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Jul 25, 2010

Logan rated it:

I knew that this was going to be a book that I loved the moment I learned that Satan was the main character. This is not due to any particular affinity for devil worship on my part, but because I love Tricksters in literature and in Western civilization you don't get a better trickster than the devil. Watching him turn Stalinist Moscow on its head proved to be one of the most amusing and engrossing things I've read all year.

From the moment he first materializes as the black magicia More...

12 comments like (34 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Robert rated it:

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 bureaucrati More...

4 comments like (29 people liked it)

Jun 13, 2010

Jimmy rated it:

Mikhail Bulgakov passed away shortly after Stalin's Great Purge; it occurred from about 1937 to 1938 and was intended to rid the Soviet Union of traitors, subversive elements, and most importantly, enemies of Stalin. The NKVD (the secret police organization of the Soviet Union) had executed over over 600,000 people, the most notable one being Bolshevik revolutionary Leon Trotsky. Bulgakov's relationship with Stalin, however, was more or less safe. Stalin enjoyed Bulgakov's early plays, even t More...

149 comments like (16 people liked it)

Aug 22, 2011

Nate rated it:

Re-reading can be a terribly useful practice. I enjoyed the book enough before I suppose, but not nearly so much as this time. Part of it is that I'm reading a better translation, funnier and more poetic, by Mirra Ginsberg, whose impeccable Zamyatin translations greatly impressed me back in June. Unfortunately, her 1967 translation was of the censored original Russian publication from which editors omitted some 60 typescript pages (!) from the final version prepared by Bulgakov's wife Elena Serg More...

12 comments like (18 people liked it)

Jun 18, 2008

Libby rated it:

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...

1 comment like (22 people liked it)

Dec 29, 2010

oriana rated it:

My birthday is always right next to Thanksgiving. Growing up, this pissed the shit out of me, because a) my birthday always got overshadowed by turkey and I had to sleep on the floor in the basement in a sleeping bag because a visiting grandma or aunt or someone got my bed, and b) all my friends were always either out of town or busy with family and couldn't come hang out and party with me.

Anyway, my parents always "consoled" me by saying that someday I'd be old enough to ap More...

20 comments like (12 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Meri rated it:

Satan goes to Moscow during Stalin's purges. Muscovites are relatively unimpressed, as Satan has nothing on Stalin. Brilliantly written, intricately designed, I could read this book ten times and still find subtle implications I had missed.

0 comments like (14 people liked it)

Feb 12, 2008

Martine rated it:

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...

6 comments like (8 people liked it)

Aug 13, 2010

Paquita Maria rated it:

This novel is:

1. Sinister yet slapstick
2. Dark yet light-hearted
3. Destructive yet redemptive
4. Straightforward yet intricate
5. Lengthy yet speedy
6. Critical yet sympathetic

Though Bulgakov masterfully crafts a feeling of creeping dread, his whimsical story-telling and satirical voice leave you feeling like you are riding the teacups at the state fair or bouncing around as a toddler on your papa's knee. The demons and devil he creates a More...

15 comments like (37 people liked it)

Aug 16, 2011

Nate rated it:

Dislcaimer: I wrote this after my first reading of the book, three years ago, before developing a special interest in this era. I've grown to appreciate it more, especially in re-reading in August 2011. But my initial reaction will stay here, anyway:

An enjoyable foray through the dark days of Stalinist Russia, but one that may be somewhat undercut by its increasing reliance on the magical to move the plot. Political references abound, but usually not in any manner central to the stor More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Jul 11, 2007

Adam rated it:

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 More...

0 comments like (6 people liked it)

Apr 03, 2011

Regine rated it:

I've always had a fascination with the Devil.

No, no. By no means do I worship the devil-- I don't sacrifice chickens on my spare time, nor do I run around naked in pastures to howl at the moonlight. However, I was raised with a strict Catholic upbringing by a very superstitious Grandmother. So at a young age, I had a very black and white concept of good vs evil, and heaven and hell. Movies like The Omen (Gregory Peck version, if you please), and The Exorcist use to scare the living d More...

24 comments like (13 people liked it)

Feb 03, 2012

Ian rated it:

Place Holder

This novel inspired Mick Jagger to write "Sympathy for the Devil" from the album "Beggars Banquet".

Jagger's lyrics adopt the character of the Satanic Professor Woland.

My recollection of the novel is that its tone is much more diverse, almost magic realist in parts.

October 24, 2011

6 comments like (6 people liked it)

Nov 06, 2011

Bettie rated it:

2 comments like (12 people liked it)

Nov 06, 2011

Rommel rated it:

Of all places, I learned about this book,in a Hip Hop bar in the entertainment district in Seoul. After bar hoppin with an associate we finally ended up at a place where there where some Russian girls he knew by the bar. Naturally, I started a conversation with one of them on Russian literature. It was nice to have a pleasent and intelligent conversation in the least of expected places with this stranger. In the end, she recommended "Morphine" and "The Master and Margarit More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Oct 20, 2008

Sofia rated it:

"مرشد و مارگاریتا" اثر میخائیل بولگاکف، نویسنده شهیر روسی، را می توان به جرات یکی از آثار کلاسیک ادبیات روسیه به شمار آورد. کتابی که سالها پس از اینکه بولگاکف آن را نوشت با اندکی حذف اجازه انتشار یافت و یک شبه با استقبال بی نظیر مردم مواجه شد. "مرشد و مارگاریتا" داستان سفر ابلیس به شهر مسکو و نتایج این سفر می باشد. ابلیس که برخلاف آنچه معمولا انتظار می رود نه تنها شخصیت منفی این داستان نیست بلکه علیرغم تمام کارهای هولناکی که انجام می دهد جز شخصیت های خوب داستان تصویر شده است؛ More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Aug 17, 2008

Lori rated it:

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...

5 comments like (19 people liked it)

Oct 14, 2009

Amanda rated it:

10/09, 2nd reading: This book is hilarious, and fantastic, and wickedly sharp, and I stand by the convoluted review from two years ago. I do agree with some of the things brought up at book club -- that it seems unfinished (because it is, the author died before he finished editing the manuscript) and very rooted in 1930s Soviet Union, but I liked that about it. I think even if you don't have a good understanding of Russian society at that exact time that you can still get feel for it from Bulgak More...

3 comments like (4 people liked it)

Jul 25, 2010

evan rated it:

a devil takes over Moscow, and it's not stalin! though this book couldn't have been written without stalin. he should be listed as coauthor, tho bulgakov went though much heartache to get this book finished. thus bulgakov must be credited as well.

this is one of the finest novels for humankind, a novel that would have been impossible for a sleazy american to write. there's madness and the joy from it. there's a beheading by tram. there are scenes of such extravagant guilty pleasures t More...

1 comment like (6 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Lisa (OhThatLisa) rated it:

I can understand why this book comes so highly recommended, and I can logically see how and why it appeals to people so much, but for me it fell completely flat.
I'm a huge fan of Russian lit so I was fully expecting to love it. Unfortunately, in my mind, it suffers from the fatal flaw of being exactly the wrong length. Just long enough to get tedious (several scenes drag interminably) and too short to give the multitude of characters (too many) any background or depth. I just couldn't More...

11 comments like (14 people liked it)

Oct 07, 2011

Julia rated it:

Em O Mestre e Margarida, o diabo faz uma visita a Moscou dos anos 20, em meios aos expurgos stalinistas, em que a religião oficial tenta convencê-lo que ele não existe. Lá, ele dará um show de magica e transformará uma mulher em bruxa, para que seja a anfitriã da Noite de Valpúrgis. Enquanto isso, o Mestre se torna cada vez mais obcecado com seu romance sobre Pôncio Pilatos, que é entremeado na história principal. O mestre tentará colocar fogo no romance, mas isso não é um problema: é o diabo em More...

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

Oct 28, 2008

Olivia rated it:

The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov was an excellent book. Bulgakov is a Russian author who lived in Soviet Russia. Upon finishing the book, the Russian government would not allow the book to published because it revealed the corruption and laziness within the government. In The Master and Margarita, Satan comes down to visit an atheist Moscow, Russia. When he arrives, he wreaks havoc with the help of his three assistants: a giant black cat that walks oh his hind legs named Behemoth, a More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jul 25, 2010

Sheffy rated it:

I haven't read "Faust" which strongly influenced this tale, but it reminds me of a Russian version of a Charles Dickens' novel-- it is long and detailed, but the characters are rich (if hideous) and the descriptive perspective of living in Soviet Russia illuminating. One one level, it is an amusing (if confusing and erudite) tale of mischief that befell Moscow when the devil comes to town. But Bulgakov strikes at many more levels, criticizing the totalitarian Soviet state, the coward More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 19, 2007

Ken rated it:

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 More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Matt rated it:

This book is like a martini made with good vodka. Very dry, a little offsetting at first taste, but very complex and rewarding to those who can really savor it. (Aren't I clever?)

I don't have much Russian in my bookshelves, but the little I do share common traits of dense prose in which everything even remotely related to the main story is given attention. It can feel sterile until you realize it's speaking to you with tongue firmly in cheek.

That's why a novel about Satan More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Oct 02, 2007

Jason rated it:

"David" said this book reads more like short stories, and I would have to agree. Perhaps it was reading in translation, but it just didn't have the flow I expected. Or perhaps I heard too much hype before I got around to it. I had trouble getting to the end because the focus seemed to be on chaos rather than cohesion. Perhaps if I new more about Russian history and culture of the time period I would enjoy it more--from what I've read and heard, this seems to be its forte.

More...

1 comment like (5 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Colin rated it:

Certainly one of my favorites. The juxtaposition of slapstick hilarity and political/theological satire is...like nothing I've ever read. Vampires, teleportation, multiple beheadings, witchcraft, arson, an assault with a roast chicken, and a shootout between the Russian Police and a talking cat named Behemoth.

Highest Recommendation. Required reading.

3 comments like (4 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Michael rated it:

I would be hard-pressed to explain exactly what happened in the book, but it was certainly the most entertaining "classic" I've read in forever. Giant talking cats! Flying witches! Beheadings! Gunplay! Russian satire! It's all here.

7 comments like (3 people liked it)

Feb 13, 2008

Molly rated it:

I understand this book is a classic.

I guess any leaden, murky, plotless book can be a classic, and this is a great example of that.

10 comments like (14 people liked it)

Sep 09, 2011

Jim rated it:

Absolutely mesmerizing. I took a long time to read it, partly because of other things that were going on, but mostly because I insisted on savoring every sentence. I never would have found this book if not for GR friends. Come to think of it, almost every book that I read now came from a favorites list of a friend or someone I follow.

This book is a lights-out masterpiece, one of the greatest novels I have ever read. Without getting into the plot details, I will just say that the story More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

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