The Master and Margarita

by Mikhail Bulgakov

no trace of the contract was found in the files of the bookkeeping office,

nor at the findirector‘s, nor at Likhodeev’s or Varenukha’s.

Woland,

Faland is actually the German form of Woland's name that appears in the drama Faust, written by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1842). https://www.masterandmargarita.eu/en/02themas/h17.html

The housekeeper Grunya was not there, and where she had gone nobody knew.

Creepy

Nikanor Ivanovich,

Bosoy, chairman of the tenants’ association of 302-bis on Sadovaya

Beds...

The bookkeeper Vassily Stepanovich

First,

second,

The moment the drivers of the three cabs saw a passenger hurrying towards the stand with a tightly stuffed briefcase, all three left empty right under his nose, looking back at him angrily for some reason.

Why? Question. Rimsky paid his cabby well, p. 197. Maybe they heard that money f8m the Variety became worthless?

pulled a ten-rouble bill

two three-rouble bills

Some son of a bitch gives me a tenner,

‘Another one, beyond Zubovskaya. A tenner. I give him three roubles change.

Yesterday, in the Variety here’ (unprintable words), ’some vermin of a conjurer did a seance with ten-rouble bills’ (unprintable words) ...

‘Nothing, nothing, nothing, my dears!’ she shouted, addressing no one knew whom. ‘The jacket and trousers are there, but inside the jacket there’s nothing!’

Bulgakov wrote these scenes about the same time when Ilya Ilf (1897-1937) and Yevgeny Petrov (1903-1942) were writing their novel The Golden Calf, which has a similar scene with an empty suit. The source for both may have been The History of a Town written by Mikhail Yefgrafovich Saltykov-Shchedrin (1826-1889). This book was published in 1869-1870 and it was a parody of Russian history, in the microcosm of a provincial town, whose very name - Глупов [Glupov] - is representative of its qualities, because Glupov means Sillytown. The mayors of Glupov can be distinguished from each other only by the degree of their incompetence, but at the same time The History of a Town is an attack on the Russian people for their passivity toward their own fate. ~ from Jan Vanhellemont’s Masterandmargarita.eu on this chapter: https://www.masterandmargarita.eu/en/02themas/h17.html

here he was definitively dumbfounded.

Prokhor Petrovich, the chairman of the commission.

the consternated bookkeeper

the beautiful Anna Richardovna.

an empty suit sat and with a dry pen,

Prokhor Petrovich:

but did not forget to pick up his briefcase.

Haha

‘I always, always stopped him when he swore by the devil! So now the devil’s got him!’

‘I ask you not to sob in the office!’ the hot-tempered striped suit now said angrily,

Haha

a cat walks in. Black, big as a behemoth.

devil take me!” And that one, imagine, smiles and says: “Devil take you? That, in fact, can be done!”

Into the secretary’s room, with calm, business-like strides, marched the police,

stories the ushers told about yesterday’s cat,

a weeping girl sitting behind a small table

A messenger appeared on the stairs,

The messenger’s voice was joined by distant voices, the choir began to swell,

one powerful, slightly husky octave stood out particularly.

Question

Barguzin

a citizen in a summer jacket,

with him a policeman.

the girl was the first to receive a dose of valerian from the doctor,

club of Lermontov studies,

Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov (/ˈlɛərməntɒf/ LAIR-mən-tof, US also /-tɔːf/ -⁠tawf;[1] Russian: Михаи́л Ю́рьевич Ле́рмонтов, IPA: [mʲɪxɐˈil ˈjʉrʲjɪvʲɪtɕ ˈlʲerməntəf]; 15 October [O.S. 3 October] 1814 – 27 July [O.S. 15 July] 1841) was a Russian Romantic writer, poet and painter, sometimes called "the poet of the Caucasus", the most important Russian poet after Alexander Pushkin's death in 1837 and the greatest figure in Russian Romanticism. His influence on Russian literature is felt in modern times, through his poetry, but also his prose, which founded the tradition of the Russian psychological novel. ~ Wikipedia

wretched checkered trousers, a cracked pince-nez,

Fanov

Kosarchuk,

affiliate t...

everything after that went as in a bad dream.

the valerian had not done much good.

Haha

Professor Stravinsky’s clinic.

the bookkeeper,

Vassily Stepanovich

Foreign money flitted before his eyes: there were stacks of Canadian dollars, British pounds, Dutch guldens, Latvian lats, Estonian kroons

And straight away Vassily Stepanovich was arrested.

Haha of course. Aren’t they all? Question