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Loading... The Master and Margaritaby Mikhail Bulgakov
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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book.  aleya79 | Nov 2, 2009 |  I thought I was going to read a historical Russian novel, instead I entered a riotous fantasy world featuring Satan, witches on broomsticks, and -- the star of the show -- Behemoth, the larger than life walking and trash-talking black cat. This book is definitely one that is difficult to categorize and analyze. It is a multi-layered interpretation of life in Moscow in the 1930's under Stalin's repression. The real puzzlement for me was the juxtaposition of the Pontius Pilate story and this historical fantasy. I do understand that Bulgakov was protesting the removal of religion from Russian society, but weaving the story of Christ's trial into this rollicking satire was totally bizarre. In my mystified state, I am giving the book an above-average rating with the proviso that I will read it again someday after undertaking the due diligence it deserves. Perhaps a thorough reading of Faust and some Russian history is in order. The Master and Margarita was certainly intriguing and inventive; unfortunately I wasn't able to penetrate the deeper meaning of it on my cursory first reading. (  )1  Donna828 | Oct 31, 2009 | entertaining, frequently hilarious, and the Judas plot line, in total contrast to the Devil's plot line, is very lovely diction. (  ) phette23 | Oct 19, 2009 | There's nothing can say about this book that others haven't said before me. It's daring, it's witty, it's cynical, and never boring. It's a satire, it's a love story, it's an absurdist play, it's a Bildungsroman, it's a postmodern take on Faust, it's a protest against censorship. Or, as the book's Wiki page informs you, "part of its literary brilliance lies in the different levels on which it can be read, as hilarious slapstick, deep philosophical allegory, and biting socio-political satire critical of not just the Soviet system but also the superficiality and vanity of modern life in general" And because of this characteristic, "The Master and Margarita" is one of those books that you can't just digest in one read. At first I had mixed feelings about it - it was always intriguing, exciting, yes, but not lovable enough, I thought. Its light and talkative tone didn't seem, to me, to capture the agony and pain of people's lives in Stalinist Moscow. Moreover, with the possible exception of Behemoth, the vodka-drinking, chess-playing, pistol-toting cat, the book had no characters that one truly cares for. Or that's what I felt as I was reading it. You can see why, then, it surprises me that weeks after finishing the novel I find its colourful cast of characters - Woland, Azazello, Behemoth, the Master, Margarita, Ivan Ponyrov, and Pontius Pilate - frequently popping into my head and putting a smile on my face. It probably won't go down as one of my favourite books, but it is certainly memorable, unique, and unlike anything I've ever read. ( )1 girlunderglass | Oct 17, 2009 | To me the novel separates into three threads. One is the romp - that Satan and his cohorts descending into Moscow and wreaking havoc, particularly on the pretentious. I suspect there is quite a lot I am not getting in this thread, more specific political commentary. Of course, he is making a commentary on those writers who manage to get published in the Soviet Union of the time (between WWI and II) - he seems to be particularly down on the poets. Then there are descriptions of the writer's perks, and the black market stores for those with foreign currency, which is supposedly forbidden. All the people disappearing is surely meant to be a reflection on those disappearing from their homes in the Soviet state. The second is the story of Ha-Nostri (Christ) and Pontius Pilate. We hear the first installment of this story from Woland (Satan) who is telling it to two writers who were sitting on a bench discussing a poem one had written about the non-existance of God. In this scene Pilate had a chance to free Ha-Nostri by refusing to affirm his sentence, but he could only do this by risking himself. Cowardice is the worst vice, Ha-Nostri is later reported to have said, although the statement is little elaborated on. It is for this cowardice that Pontious Pilate must wait so long after death before being released. The third thread is the story of the Master and Margarita. The Master is a writer who wrote a novel which is the story of Pontius Pilate. Margarita is his lover, who, though married to another, becomes totally committed to the master and his work. Within the latter two threads is a theme of the roles of what we call good and evil, but which may also be light and shadow, necessary to each other. Why is it, for instance, that the master deserves peace but not light? Is it his brokenness in reaction to criticism of his novel? His abandonment of Margarite when he goes to the hospital? Is such a loss of confidence a kind of cowardice as well? Margarite is a truly couragious character, taking risks for the master, and for his work. She doesn't hold back. Despite her initial misgivings she agrees to go to Satan just on the chance of hearing about her lover. She serves as the Queen of the grand ball of Satan. My feeling is that there is a lot in the chapter about the grand ball that I am not fully grasping. Why Margarite was chosen, how she is told that she is doing so well, although throughout Satan's cohorts seem to be doing a lot of prompting as well, the heavy necklace she has to wear that just gets heavier, her compassion for Frieda - one of the dead who is punished by being constantly presented with the hankerchief that she used to kill her baby, and although it is Satan's ball, he does not necessarily seem to enjoy it. When Margarite is offered her reward for serving as queen of the ball, she seems to give up what she came for in order to do what she feels is right. Yet she claims not to be a virtuous person. She simply would have no peace in her life if she didn't do what she does. Having offered hope, she can not deny it. Bulgarov manages to suggest, and, more than that, to make you feel, that the relationship between heaven and hell, good and evil, is more complex and mysterious than usually presented. Without quite understanding the whole picture of what is going on in the Grand Ball, and in all the various relationships between the characters in woland's entourage and others, including Woland's support for the Master and Margarita, I still feel a richness in it, which I will probably lead me to reread it several more times. Highly recommended. (  )4 solla | Oct 10, 2009 |  no reviews | add a review
Amazon.com (ISBN 0679760806, Paperback)Surely no stranger work exists in the annals of protest literature than The Master and Margarita. 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 necessary: "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. The Master and Margarita is a different book each time it is opened. --Mary Park (retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:24 -0400) The first test round has been closed. Visit the Open Shelves Classification group for details. |
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Where should I start...what an imagination! Set in 1930s Soviet Moscow, the Devil appears in the city, masquerading as a magician in one of the city's theatres causing havoc amongst the Russian literary circle and ultimately the city itself. Followed by an entourage of misfits, including a huge talking cat, the Devil's plans appear to wreak utter chaos among the populus. His story soon becomes entwined with that of the titular Master, a reclusive author of a novel about Pontius Pilate (which in itself becomes a secondary storyline set in the last days of Christ's life), and his lover, the Margarita.
Complete with a stunning cast of minor characters to rival even Dicken's work, The Master and Margarita is an example of political satire at its best, with humour and wit, yet bursting with the fantastical and with an air of the ridiculous. I am by no means an expert in Russian literature, and I imagine reading a good translation would be essential for enjoyment of this novel, which I felt was achieved with the Penguin edition. The characters are definitely the main allure of this strange story, with an amusing twist on the typical devious demons, loveable heros and plucky heroines. I will not pretend to have understood this entire novel, but I thoroughly enjoyed it, and think I would benefit from a reread later once the shock and bewilderment has worn off! Any further description may put you off reading it, so I shall leave it at this...
Worth a read if you fancy something different!