The Master and Margarita
Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov
Number of Reviews: 3
Average rating: 
Reviewed by: Dirk Flinthart Date: 22 July 2003
My favourite novel of all time is The Master and Margarita, by Mikhail Bulgakov. I particularly like the Michael Glenny translation (the original is in Russian, of course, and I've never had the chance to learn that language.)
For me, the draw of this book is its ability to deal with complex ideas and issues without losing a sense of humour, and the ability to deal with powerful figures and difficult subjects without losing a sense of compassion.
In essence, there are three 'layers' to the tale. It is set in Moscow, in the nineteen thirties. Soviet Russian literature is controlled by a few 'approved' hacks, and the whole Soviet system is full of corruption and hypocrisy.
Into this mess comes Satan (yes, himself!) and a small entourage, to undertake the traditional Satanic Ball. The arrival of this group signals the beginnings of comic mayhem and chaos across Moscow, as Bulgakov uses these anti-heroes (including a talking cat named Behemoth) to skewer well-known public figures with darkly humorous justice.
The sequences in which Behemoth and his fellow demons create havoc are extremely funny -- slapstick comedy overlaying a darker layer of social commentary and real anger from the writer. However, this is only part of the book.
Also in Moscow are two people -- a man we know only as The Master, and his mistress, Margarita. The Master recently wrote a book about the meeting between Pontius Pilate and Christ, but because he treated them as real characters, the 'approved hacks' of the Communist literary board treated his book with absolute contempt, shattering the man emotionally. He has since fled, and his lover Margarita is desperate to find him again. A good part of the book concerns Margarita's search for the Master, and her encounter with Satan's entourage, which brings her back into contact with her lost love.
As if all this wasn't enough, Bulgakov also brings to life the Master's manuscript, vividly portraying the meeting between a very human Pontius Pilate, and an equally human -- yet still curiously divine -- Jesus.
The fusion of the three strands of story is phenomenal. Bulgakov paints legendary and mythical characters with a loving brush that makes them at once human, and still greater. With equal care, he portrays the peasant woman whose spillage of a bottle of sunflower oil initiates the whole cascade of chaos, even though she occupies only a few pages. In between, Bulgakov creates a panoply of complex, wonderfully sympathetic, elegantly flawed Muscovites whose bewilderment and occasional horror at the confusion in their midst is a delight to read.
In my opinion, this is the best novel-length work of fiction I know.
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Reviewed by: Ekaterina Mamyshev Date: 12 July 2004
I have to say that this is a very deep book that is quite frightening in its insight into not only former Russian Communist but also contemporary life. It is so true that in today's world most people look (by various means, not necessarily directly) to the devil in their search for truth, not God. Bulghakov portrayed this very well by his own example. The book is not for everyone: it does the book great injustice to be read exclusively for leisure. As most of Russian literature (and especially Dostoevsky) this is a book that requires thought and application to real life. That is what makes it timeless - it is a masterpiece.
I should add that I read the book in the original Russian. The translation that I found closest to the original and Bulghakov's style was one by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky.
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Reviewed by: D.W. Cymbalisty dcymbalisty@hotmail.com
Are you ready to fly through 1930's Moscow on a broomstick? This book is wild! It must be read for what it is, a comic masterpiece that defies any one specific genre placement... it is like no other book I've ever encountered, but comparable perhaps to the supernatural thrillers of Charles Williams. And like Williams' work, there is much philosophical depth strewn throughout the constant morphings and manifestations. To summarize in one sentence: Here is a fictional account of what happens when the devil comes to visit a city that does not believe in him!
In The Master and Margarita, Bulgakov has us marvellously believing in a huge vodka-drinking talking cat; a woman (Margarita) who becomes an invisible, broom-riding aeronaut; a man who turns into a supersonic flying hog; an animated suit with no-one in it... there is no end to the Bulgamorphic inventiveness. It is no wonder that half of his Moscow ends up in an insane asylum at one point or another.
It is such a unique book that there are many plausible/valid interpretations of who the main character really is. In my opinion, it is Ivan Bezdomny, the disillusioned poet who seems to have internalized the best conception of who Woland (the devil) really was. Bezdomny is a sort of "parenthesis" to the story, he's there on the first page and he's there on the last, and though he is not on stage (so to say) as much as some other characters... when the curtain falls, it seems that he is the one who best understands what has happened to Moscow. The only one who seems to know more than him is the full moon overhead... read the book, it is truly ominous.
Note: I did some cross-referencing at no less than 25 different passages and always felt that the Burgin/Tiernan-O'Connor translation was superior in readability to the Pevear/Volkhonsky.
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