📚 July 2026 The Master and Margarita -- discuss SPOILERS

July’s Group Read: The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov (1891 – 1940)

discuss WITᕼ spoilers resources can be found on the non-spoiler page

The blurb from Rossetta Books describes The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov as:

At the intersection of fantasy and harsh realism, satire and unflinching emotional truths, Mikhail Bulgakov’s classic The Master and Margarita eloquently lampoons every aspect of Soviet life under Stalin’s regime while simultaneously interrogating the complexities between good and evil, innocence and guilt, and freedom and oppression.

The Literature Book: Big Ideas Simply Explained says Bulgakov wrote this between 1928 – 1940, but was published 30 years later. The very short entry does not explain why but this gives a couple of sentences on this novel, saying it’s set in Moscow and Jerusalem, and says it’s a satire of Soviet authorities. Looking between my books and various websites I think the mystery is solved, this was published posthumously.




Here's a few questions to mull over as we read:

• How did you find the opening? What are your first impression of this novel and what it's about?
  
  
• Are there any characters you empathise with?
  
  
• Is the story unfolding the way you expected?
  
  
• Who is the Master, and who is Margarita? What do they bring to this story?
  
  
• Are you enjoying the comedy / satire?
  
  
• Do you have favourite moments / quotes?
  
  
• Did it end the way you expected?