Endiablade ou comment des jumeaux causèrent la mort d'un chef de bureau

Bulgakov's Diaboliad was written before The master and Margarita, and in some ways reads like a preview of the novel. From the beginning, when the inoffensive, timid Korotkov, employed as a clerk--he hopes "for life"--in the Central Depot for Matches makes one small blunder, to the bitter end, when he jumps to his death and "a sun the colour of blood explodes in his head", surreal events unfold with the increasing frenzy similar to that in the novel, where the Devil and his retinue cause havoc. The devil as such doesn't appear in the Diaboliad, it's the entire web of rules, people and events that entraps and ruins Korotkov, that is devilish. But some avatars of the Devil may be seen in the infernal dwarf twins, perhaps even in Korotkov show more himself, in the brief moment of rebellion near the end, when he's lost his official identity and laughs that nobody can force him to do anything anymore--he doesn't exist. A troublesome cat is there too (Behemoth as kitten?) Bulgakov's comic brio is as vibrant here as in the novel, and there's more than a touch of the theatre of the absurd. (At the start of the story, lack of cash leads to the workers being paid in kind--Korotkov takes home boxes of matches; his neighbour who works in a wine factory brings back dozens of bottles of the Mass wine. They do some desultory trading; the matches mostly don't work, Korotkov gets unsatisfactorily drunk on substandard church booze). show less

Une courte nouvelle fantastique où il utilise déjà ce genre pour dénoncer les dérives du système soviétique (bureaucratie, inefficacité de la production, arbitraire). Un homme face à l’arbitraire, il devient fou, le monde qui l’entoure est encore plus fou. Un avant goût du “maître et marguerite”. Une lecture courte agréable.