The Master and Margarita
Mikhail Bulgakov
The first complete, annotated English Translation of Mikhail Bulgakov's comic masterpiece. An audacious revision of the stories of Faust and Pontius Pilate, The Master and Margarita is recognized as one of the essential classics of modern Russian literature. The novel's vision of Soviet life in the 1930s is so ferociously accurate that it could not be published during its author's lifetime and appeared only in a censored edition in the 1960s. Its truths are so enduring that its language has become part of the common Russian speech. One hot spring, the devil arrives in Moscow, accompanied by a retinue that includes a beautiful naked witch and an immense talking black cat with a fondness for chess and vodka. The visitors quickly wreak havoc in a city that refuses to believe in either God or Satan. But they also bring peace to two unhappy Muscovites: one is the Master, a writer pilloried for daring to write a novel about Christ and Pontius Pilate; the other is Margarita, who loves the Master so deeply that she is willing literally to go to hell for him. What ensues is a novel of inexhaustible energy, humor, and philosophical depth, a work whose nuances emerge for the first time in Diana Burgin's and Katherine Tiernan O'Connor's splendid English version.
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The first few chapters of this book were difficult for me to get through. With next to no biblical knowledge and new characters being introduced then whisked away every chapter, it took some careful note-taking for me to find my bearings in the book. I'm so glad I powered through - this book is incredible!
I love Bulgakov's language and I love how multi-layered this story is. There's so many different plotlines that, at the start, seem a chaotic mess, but by the end of the book have been masterfully woven together. There is so much here! The love story between Master and Margarita (mirroring the author's own relationship with his wife); the critique of the Soviet government, its corrupt bureaucracy, and its staunch atheism; the wickedly fun night-time adventures of Margarita!
I love magical realism and this book is a great example of it. It's both a means to inject more fun into a narrative (I think the devilish hijinks of the characters were my favorite part of this book), and also a powerful rhetorical tool to highlight the absurdity of reality. At first, Woland's black magic is shocking to the reader, but then we quickly acclimate to its presence and power in the novel. What starts to seem unbelievable isn't the magic itself, but the rigid and sluggish response of the Soviet government to it. A society that prided itself on rationality ties itself into knots to make the antics of Woland's crew make sense, rather than step out of the boundaries of what is permissible to think. This is why Margarita (my favorite character of this book) shines so brightly! She is one of the only characters who has to courage to say what she actually thinks and the strength to see it through. Her devotion to her freedom and her lover was so beautiful!
I love this book! I can't wait to re-read it!
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