false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165541711m/5699.jpg 117833 148 Surely no stranger work exists in the annals of protest literature than <I>The Master and Margarita</I>. 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 Meanwhile, a few doors down in the hospital lives the true object of Woland's visit: the author of an unpublished novel about Pontius Pilate.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 <I>necessary</I>: "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. <I>The Master and Margarita</I> is a different book each time it is opened. <I>--Mary Park</I> This edition was translated by Diana Burgin and Katherine Tiernan O'Connor. 876183 book 1966 Ма́стер и Маргари́та total:11911|5:6280|4:3573|3:1525|2:383|1:150| 11911 51183 17411 1459 5 15 false false Tue Apr 24 15:42:03 -0700 2007 Mon May 28 04:43:49 -0700 2007 more...]]> 4 15 false false Tue Apr 21 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Apr 05 20:48:24 -0700 2009 Tue Apr 21 10:53:12 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 8 false false Tue Aug 25 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Aug 30 03:28:18 -0700 2008 Tue Sep 01 10:11:18 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 10 false false Mon Jun 09 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Apr 23 11:14:49 -0700 2008 Wed Jun 18 16:27:06 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 8 false false Fri Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sat Feb 02 15:36:20 -0800 2008 Tue Feb 12 14:52:27 -0800 2008
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* It is claimed that Mick Jagger was inspired by the novel in writing the song "Sympathy for the Devil"...more...]]> 4 4 false false Fri Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Wed Jul 11 16:26:07 -0700 2007 Wed Jul 11 16:36:30 -0700 2007
Basically ...more...]]> 5 7 false false Mon Sep 10 12:06:51 -0700 2007 Tue Sep 11 07:42:18 -0700 2007 4 3 false false Mon Oct 20 09:26:45 -0700 2008 Mon Oct 20 22:36:05 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 6 false false Wed Aug 13 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Fri Jul 25 23:47:58 -0700 2008 Sun Aug 17 15:46:44 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 3 false false Wed Oct 14 07:21:31 -0700 2009 Tue Aug 14 08:04:02 -0700 2007 Wed Oct 14 07:21:31 -0700 2009 2 more...]]> 5 2 false false Tue Oct 28 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Tue Oct 28 02:47:31 -0700 2008 Tue Oct 28 02:48:01 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 3 false false Thu Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Wed Oct 10 12:05:44 -0700 2007 Mon Nov 19 11:22:20 -0800 2007 The English translation (by Mirra Ginsberg) of this Bulgakov novel is so brilliant that I'm seriou...more...]]> 2 3 false false Mon Oct 01 20:22:52 -0700 2007 Tue Oct 02 17:50:27 -0700 2007 more...]]> 3 2 false false Mon Nov 23 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Tue Nov 17 09:08:26 -0800 2009 Mon Nov 23 08:50:10 -0800 2009 more...]]> 1 5 false false Wed Feb 13 21:02:42 -0800 2008 Wed Feb 13 21:04:00 -0800 2008
I guess any leaden, murky, plotless book can be a classic, and this is a great example of that.]]> 5 1 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2004 Fri Sep 12 12:16:38 -0700 2008 Fri Sep 12 12:17:37 -0700 2008 6 more...]]> 3 2 false false Mon Apr 14 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Apr 14 07:58:55 -0700 2008 Mon Apr 14 07:58:55 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 3 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sun Jan 06 17:46:56 -0800 2008 Mon Jan 28 18:07:13 -0800 2008 more...]]> 3 1 false false Sun Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Fri Jun 15 14:59:35 -0700 2007 Tue Jul 03 09:47:36 -0700 2007
To me, the book read more like a collection of short stories than as a novel with a cohesive narrative and theme. Sometimes, these short stories are phenomenally vivid and powerful: the seance of black magic at the Variety, ...more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=5699