The Master and Margarita | Mikhail Bulgakov | The Master and Margarita (Review)

The Master and Margarita | Mikhail Bulgakov | Best book ever written

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The Master and Mar...

	The Master and Margarita Mikhail Bulgakov Vintage, 1996 - 384 pages average customer review:based on 336 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

(Book Jacket Status: Jacketed)

From the Hardcover edition.

The Master and Margarita (Review)

Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita provides a scathing social commentary on life in Russia during Stalinism. This Gnostic work taking place in the 1930s serves as an excellent new historical look on life under Socialism. Bulgakov's masterpiece, which was censored and unpublished until 1972, tells the story of Satan's visit to Moscow and all the unusual events that take place while he's there. Much of the imagery and pranks Satan pulls are symbolic of serious problems facing the average Muscovite. This book will help you, the reader, to understand some of the problems facing 1930s Russia. Bulgakov is one of the most authoritative authors to write on the topic of Socialism, as he had first-hand experience with several of issues addressed in the work. This novel provides an interesting perspective on the ills of Stalinism and it should be read by anyone looking for a creative way to read about those ills. The story is told by a third person omniscient narrator (presumed to be Bulgakov himself) and is divided into two main sections. The first section focuses on the coming of Satan and introduces the characters on which the story focuses, and the second section focuses on the Master and Margarita's love story and the conclusion of Satan's time in Moscow. I recommend this book to anyone looking for a novel which will challenge them on a personal, intellectual, and spiritual level, as well as to anyone doing research on Socialism/Stalinism.

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Best book ever written

Pontius Pilate and Moscow's citizens are oddly coupled in this examination of the new class of soviet people. Even without the social commentary, this is a beautiful and engaging atypical love story. Best read with Goethe's Faust. Margarita is the Russian version of Margaret/Gretchen.

Alice in Wonderland for children who didn't believe cold war proganda

Turn of the century Russia before the Cold War had always inspired a lost hope for the past, at least within myself. Historical accounts of this period are filled with hope, vitality and a sense of renewal of heroic proportions. Until I read this novel. Master and the Margarita, the skillful imagery, allegory, and vast plain of fantasy allowes a reader to grasp a dimension of post-serf Russia in an entirely new light.

I can't help but to fall in love with Behemoth the cat, like I had with historical characters of a national movement which was the started the USSR. Seductive overtones of the circus characters allowed me to recognize a dark side of which I had identified as a antagonized enemy during the Cold War.

Grew up really not wanting to find Russia unlikable, didn't for once put any faith into the propaganda machine. Entirely unwilling to find fault for the communistas, little thought went into how the intelligentsia viewed the Kremlin. Repression of outspoken works from the Russian intelligentsias led me to believe there was no unrest.

Understanding now that repression of works such as "Master and Margarita " has the same effect as negative propaganda.

Mikhail gave me a gift in this novel, the ability to lose my innocence in regards to a political movement I had previously found unfailing. Through the use of seductive characters in a spellbinding journey it wasn't as painful.

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Not the most enjoyable translation

I've been a fan of 19th and 20th century Russian novels for years, having read all of Dostoevsky's major novels, Gogol short stories, Gogol's Dead Souls, and now this. Up until now, I have had no cause to doubt Pevear and Volokhonsky's translations-having read Dostoevsky's The Idiot and Demons by them, and all the Gogol works done by them as well. However, before buying a translation of The Master and Margarita in a bookstore, I took about an hour and a half comparing three different translations--theirs, Ginsburg's, and another one that was relatively new. I ended up buying the Ginsburg, even as I knew what painstaking work Pevear and Volokhonsky do. In this case though, I quickly dismissed the third translation (whose name escapes me) and eventually decided on the Ginsburg. It was more fun to read, and the author's delight in oddity, satire, and feelings for his characters came through much more. This is, as some of you probably know, quite a bit in the style of Gogol's Dead Souls, and the similarity came through the most in the Ginsburg translation.

The husband and wife team of Pevear and Volokhonsky has done great work so far, but that's no reason to read any more of their translations without comparing others (I've also read a lot of critical reviews about their Tolstoy translations). Ginsburg is a great translator, she's also done a good rendering of Notes from Underground, which I recommend as well.

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