The Master and Margarita

by Mikhail Bulgakov

Never Talk with Strangers

Who is the translator? Is it complete? (There was an “edited” (censored) version published in the Soviet Union.) I think it’s the one by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky from 1997 - the language is identical to the quotations used by Jan Vanhellemont webmaster of masterandmargarita.eu, which he says are from the Pevear and Volokhonsky translation (unless otherwise noted). No table of contents, very disappointing as each chapter heading is telling. Mikhail Bulgakov, 1891-1940. This book was written 1928-1940? Published posthumously. Bought for a dollar on 7/28/25 to read for an Osher class with Bridget Keown in September 2025. September 8: Part 1: Chapters 1-8 pp. 4-114 September 15: Part 1: Chapters 9-18 pp. 115- September 22: Part 2: Chapters 19-27 September 29: Part 2: Chapters 28-32 https://www.masterandmargarita.eu/mobile/en/index.html https://www.masterandmargarita.eu/mobile/en/02themas/index.html Do they all call on the devil ? “Devil take it“ “the devil knows (what)” “why the devil” etc. Citizen, not comrade ? How much of the magic is permanent? Most disappears in a short time. Bullets do no harm, but fire leaves real damage and a soot-begrimed Behemoth. Metafiction: the Moscow story bleeds into the Pilate chapters through the last sentence of the prior chapters. Also occasional references in Moscow to the Pilate story, e.g. the knife p. 440, Matthew Levi shows up in Moscow ch.28 p. 456, By chapter 28, the narrator is regularly insulting Koroviev and Behemoth, e.g., hoodwinker, scoundrelly, blackguards, perfidious, buffoons, Narrator: “It is doubtful, of course, that things happened that way, but what we don’t know, we don’t know.” Ch. 28 p. 445 ~~~~~~~~ * Pilate novel CHAPTER 1 Never Talk with Strangers p. 4 Who is our narrator? p. 6: “as was learned afterwards,” corrects reports p. 7, Fills in what the characters leave out, e.g., ch. 19 opening. Erdrich, Watchman: * CHAPTER 2 Pontius Pilate p. 19 CHAPTER 3 The Seventh Proof p. 49 CHAPTER 5 The Chase p. 55 hilarious * CHAPTER 17 * CHAPTER 25 How the Procurator Tried to Save Judas of Kiriath p. 377 & 26, The Burial p. 391 political intrigue - did Pilate want Judas killed. It had to pretend he didn’t? Who paid the men who killed Judas? CHAPTER 27 The End of Apartment No. 50 p. 418 CHAPTER 28 The Last Adventures of Koroviev and Behemoth, p. 438 CHAPTER 29 The Fate of the Master and Margarita is Decided, p. 454 CHAPTER 30 It’s Time! It’s Time!, p. 460 CHAPTER 31 On Sparrow Hills, p. 475 CHAPTER 32 Forgiveness and Eternal Refuge, p. 479 Epilogue, p. 487 Who are you going to believe? The investigators, or your own eyes? New Testament Betrayal, arrest, trial, crucifixion, burial: John 18-19 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John%2018-19&version=NLT Bethany, last supper, betrayal, arrest, trial, crucifixion, burial: Mark 14-15 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark%2014-15&version=NLT

Mikhail Alexandrovich Berlioz,

Massolit

Ivan Nikolaevich Ponyrev,

this dreadful May evening.

send it all to the devil

the devil!’

as was learned afterwards,

By whom? Who is our narrator?

Now, Berlioz wanted to prove to the poet that the main thing was not how Jesus was, good or bad, but that this same Jesus, as a person, simply never existed in the world, and all the stories about him were mere fiction, the most ordinary mythology.

Why make a POEM about this? It’s an erudite and abstruse topic, fraught with argument among scholars. Question E.g., Did Jesus Exist, by Bart Ehrman https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Did_Jesus_Exist%3F_(Ehrman_book)

It’s likely he did, Maybe the better manuscripts were not discovered or available in the 1930s? Question https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josephus_on_Jesus While Philo did not mention Jesus. https://www.quora.com/Why-didn’t-Philo-of-Alexandria-the-great-historian-during-the-era-of-Jesus-mention-Jesus’-birth-and-death-in-his-writings Wow, this , and subsequent, is exactly what people argue about today.

Wow, this , and subsequent, is exactly what people argue about today.

There’s not a single Eastern religion,‘ Berlioz was saying, ’in which, as a rule, an immaculate virgin did not give birth to a god.

Haha simile metaphor

the first man appeared in the walk.

Narrator!

In short, a foreigner.

Haha anti-immigrant racism.

Haha

of his walking stick

Haha

It must be added that from his first words the foreigner made a repellent impression on the poet, but Berlioz rather liked him — that is, not liked but ... how to put it ... was interested, or whatever.

Narrator!

‘What the devil

‘Where’d he pick up his Russian, that’s the interesting thing!’

proofs of God’s existence,

Haha source? Question

You must agree that in the realm of reason there can be no proof of God’s existence.’

Immanuel‘s

Immanuel Kant, 1724-1804.

‘Kant’s

the learned editor

‘Man governs it himself,’

some ridiculously short period — well, say, a thousand years

but cannot even vouch for his own tomorrow?

‘You are no longer interested in anyone’s fate but your own.

Homeless

‘Well, devil take him,

man is mortal,

‘Yes, man is mortal,

‘Your head will be cut off!’

the insouciant stranger,

a Komsomol girl.’

Massolit,

‘Annushka

Haha

‘The devil,

‘I am a specialist in black magic.’

the Ponds!’

In a white cloak with blood-red lining, with the shuffling gait of a cavalryman, early in the morning of the fourteenth day of the spring month of Nisan...’

Pontius Pilate

the procurator of Judea, Pontius Pilate.

the tetrarch?’

Herod? Question

his head, aflame with infernal pain.