat: this is not everyone's taste. We both love Dickens, Tennyson
