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  • Do I love it because I'm Russian or am I Russian because I love it?

    

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• ― BabyCatWilson said on Aug 15, 2008 about the Paperback edition| Add your feedback

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  • It's hard not to get swept up in this book. It's easily among my favorites, although the translation I have isn't my favorite, the one I originally got from the library, by Michael Glenny is was very good. This one is all right, it's by a good team, but it's not like this is bad, or anything. It's q ... Continue

    It's hard not to get swept up in this book. It's easily among my favorites, although the translation I have isn't my favorite, the one I originally got from the library, by Michael Glenny is was very good. This one is all right, it's by a good team, but it's not like this is bad, or anything. It's quite the opposite. I'll get around to reading the rest of Bulgakov's work eventually, but I think reading something that he invested himself into as thoroughly as he did this book is enough to sate me for now. I cannot recommend this book highly enough.

    

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• ― Alex Richardson said on Apr 10, 2008 | Add your feedback

Mikhail Bulgakov's devastating satire of Soviet life was written during the darkest period of Stalin's regime. Combining two distinct yet interwoven parts-one set in ancient Jerusalem, one in contemporary Moscow-the novel veers from moods of wild theatricality with violent storms, vampire attacks, and a Satanic ball; to such somber scenes as the meeting of Pilate and Yeshua, and the murder of Judas in the moonlit garden of Gethsemane; to the substanceless, circus-like reality of Moscow. Its central characters, Woland (Satan) and his retinue-including the vodka-drinking, black cat, Behemoth; the poet, Ivan Homeless; Pontius Pilate; and a writer known only as The Master, and his passionate companion, Margarita-exist in a world that blends fantasy and chilling realism, an artful collage of grostesqueries, dark comedy, and timeless ethical questions.

Although completed in 1940, The Master and Margarita was not published in Moscow until 1966, when the first part appeared in the magazine Moskva. It was an immediate and enduring success: Audiences responded with great enthusiasm to its expression of artistic and spiritual freedom. This new translation has been created from the complete and unabridged Russian texts.

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