The Master And Margarita (Penguin Classics) (original 1966; edition 2007)

The devil went down to Georgia Moscow, he was looking for a soul to steal to satirize the Stalinist Soviet Union. Check.

Bizarre, absurd, slap-stick, Kafkaesque, Celine-like, Dostoevsky-worthy, and the like. The adjectives and accolades and comparisons used to describe this book over the years are endless, including: "the greatest novel of the 20th century." Come on now. I've liked every Russian writer I've ever invited into my brain and Bulgakov is no exception, however, being witty or clever doesn't automatically place you in the echelon of literary greats. In my opinion it was a fine book, and the sections dealing with Pontius Pilate are magnificently written, but it wandered around so that I frankly had a difficult time keeping track of just what was happening to who and when. And the "wackiness" of the unexpected didn't quite go far enough to keep me sufficiently interested.

I feel guilty for not enjoying this book as much as so many other people obviously have. ( )

Audiobook read by Julian Rhind-Tutt. I quite enjoyed it but the ending was very slow and drawn out. ( )

Another book I found that I didn't finish without even realizing it. Not that I wasn't liking it, but I didn't finish it and that sometimes says something. I'll probably go back to it since it's apparently pretty popular.

I guess being a writer in Stalinist Russia must have somehow been like directing one of those chimerical music videos from the early 1980s. You know, "I've got it! We'll put Satan in Moscow! And he'll be accompanied by an evil black cat that talks! And laser beams and smoke and sequins and Pontius Pilate and jet skis! Genius!" ( )

This book challenged me...

After reading Nataliya's review, which I highly recommend, I expected to learn about the Russian perspective on the human condition. I expected to smile at Bulgakov's dark sense of humor. And I surely did experience those things. But this book had unexpected side effects on me:

I felt ignorant. I had believed that a brave person is always free, because we can choose the direction to paddle our personal life canoe. But this author made me wonder what my life would be like if I did not have a paddle. Imagining myself in the role of the more unfortunate characters in this story left me feeling that I had been woefully ignorant.

I felt judgmental. Pains me to say this, but the humor in this book sometimes reminded me of the over the top slapstick antics of The Three Stooges, which I have always referred to as, "Stupid." But seeing this form of humor in a book of such depth... In the words of the Mr. Bingley of Pride and Prejudice, "I've been the most unmitigated and comprehensive ass."

Reading this book has left me feeling bloated from all the lessons that Bulgakov crammed into my head. But I also have a lingering sense of confusion, which surely means that there are many more lessons in this intellectual buffet that I was too full to take in. I will have to schedule a re-read for some time down the road, when I have digested and assimilated this first meal.

Bottomline: Heartily recommended to students of the human condition. ( )

Overall very strange indeed, but not unenjoyable. Would have got more out of it in a class, I think.

p. 35 It was all over, and there was nothing more to talk about...it seemed vaguely to [him:] that there was something he had not finished saying to the condemned man, and perhaps something he had not finished hearing.

p. 250 "The most uncomplicated thing of all!" he replied. "For someone well acquainted with the fifth dimension, it costs nothing to expand space to the desired proportions."

p. 280 [Margarita:] had a passion for anyone who did something top-notch.

p. 288 "...and generally it never happens that anything goes back to what it used to be." -the Master

p. 367 "Of course, when people have been robbed of everything, like you and me, they seek salvation from other-worldly powers! Well, so, I agree to seek there." -the Master

p. 377 "I'm overcome with sadness before the long journey. Isn't it true...it's quite natural even when a person knows that happiness is waiting at the end of the road?" -Margarita

p. 383 "I'm to follow him there?" the master asked anxiously.
"No," replied Woland, "why run after what is already finished?"

I think this book would have been awesome if I had been a Russian person of that era.
As it is, I didn't really get it. I did like the part where she turns into a witch and flies over the countryside. That pretty much ruled. ( )

finished 16 March 2012 ( )

3 - 3.5 stars

I find myself a little conflicted about this book. On the one hand it is full of scenes and ideas that are unquestionably intriguing and thought-provoking, on the other there were significant parts of it that I found, not bad, but certainly less than compelling and these latter segments made up the bulk of the first part of the novel. It wasn't until the commencement of Part Two that I felt as though things were beginning to gel and the ultimate story began to show its head. Prior to that we have three excellent introductory chapters that set up the context of the ‘main’ story: the arrival of the mysterious “Professor, Magician, and Consultant” Woland and his retinue of oddballs in 1930’s Moscow; this then shifts to an intriguing excerpt from a historical novel (written, we discover, by the titular ‘Master’) about Pontius Pilate and a decidedly un-biblical Christ. These introductory chapters are followed by a return to Moscow and, for me at least, things started to fall apart a bit as the bulk of Part One ended up being a litany of 'set-up' segments wherein Soviet intelligentsia get their comeuppances at the hands of Woland’s demonic entourage. I think my main problems with these scenes lay in the fact that I didn’t find the concentration on the internal politics of the early Soviet literary world compelling, not to mention the fact that the humour that pervades these scenes is strongly in the realm of farce, an area of comedy that really isn’t my cuppa. That being said I don’t want to knock on Bulgakov too much given that this was an unfinished novel that he apparently didn’t even expect to ever reach publication. There’s a heck of a lot going on in this book and it is a shame that we are unable to see what Bulgakov might have produced as a finished and fully polished work. What we do have is still very compelling as three main plotlines interweave and ultimately come together: the depredations made against Moscow and its tyrannical regime by Woland, who is also a very interesting version of the devil; the continuing story of Pontius Pilate, a man convinced of the evil of both himself and the world yet who desperately wants to believe in its goodness and who finds the turning point, and apparent tragedy, of his life in his meeting with the strange Yeshua Ha-Notsri (Jesus); finally we have the love story of the titular Master and Margarita, the former a writer languishing in an insane asylum after his great work is rejected and denounced by the bureaucracy of Soviet Russia and the latter his bereaved lover whose only hope is to save him.

Woland and his retinue are easily the most colourful characters in the story and include a giant talking black cat, a checker-suited comic sorcerer, a red-haired and fanged assassin-butler, and a sultry vampiress-witch. One of the most intriguing aspects of this devil as presented by Bulgakov is that in many ways he is analogous to the totalitarian State, for who else can make people vanish without a trace, plant 'evidence' to frame the innocent (and not so innocent), and instill in all and sundry an instinctual hatred mingled with terror? At the same time, though, Woland undermines everything the State does and stands for, his victims are the petty members of its bureaucracy and he ends up doing good even if he is willing evil (see the epigram from Goethe’s _Faust_ that begins the book). Ultimately Woland comes across much more as a force of chaos than of pure evil and he even seems to have some kind of relationship with the powers of light that goes beyond the adversarial. This duality continues into Bulgakov’s presentation of the Christ-figure Yeshua Ha-Notsri: on the one hand he at first appears to be what one might expect from a novel written under the anti-religious Soviet regime: at best just a well-meaning random man from first century Palestine who was killed by the powers that be for offending the wrong people…certainly not a messiah. Yet enough hints are dropped to imply that there really is something to this strange man, though we are never told exactly what that is. In the end the only supernatural force evident in the story is the diabolic (or at least chaotic) and one is left wondering where is God? No easy answer is provided, though Bulgakov does not seem to imply a nihilistic answer to this and goes so far as to provide Woland with some distinctly un-Satanic things to say about the world that are meant to provide hope even in the face of suffering and adversity: "But what can be done, the one who loves must share the fate of the one he loves." and "But in this case, Margarita, you need not upset yourself. Everything will be made right, that is what the world is built on."

I found the ‘main’ characters of the Master and Margarita to be a mixed bag. The unnamed Master is interesting in the way he displays both elements of power (he is very self-possessed and knowledgeable as opposed to his asylum-mate Ivan's almost manic temperament and complete lack of understanding), but he also seems strangely passive at the same time. I like him, but I'm not quite sure why and I felt that he more or less remained something of a cipher throughout the novel. Margarita, on the other hand, is vivid and full of life. Her main concern may be to find her lover, but she is very active in pursuing this end and lets nothing stand in her way. She also displays a touching humanity in the face of the suffering of others. Still at times it felt like the novel should have been entitled _Woland and his Retinue_ as opposed to _The Master & Margarita_ especially since we see little enough of the Master himself throughout the book (and what we do see ends up being quite passive) and Margarita does not gain a significant presence until the second half of the book. One other character, the poet Ivan Nikolayevich Ponyryov, seems poised to play a major role in the story when we first meet him and shares many thematic commonalities with other characters in the text, but little seems to come of this, though this may again have been the result of the unfinished nature of the text.

As I mentioned most of the segments of satire worked less well, or were less interesting, for me than the moments of pathos and romance that characterized the stories of Pilate and M&M (with the notable exception of the cat Behemoth's ludicrous battle with the police in Apt. 50 which was great) and thus I found myself gravitating towards the Pilate chapters and the second half of the novel where the M&M romance story began to merge with that of Woland and his retinue. In the end I was left with a heck of a lot of questions. Why did Woland really come to Moscow in the first place? Why did he gravitate to the personal story of the Master and Margarita? How is first century Jerusalem like early 20th century Moscow? How is Woland like Pilate? What is Woland’s relationship to Yeshua Ha-Notsri? What is the meaning behind the ultimate fate of the Master and Margarita, the fact that they have "not earned light, [they have] earned peace”? Some of these questions get answers of a kind, while others are left purely to our imagination. In the end this novel certainly leaves one with much food for thought.
( )

This book was so much fun. Really, it's been too long since I've been able to say that. And of course it would be Russian. That combination of comical absurdity and grave circumstances is unmatched by any other culture of literature. And what character fits the setting better than Satan himself? Devilishly good fun, no pun intended. Yes, there were people who died, and an even larger number who survived but suffered needlessly due to the activities. Lots of psychological repercussions there. But the ending was heartwarming and the henchmen were the most beautifully random things and Woland was the archetype of the highly menacing yet extremely entrancing Prince of Darkness. Not to mention the fact that Margarita was fantastic. I love it when people know full well that they're making a deal with the devil, but do it so well that they come out on top. Simply marvelous. If there's a movie adaptation, I have to watch it, for the cat's antics if nothing else. I also liked the alternative retelling of Pilate's story; it was much more logical and thus much more enjoyable than its biblical counterpart, but I suppose that's a given. Nonetheless, it was good. As was all of the book. Definitely entertaining, and very demonstrative of the madness of corruption. It helped that it explicitly showed how many are chewed up in the wake of the success of a chosen few. A sober lesson delivered in a very entertaining manner. Very nice. ( )

Clever, surreal, and quietly hillarious. Loved it. ( )

At one point I thought I was never going to finish this book. I thought it would end up on the DNF list to languish forever, my failed last attempt at Russian literature. The sticking point was an odd one. I had enjoyed the beginning but came to a part at Griboyedov's where I just couldn't read through it. It was a wall of Russian names and for some reason it just stopped me in my tracks. I attempted to get past it a couple times then left it on the wayside while I moved on to other books.

Something in the back of my mind kept pushing me to continue, some knowledge that it would get better. And as has happened before I was glad I did. In the end I just skipped the whole page and picked it up after it and didn't put it down again.

Once you're passed that and on to the institution and the theatre things really come to life. At times it was a bit confusing remembering exactly who was who. Russians tend to use a lot of diminutive names which is fine if you know the people but difficult in a book. One person can be called three or sometimes more different names. But it's worth it to push on.

There are a lot of references to various Russian people, both past and (as of the time of the book) present, and if it wasn't for the footnotes it might have been an impenetrable fence at times. Although there are a lot of timeless qualities this really was a book written for those of the time. With lots of veiled (and some not so veiled) references to the political climate of the time and things like the secret police, midnight abductions and show trials, there is a lot to the book the average reader, such as myself, just won't quite get. But even with that there is still much more to this book.

The three main parts of the book weave together until they are inseparable: the visitation of Moscow by the devil Woland and his cronies, the tale of Pontius Pilate and finally the love story of the master and Margarita. Fantasy, history, love, religion, politics and more. There really is a bit of everything in here. But not quite enough to push it to 5 stars. I really enjoyed it but I couldn't say I loved it. There's just that insurmountable gap due of not being well-versed in Russian history, politics and culture that I think are needed to truly get every nuance. A very good book though and I'm glad I finally persevered and finished it. ( )

My review of the novel is posted here:
A">http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/304643397

A comparison of the three translations I read (B&O, P&V, and Ginsburg) is in progress, and will be posted here when it is finished: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/404787342 ( )

This review is dedicated to Mary, the very model of a perfect co-moderator and GR friend.

Unlocking the Meaning of The Master and Margarita


Mikhail Bulgakov

In the decades following the publication of The Master and Margarita, myriad critics have attempted to find a key to unlock the meaning of Bulgakov’s unfinished masterwork. Some viewed the novel as a political roman à clef, laboriously substituting historical figures from Stalinist Moscow for Bulgakov’s characters. Others posited a religious formula to understand the relationships between good and evil in the novel.

After giving myself time to think, I believe that any attempts to reduce the novel to a formula reflect some readers’ desire for neat, safe boxes to contain the world. This approach is at odds with the fear-ridden, desperate, and yet transcendent reality of Bulgakov’s experience in writing, revising, destroying, reconstructing, and then revising the novel, up to his death in Moscow on March 10, 1940. The Master and Margarita shows evidence of Bulgakov’s struggles to complete it, especially in part two, which illness prevented him from revising. I believe that the novel’s profound humanity stems from these imperfections, these facets not quite fitting neatly together, these jarring movements from scene to scene. In the end, The Master and Margarita is, by virtue of its own existence, a testament to the necessity of art in times of repression, and to the urgent need for artists to veer from cowardice and hold firmly to their commitment to living a true human life, with fantasy and reality combined, with history and invention feeding into each other, with good and evil providing the shadows and depth that make life meaningful and real.


The Master and Margarita as Fairy Tale

One approach to The Master and Margarita that appeals to me is understanding it, in part, as a fairy tale. In the novel, Bulgakov threads together three different storylines, which intertwine, especially at the novel’s conclusion: the often slapstick depiction of life in Stalinist Moscow, seen in part through the antics of the devil Woland and his demonic helpers; the story of Pilate, with names and details transformed from the familiar Biblical versions; and the story of the Master and Margarita. The action takes place in a compressed time frame, so readers looking for character development will be disappointed. Instead, Bulgakov develops an extended allegory where flight equals freedom, where greed and small-mindedness are punished, and where weary artists are afforded some mercy and peace.

The Master and Margarita provided Bulgakov with a lifeline to the imagination in the midst of the stultifying culture of Stalinist Russia. There are healthy doses of wish fulfillment in the novel, especially in those sections in which Woland’s minions, Azazello, Behemoth, and Koroviev, wreak retribution for the petty-mindedness and greed inherent in this political and social system. There also is a desperate attempt to resist the Stalinist bent towards monotony and flatness, and instead to weave dizzying strands of magic, fantasy, and power into life in Moscow.


Behemoth

These attempts to use a story as wish fulfillment, criticizing a social order by turning it upside down in fiction, and recognizing how to use an audience’s sense of wonder as a fulcrum for change, resonate with the historical and cultural functions of fairy tales as described by scholars including Jack Zipes in The Great Fairy Tale Tradition and Marina Warner in From the Beast to the Blonde: On Fairy Tales and their Tellers. Magic and wonder force the reader to acknowledge other possibilities outside of a reality of political repression, poverty, and war. When fairy tales reveal challenges to misplaced authority, whether in the guise of an evil queen or a greedy government official, they may take on one of two roles: a subversive threat to authority, or a valve to release the pressure of living under severe constraints. Perhaps most important, fairy tales remind their readers that life is miraculous, and that certain freedoms, such as the freedom to imagine and dream, can be nurtured and honored even under the most restrictive regimes.

For Bulgakov, the blend of the fantastical and the everyday in The Master and Margarita serves as his manifesto. Throughout his life, he fought to preserve the full human experience, not the two-dimensional totalitarianism in the Stalinist USSR, where human life was flattened of any sense of wonder, creativity, exuberance. Instead, he advocated for human life with all its shadows and colors, with a foundation in imagination and wonder. The freedom he sought was not simply freedom from communal housing or repressive government policies. Instead, he sought the freedom to imagine, to dream, to infuse his life with wonder, and to share his vision. For this reason, any attempt to read The Master and Margarita as a simple satire of Stalinist totalitarianism is misguided. Instead, Bulgakov sought to fly free along with his characters, and in doing so to tap into the universal human need for imagination, wonder, and freedom of the intellect and spirit.


“For me the inability to write is as good as being buried alive”


Bulgakov and his wife Yelena, c. 1939

Although Bulgakov universalized his quest for artistic freedom in The Master and Margarita, he drew inspiration and a sense of urgency from his experiences. A playwright, he faced censorship as his plays were banned and productions cancelled. He saw his fellow writers imprisoned for following their calling. (In response to one of these cases, Bulgakov destroyed one version of The Master and Margarita, which he later reconstructed.)

In desperation, between 1929 and 1930 Bulgakov wrote three letters to Soviet government officials, including Stalin, to protest his censorship and beg for a chance to practice his art, if not within Russia, outside it. In the final letter, dated March 28, 1930, Bulgakov movingly describes his ordeal, arguing that his duty as a writer is to defend artistic freedom, and pleading that being silenced is tantamount to death.

Although the letters provided Bulgakov with employment after receiving a favorable response, and saved him from arrest or execution, he still faced his works’ being banned and suppressed. He devoted the last years of his life to revising The Master and Margarita, knowing he would not live to see it published, and sometimes despairing it would ever be read outside of his family circle. His widow, Yelena Shilovskaya, worked tirelessly after his death for decades, preserving his manuscript and finally seeing it published, in a censored version, in 1966 and 1967.


Planes of Reality: The Fantastic, The Historical, and the Totalitarian


Azazello, Behemoth, and Koroviev

Some criticism of The Master and Margarita comes from the abrupt transitions and changes in mood among the three storylines: the actions of Woland and his minions in Moscow; the transformed story of Pontius Pilate, with some striking changes to the names of characters and the sequence of events which simultaneously make the narrative seem more historical and keep readers off-balance; and the story of the Master and Margarita, which includes Bulgakov’s central concerns about cowardice, artistry, duty, loyalty and love. I believe that Bulgakov purposefully constructed his novel so that the reader would be pulled from dimension to dimension. The effect, although jarring, is one of constant instability and surprise. The reader is immersed in a world where a Biblical past seems more historically based and less fantastic than 20th-century Moscow, where characters who are petty and greedy are meted out fantastic public punishments, at times literally on a stage, and where in the end characters with the most substance and loyalty have their lives transformed through magic.

By carefully building this multifaceted world, with all the seams showing, Bulgakov forces us as readers to consider the intersections among these worlds. Bulgakov reveals how we cut ourselves off from the wellsprings of magic and wonder, and invites us to join him in mounting a broomstick and riding off into the night sky, free from the constraints of our everyday lives.


The Necessity of Shadows: Woland


Woland

Just as Bulgakov confounds his readers’ expectations of a unified and seamless world, so he also makes us question our assumptions about good and evil. A key character is Woland, the devil at the center of the magical action. From his appearance in the first chapter, Woland presents an arresting and disconcerting figure. Woland immediately inserts himself into a conversation with Berlioz, the editor of a literary magazine and chair of MASSOLIT, a prestigious literary association, and Ivan, a poet also known by his pen name Bezdomny, engaging in a debate with them about the existence of God. Berlioz parrots many of the current arguments against the existence of God, but Woland deftly counters his arguments in a manner that veers between the charming and the sinister.

This debate introduces a theme that runs throughout The Master and Margarita: a cosmos in which good and evil each have their jurisdiction, but work together to ensure that people get the rewards or punishments that they deserve. In a famous passage later in the novel, Woland provides the following cogent description:

“You pronounced your words as if you refuse to acknowledge the existence of either shadows or evil. But would you kindly ponder this question: What would your good do if evil didn't exist, and what would the earth look like if all the shadows disappeared? After all, shadows are cast by things and people. Here is the shadow of my sword. But shadows also come from trees and from living beings. Do you want to strip the earth of all trees and living things just because of your fantasy of enjoying naked light? You're stupid."

Throughout The Master and Margarita, Woland metes out justice to wrongdoers. However, he does not simply punish -- instead, he also rewards Margarita for her devotion, intelligence, loyalty, and bravery. He rescues the Master from his exile in the asylum and ultimately grants him and Margarita a destiny of peace and rest together. In doing so, Woland overturns our expectations. Bulgakov describes a world where good and evil powers work together to provide some justice and balance in our lives, in spite of the thoughtless and cruel ways that humans behave. As Woland tells Margarita at one point, “Everything will be made right, that is what the world is built on.” The true evil in The Master and Margarita does not rise from Hell, but instead comes from the pettiness and greed of flawed, small-minded humans.


The Master and Margarita: Responsibility to Art

The Master makes his appearance relatively late in the novel, in chapter 13, “Enter the Hero.” However, he is not the traditional hero. He is a broken man, living in an asylum, remembering his love for Margarita, while at the same time turning his back on the art that Margarita loved, protected, and honored: his novel about Pontius Pilate.

In a lengthy conversation with Ivan, the Master paints an idyllic portrait of his life with Margarita, who creates a cozy sanctuary full of roses and love, in which the written word is treasured and respected:

“Running her slender fingers and pointed nails through her hair, she endlessly reread what he had written, and then she sewed the very cap he had shown Ivan. Sometimes she would squat down next to the lower shelves or stand up on a chair next to the upper ones and dust the hundreds of books. She predicted fame, urged him on, and started calling him Master. She waited eagerly for the promised final words about the fifth procurator of Judea, recited the parts she especially liked in a loud sing-song voice, and said that the novel was her life.”

However this idyll comes to a crashing end when the Master completes the manuscript and looks for a publisher. He provides harrowing descriptions of his brutal treatment by the literary world in Moscow, as editors, publishers, and fellow writers publicly criticized him for his novel. These descriptions bear the pain of Bulgakov’s personal experience with censorship and rejection, culminating in the Master’s paralyzing fear of everything around him.

Finally, in a scene inspired by events in Bulgakov’s life, the Master attempts to destroy his manuscript. Although Margarita salvages some pages, this scene marks the end of her life with the Master, who turns his back on Margarita and his art. He describes himself as a man without a name or a future, marking time in the asylum. Bulgakov depicts the Master as a broken man, whose loss of spirit and cowardice in the face of adversity led him to lose everything of value in his life.


Margarita

Margarita poses a stark contrast to the Master. When we finally meet her in part two, she is grieving over losing the Master, but she also shows herself to be intelligent, energetic, and fearless in her determination to find him and rebuild their life together. In doing so, Margarita is not taking an easy path. She is married to a successful husband who adores her. The two live in a large apartment with a great deal of privacy, a true luxury in Stalinist Moscow. She is beautiful, but she cannot put behind her deep dissatisfaction with her life, apparently perfect on the surface, but with no depth. She is living a lie. Her despair starts to break when she has a dream about the Master, which she views as a portent that her torment will soon come to an end. After rushing from her home, she has a fateful conversation with Azazello, whom Woland has tasked with inviting her to officiate as his queen at his ball. Margarita handles the interaction with spirit and courage, agreeing to follow Azazello’s mysterious instructions in hopes of learning the Master’s fate.


Margarita’s Night Ride

Margarita is transformed and embarks on a night ride, flying naked on a broomstick over Moscow. After wreaking havoc at the apartment of a publisher who had tormented the Master, and comforting a small boy who awakened, terrified by the destruction, she participates in a moonlight gathering of other magical creatures. Afterwards, she returns to Moscow in a magical car, “After all that evening's marvels and enchantments, she had already guessed who they were taking her to visit, but that didn't frighten her. The hope that there she would succeed in regaining her happiness made her fearless.” The night ride is a symbol of Margarita’s freedom and power.

Her fearlessness propels Margarita through her meeting with Woland and his minions, and a surreal evening as the queen of Woland’s midnight ball. Her devotion is rewarded by Woland, in scenes full of magic and moonlight. Although the Master crumbles in the face of adversity, Margarita becomes the ultimate hero and savior through her courage and commitment to the Master and his art.


The Moon



Throughout The Master and Margarita, Bulgakov uses key symbols to tie together the different chapters and storylines. Perhaps the most important symbol is the moon, which appears frequently in practically every chapter. The moon conveys a kind of otherworldly truth. Characters are bathed in moonlight at critical points in the novel, especially when making entrances, as when the Master first appears in Ivan’s hospital room. Moonlight imparts insight and truth even to the most delusional of characters. The moon lights the night rides of Woland, his companions, Margarita and the Master.


Woland and company: Night Ride

The moonlight also features prominently in the Pilate chapters, serving as a lynchpin between them and the rest of the novel. Pilate looks up at the moon for solace in the face of his agony from his migraines and his cowardice, with his faithful dog Banga as his sole companion. Bulgakov uses the moon to illuminate Pilate’s torment and his final peace, granted to him by the Master, his creator:

"[Pilate] has been sitting here for about two thousand years, sleeping, but, when the moon is full, he is tormented, as you see, by insomnia. And it torments not only him, but his faithful guardian, the dog. If it is true that cowardice is the most grave vice, then the dog, at least, is not guilty of it. The only thing that brave creature ever feared was thunderstorms. But what can be done, the one who loves must share the fate of the one he loves."

In response to Woland’s prompting, the Master stands and shouts the words that complete his novel, and end Pilate’s torture:

“The path of moonlight long awaited by the procurator led right up to the garden, and the dog with the pointed ears was the first to rush out on it. The man in the white cloak with the blood-red lining got up from his chair and shouted something in a hoarse, broken voice. It was impossible to make out whether he was laughing or crying, or what he was shouting, but he could be seen running down the path of moonlight, after his faithful guardian.”


Pilate, Banga and the moon

Bulgakov follows this transformative scene with Woland’s gift of peace to the Master. As she did throughout the novel, Margarita remains by the Master’s side, his loyal companion through eternity. Bulgakov cannot give salvation to the Master, perhaps because of the enormity of his cowardice against art, perhaps because he has been so damaged by a hostile society. In these final passages, Margarita gives the Master, and the reader, a soothing picture of a peaceful life, perhaps one Bulgakov himself longed for:

"Listen to the silence," Margarita was saying to the Master, the sand crunching under her bare feet. "Listen and take pleasure in what you were not given in life—quiet. Look, there up ahead is your eternal home, which you've been given as a reward. I can see the Venetian window and the grape-vine curling up to the roof. There is your home, your eternal home. I know that in the evenings people you like will come to see you, people who interest you and who will not upset you. They will play for you, sing for you, and you will see how the room looks in candlelight. You will fall asleep with your grimy eternal cap on your head, you will fall asleep with a smile on your lips. Sleep will strengthen you, you will begin to reason wisely. And you will never be able to chase me away. I will guard your sleep."


( )

Comparison of all three translations I read in progress... It will be posted here once it is finished.

My review of the novel itself is posted here: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/304643397 ( )

I have no idea what I think of this strange tale of the devil and the mortals in early 20th century Soviet Russia. It is an angry tale, a vengeful satire, with references not known to me so that I couldn't appreciate the finer points and details. For me, it was a wild, whirling tale, a fluttering of colors and images told in an arch tone.

I read it slowly, taking in sections and letting them digest in my mind. I spent some time on Wikipedia looking up things like Primus Stoves and Woland, and reading about the novel itself. It does take some study to grasp a book translated from another language and written some 80 years ago.

It's hard to run down any proper narrative thread, for there really isn't any, at least, not until well into the novel, when one finally meets the titular Master. The story comes to the reader like fluttery bits of torn colored paper collected together and laid down, adjacent and overlapping, fixed into a collage that eventually forms first one picture, then another, until the whole is apparent. Yet what the picture is, I cannot tell. It's still beyond me. I grasp the sarcastic tone, the dislike of overwhelming bureaucracy, the anger at restraint and cruelty and greed for power, money, and status, but I sense there are other layers in the book to which I am blind -- jokes, observations, philosophy and references for which I have no clue, glimpses into a time and a culture of which I know little.

Ah well, there's no help for it. Still, I enjoyed reading the novel, enjoyed the madness of it, the resolution of it, the odd tilt of it. I'll have to put it on my list of books to reread. ( )

Hmmm, well. This book took me forever to read. One reason is that its just a dense book, lots of plots and sub plots and a pretty big cast of characters. Another is that Russia of the 20's and 30's is a sufficiently alien world to me that it often took extra effort and attention to figure out what was going on. There is a whole subplot involving foreign currency, another recurring motif of primus stoves- I can tell these things are important but then I have to go to the afterward or check a history text to figure out why. Additionally in places Bulgakov was writing to evade the censors so he is often oblique - for example he refers to one character having no buttons on his coat, by which we are to understand that he has recently been released from prison because apparently in Russia in the 20's prisoners had the buttons cut off their coats.

It is funny in spots, passionate in spots, and some of the descriptions - of the witches ride for example, are weirdly magical. The book was not completed before the author's death and I think there are places where he would have edited the manuscript if he had lived to do so - some of the early scenes when the devil is making everything go awry in Moscow get a little repetitive, and could probably stand some tightening up. But still, its complicated challenging and interesting.

I also appreciate having read it because it helps me to understand more about the history and development of magical realism and fantasy and political satire in the 20th century. It seems to connect up in my head in ways that I'm still figuring out with Kafka and Borges and Isabel Allende and Alice Walker; something about how things that can't be told flat can be told more effectively through the lens of myth and the fantastical... still pondering, but there's something there some influence or through line.

So its a bit of a chewy hunk of beef, but there's nourishment in it if you just keep on chewing. ;) ( )

I’m going to be honest; I have no idea how to review about like The Master and Margarita. I was looking forward to reading another Russian classic but I don’t think anyone can be fully prepared for a book like this. The whole book is based around a visit by the Devil to two passionately atheistic Russians. While this is an overly simplified synopsis it really is basis of the entire book; if I really want to write a fully detailed overview of this book it would include a black cat, an assassin, a naked witch, Jesus and Pontius Pilate in one very bizarre novel. I read this book about a week ago but I’m still trying to wrap my head around it, there is a lot going on within the book to really be able to give this a review that would give it justice.

To simplify this book I’m going to break down the book into three different elements; the Professor’s talk with the Berlioz and Bezdomny, the section involving the Master and his lover Margarita and lastly the novel about Pontius Pilate. At first glance all these sections may seems like they don’t link together, but when the Professor or the devil challenges the two’s concepts of atheism the conversation leads to the book about Pilate which happens to be a novel written by the Master and the book comes together in a weird, philosophical novel with shades of slapstick comedy.

I tend to write short reviews because I don’t want to spoil novels and want to write easy, accessible reviews; so if I write anything more about the plot I would have to read a lot, too much for a short review so I’m going to stop talking about the book and start talking about my opinions of it. While reading this novel I was completely absorbed in the writing, but this meant I continued reading without stopping to really think about the book. In the end my head was swimming with so many thoughts of this book I wasn’t sure how I felt. Now that I’ve sorted my thoughts all I really can say it’s one of those books you just have to read to fully understand the effect of it.

While it took me a while to fully sort my thoughts of this book, I really did enjoy it. It’s one of those books like Slaughterhouse-Five where you can’t really rate or review it until you have had a good long think about all the concepts this book is trying to get across. I highly recommend experiencing this novel; it is like nothing I’ve ever read before. The wacky nature of this book will keep you reading but the philosophical ideas will help you enjoy this novel. I don’t think any review will ever do justice to this classic; especially not mine so my only advised and the only thing you really need to know about this book is ‘Just read it.’ ( )

The book of Complicite's hit adaptation at the Barbican theatre. I read this on holiday - a strangely surreal experience, sitting on a beach in Tunisia and plunging into the world of a magical 1930s Moscow. The book is notable both for its debt to Faust and for its strong influence on later writers, such as Philip Pullman (Serafina Pekkala and her crew of witches, even though he claimed not to have read Bulgakov http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/childrenandteens/story/0,6000,650988,00.... ), or J.K.Rowling (the flying motor car in Harry Potter). Not an easy read, but worth the effort. ( )

Bored. Quit on page 52. ( )

To call The Master and the Margarita strange is the mother of all understatements. The novel covers everything from talking cats, a visit from Satan, an insane author and a disturbing magic show, but the crucial thing to remember when reading the book is context. The book was written in the midst of Russian civil war and it was banned from being released in Russia for more than 30 years. So it seems much of the book is written in code, because at the time authors could be thrown in prison for the slightest offense and writing a scathing review of the current political regime was suicide.

The novel is split into three basic stories. First we have Woland (aka the Devil) and his strange entourage. They visit Moscow in the 1930s and wreck havoc on individuals living there. Particularly affected by their visit are Mikhail Alexandrovich Berlioz, an editor, and Ivan Nikolayevich Ponyryov (pen name Bezdomny) a poet. Woland’s group includes a giant gun-wielding cal named Behemoth and an oddball named Azazello. The vodka-swigging cat is both terrifying and mesmerizing.

The second plot is about the title pair, the Master and the Margarita. The Master is an author who is thrown in prison for his writing. Margarita is his lover and is heartbroken when he disappears. She is soon caught-up with Woland and drawn into his bizarre world of balls and madness.

The final plot is a re-telling on Christ’s conviction and crucifixion by Pontius Pilate. Jesus is called Yeshua in this section we find out that this plot is actually the book that was written by the Master.

I would highly recommend the translation I read. It was translated by Diana Burgin and Katherine Tiernan O'Connor and not only does it provide an accessible text, there’s also a detailed chapter-by-chapter commentary in the back, which explains a lot of what is being said just under the surface. There are jokes that make sense once you have a bit more knowledge of the author’s life and context of the political situation in Russia at that time.

BOTTOM LINE: Honestly, I thought I would hate this book, but there’s something about it that just sticks with you. My translation was really good and I ended up taking a lot away from it. I still don’t think I “got” everything, but the weird world Bulgakov created is sort of intoxicating. If you’re willing to just accept the absurd and go with it, I think you’ll find it an interesting read.

“My remarks are far from drivel, they are a series of neatly packaged syllogisms which would win the respect and admiration of such connoisseurs of the genre as Sextus Empiricus, Martianus Capella, or, who knows, even Aristotle himself.” – Behemoth the Cat

“What would your good do if evil didn’t exist, and what would the earth look like if all the shadows disappeared?”

"I consider it my duty to warn you that a cat is an ancient and inviolable creature." -Behemoth ( )

An amazing novel... Not for fans of realism though ;)

Bulgakov's novel is strange, but delightful. When the devil himself comes to Moscow all sorts of strange occurrences ensue. This is intermixed with the lovestory of the master and Margarita, and the story of Pontius Pilate's execution of Jesus Christ.
The book really gives you something to think about, and I'm sure that upon reading it again I'll find new things to consider. ( )

I really liked this book the first time I read it, and I really liked it a lot this time as well. The book is really well written, and is a fun read.That assessment of the book does not change. It is really a good book to read. There are also a lot of allusions that have been made in the book, and I learned (and forgot) a lot, while researching the references in the book.

During my first reading, I read a lot into the book, about the fundamental nature of Man, God and the Devil. The Devil does indeed walk amongst us, along paths unknown to us, and the Devil's ways are indeed mysterious.

This time, I read more about human nature, and about how the Devil pokes fun of our stuffy pompous nature. I read more into the fragile fabric of human society than into the struggle between man and God.

Either way, it's a fun read! ( )

This book is my favourite novel. It is the only novel that I consistently re-read every year and enjoy experiencing the story every time. (I honestly don't have the desire to re-read other books that often.) I love exploring soviet society, religion and the hypocracy rampant in the book. I continue to struggle with the protrayal of mental illness, though - people who encounter the devil are often 'punished' with mental illness. It seems as though the only people at the assylum are those struck ill by the devil. While I understand that this is not a new idea, I am still uncomfortable with the presentation of mental illness as a punishment. However, I don't read books that only present ideas I completely agree with and I expect that I will continue to find time to read this book every year. Every read presents something new and reminds me of old favourite parts - I can't wait for next time. ( )

I’ll start my review by admitting this is my first Russian Lit. Reading the introduction (aligning events of the book with history and the author’s life) and the footnotes (explaining the chosen names, locations, and idioms) was highly beneficial to appreciate the subtleties that the author inserted into his novel, particularly when you consider the restricted lifestyle during the Stalin era. Above and beyond the fantastical Woland/Satan aspects, this book expressed another fantastical element – that the human spirit, creativity, the need to express oneself, does not diminish even when oppressed by a communist regime including the Great Purge of Stalin. It makes me wonder how many other books out there survived this type of tyranny to educate us readers many years later.

When I first started the book, I was slowed, stumped memorizing all the long character names and nicknames. Taking notes helped to digest the content of this book, including what happens to each character. If you’re wondering rather it’s worth reading a book with this ‘homework’, it is! The layers of underlining messages, the rolling effect of one event to the next, the effects of society constraints upon its people, the crazy antics of Woland and his retinue, and the love of Margarita for her Master are all rich elements that rarely find their way into a singular piece of literature with humor and gruesomeness. How could you not like this mix?!?

The book consists of 3 primary stories in 2 different times/settings:
1) Woland (=Satan=Stalin) and his Retinue (including a BIG black cat no less) causing havoc upon Berlioz, Ivan ‘The Homeless’, and the literary and theater committee in then contemporary Moscow, 1930’s.
2) Pontius Pilate and the Crucifixion of Christ (Yeshua Ha-Nozri ) from the Roman/Ceasar days, as written by the Master in his novel in Jerusalem (Yershalaim). Woland read the novel, too!
3) Master and the Margarita – The Title Love Story, that is interwoven and tied to the above two also in contemporary Moscow. (These two are loosely based on Bulgakov and his wife, Elena – how they met and how he writes without notes or drafts – ‘I know it by heart’.)

Margarita is a charmingly strong, selfless, intelligent, sharp, uncorrupted heroine, and I adored her role in this novel. Stuck in an unhappy marriage, she meets the Master in passing, becomes his lover, his book editor, his greatest fan, and ultimately offers herself to Woland to save the Master, all the while remaining true to her love for him through every trial and tribulation. And trials there were as Woland and his retinue tested her before, during, and after Satan’s Ball.

Chapter 23, The Great Ball of Satan, is easily my favorite chapter. RICH imageries of an unusual setting, a naked Margarita as hostess, many more naked female guests, decomposing corpse guests, gruesome scenes, yet glittering and delightful. My mind ran through images of Salvador Dali + Hieronymus Bosch + Tim Burton reading these pages.

Other than Margarita, I was quite amused by Woland and his crew of bad boys, and their destructive ways. They doled out punishments to greedy and undeserving individuals. They actions/abilities also reflected Stalin making people ‘disappear’ (=arrested) back in the 1930’s. But they were also kind and caring to those that deserved it, i.e. Margarita. Cruel and kind, yin and yang.

Satan being a proof for the existence of God, evil vs. good, was an underlying theme of the book. And they keep in touch! Woland: “what would your good do if evil did not exist?” A strange thought came to me about (don’t laugh) Superman and Batman movies – where great evilness is balanced by great goodness. Lex Luther justifies himself as a necessity to balance Superman, while the people of Gotham has accused the existence of Batman as being the reason that great evil befalls upon them.

The biggest message though was “Cowardice is the most terrible vice.” This was particularly pointed towards Pontius Pilate for failing to stand up for Yeshua Ha-Nozri and agreed to his execution. This theme also repeated itself through the many cowardly ways that different individuals try to get Apartment No. 50 (or any other housing) for themselves. The conniving means of acquiring apartments was mirroring the true lack of housing in Moscow back then. (This aspect was mentioned multiple times throughout the book.)

I place very high value upon the ending of any complex book. This book did not disappoint. Details wrapped with conclusions that made sense despite all the layers and folds. This book was not an easy read. Armed with note-taking pencil, stickies, looking up words and events online, I was ultimately pleased with this adventure.

As a side note, while I had in fact visited both Moscow and Jerusalem, anyone can easily enjoy this book without having seen the sights. Admittedly, now I wish I was back at the Novodevichy Convent, looking up the grave sites of Nikolai Gogol and Mikhail Bulgakov – and appreciating the role they played in Russian literature.

Some Quotes:

I very much liked how Bulgakov expresses such a “Doh” moment:
“When the wet Ivan came dancing back up the steps to the place where the bearded fellow was guarding his clothes, it became clear that not only the latter, but also the former – that is, the bearded fellow himself – had been stolen.”

After Riukhin had gone with Ivan the Homeless to the hospital, he reflected on his sorrows, an element of which reminded me the horrors of aging – Alzeheimer and Dementia:
“The thought that there is no greater misfortunate in the world than the loss of reason?”

On Love, the first meeting between the Master and Margarita:
“And I was struck not so much by her beauty as by an extraordinary loneliness in her eyes, such as no one had ever seen before! ”
“I was suffering, because it seemed to me that it was necessary to speak to her, and I worried that I wouldn’t utter a single word, and she would leave, and I’d never see her again. And, imagine, suddenly she began to speak:
”Do you like my flowers?”
‘I remember clearly the sound of her voice, rather low, slightly husky, and stupid as it is, it seemed that the echo resounded in the lane and bounced off the dirty yellow wall. I quickly crossed to her side and, coming up to her, answered’
‘”No!”
‘She looked at me in surprise, and I suddenly, and quite unexpectedly, understood that all my life I had loved precisely this woman!”

On Love, as said by Bulgakov:
“Follow me, reader! Who told you that there is no true, faithful, eternal love in his world! May the liar’s vile tongue be cut out!” – What a way to start Book 2!

Even in sorrow, Margarita is a strong, bold, unrelenting woman – like!
“People walked past Margarita Nikolaevna. Some man gave the well-dressed woman a sidelong glance, attracted by her beauty and her solitude. He coughed and sat down at the end of the same bench that Margarita Nikolaevna was sitting on. Plucking up his courage, he began:
‘Definitely nice weather today…’
But Margarita gave him such a dark look that he got up and left.”

Many references to Devil, sometimes resulting in something bad happening. I wondered if it’s the equivalent of the “F-bomb” then.
Ex:
Prokhor Petrovich – “The devil take me!” in front of Behemoth, the cat. And he disappears while his suit continues without him.
Margarita Nikolayevna – “Ah, truly, I’d pawn my soul to the devil just to find out whether he’s alive or not” (he=master) Immediately, Azazello, the red haired henchman of Woland, appears to exercise such trade.

At the completion of the Satan’s Ball, Woland tests Margarita one last time, tempting her to ask for rewards for her work. She does not, and Woland rejoices.
“That’s the way! We’ve been testing you. Never ask for anything! Never for anything, and especially from those who are stronger than you. They’ll make the offer themselves, and give everything themselves. Sit down, proud woman.”
This resonated with me as an Art of War type of move, and potentially useful at work.

This quote, spoken by Woland regarding the book that the Master wrote, and my favorite corresponding footnote:
“Manuscripts don’t burn.”
“This phrase became proverbial among Russian intellectuals after the publication of The Master and Margarita, and event which in itself seemed to bear out the truth of Woland’s words.”

A most unique way to describe a sunset:
“Just then the sun returned to Yershalaim, and before going to drown in the Mediterranean Sean, sent farewell rays to the city hated by the procurator and gilded the steps of the balcony.”

Pontius and Yeshua on cowardice:
“It went without saying that today’s execution proved to be a sheer misunderstanding: here this philosopher, who had thought up such an incredibly absurd thing as that all men are good, was walking beside him, therefore he was alive. And, of course, it would be terrible even to think that one could execute such a man. There had been no execution! No execution! That was the loveliness of this journey up the stairway of the moon.
There was as much free time as they needed, and the storm would come only towards evening, and cowardice was undoubted one of the most terrible vices. Thus spoke Yeshua Ha-Nozri. No, philosopher, I disagree with you: it is the most terrible vice!” ( )