Mikhail Bulgakov: The Master And Margarita

[Bjorn]

We've got a thread for him, but none for this book. And I had this sort-of review thingy sitting somewhere that I hadn't posted here, so...

Pleased to meet you, hope you guess my name

Jerusalem, good Friday 33 AD, around tea time. Three men are nailed to one cross each. None of them is named Bar-Abba; he's been released at the expense of the third.

Moscow, May 193X AD, dusk. Three men meet at a park bench. None of them is named Lucifer, that doesn't mean he's not around.

London, June 1968 AD, probably not very early in the morning. Three men enter a recording studio to record a new song. None of them is named Brian Jones; he's on his way to a swimming pool.

Somehow all of that happens here. And more. Bulgakov writes in two worlds at the same time; he describes how... yeah, you know who, the guy with the pointy beard and the firey eyes, turns up in Moscow.

Please allow me to introduce myself
I'm a man of wealth and taste

"Professor Woland", that's what he calls himself - his real name having been abolished by the party, which of course means he doesn't exist - and his more or less mad aides turn the well-ordered socialist paradise upside down. The result is one of the funniest and most vicious pieces of satire ever written; the forces of evil are loosed upon a society that believes that it's gotten rid of them. Lines form outside the mental hospitals, the cops don't know whom to arrest anymore and no one's safe. Every hypocrite is pulled up, roots and all, and hung out to dry. And it becomes very hard not to sympathize with... you know, the guy who's supposed to be on the wrong side.

But at the same time, Bulgakov weaves in the other story as well. The story of a lone, scrawny Hebrew with no following, no ambition to lead anyone or anything, sentenced to die by a reluctant judge at the insistance of a mysterious guest. A revolution founded on a misunderstanding, much too zealous followers and a shadow figure with a plan. And while Jeshua dies on the cross with no famous last words, Moscow descends into mass hysteria and Mick Jagger works himself all the way up into a falsettoed frenzy

Tell me baby, what's my name?
Tell me honey, can you guess my name?
Tell you one thing, you're to blame!

the boundaries between Bulgakov's worlds become undone and we meet the storyteller. The Master. The one who's behind it all - and he's just a man, like the rest of us. The book describes how it itself is burned because no one wants to publish it (it wasn't published in the Soviet union until 33 years after Bulgakov's death) but manuscripts don't burn.

No rest for the wicked. "The Master And Margarita" hasn't had an easy life. In the Soviet of the 30s the mere mention of... you know, the one on the cross and the one with the pitchfork, was too controversial. As I write this, the Russian church has condemned the new movie adaptation on the book for the same, except opposite, reasons. The book has always been fired upon from both sides.

But Bulgakov had seen trenches and purges. He knew full well that we don't need anyone with cloven hooves to excuse the evil that men do.

I shouted out "Who killed the Kennedys?!?"
When after all it was you and me...

Shortly after "The Master And Margarita" was as finished as it would ever be, Europe imploded. Somehow Bulgakov manages to capture in 376 pages everything that went and would go wrong with the 20th century; madness, paranoia, xenophobia, holier-than-thou attitudes - and he does it with equal parts poison and love. I don't know if Bulgakov himself meant that we're alone here or that we're not, and which would be the most frightening alternative. But there's some solace in the fact that in the novel, everyone lives happily ever after. Well, OK, except for the ones who die or go insane, but they never have an easy time.

Whoo Whoo! Whoo Whoo!

[nnyhav]

Wonderful book. Issues with the Englishing, though (I think I linked previously in one of the translation threads):
The Valve - A Literary Organ | Translation Wars. Once More Into the Breach Edition.

(btw Stewart, The Writer's Index misdirects to Solzhenitsyn rather than to http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/...-bulgakov.html ... pls fix when u can)

[Stewart]

(btw Stewart, The Writer's Index misdirects to Solzhenitsyn rather than to http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/...-bulgakov.html ... pls fix when u can)

Good spot. It's done.

[Eric]

Thanks, Nnyhav, for the URL from the Valve. I've printed it out to read at leisure.

[Jayaprakash]

Another fantastic review.

I first tried to read this book in the Diana Burgin and Katherine Tiernan O'Connor translation. Wikipedia will have you know that 'Several literary critics have hailed the Burgin/O?Connor translation as the most accurate and complete English translation'.

I didn't like it much. I felt I was reading an incredibly ponderous and unsubtle book, the literary equivalent of an aged uncle, dignified in appearance but already quite senile, attempting to share the potty jokes of his long gone school days, despite having forgotten most of the set-ups and punchlines. I gave up just a quarter of the way in.

However, several friends assured me that it was, in fact, a superb book. I've finally started reading the earlier Michael Glenny translation. While it may indeed miss out on nuances of language for all I know, it is still a much more readable version.

[Miriam]

Firstly I managed to read this book when I was at school, at 10th form. I was amazed. I liked it so much, that later I read it againg, then I watched the film on it two times. Now I'm reading it once again. Some mystery, good jokes and a lot of great ideas (Bulgakov managed to describe the whole russian life of that time so... bright and truely, that...) make this book wonderful. Woland... You know, I like this charachter more thant other ecause he shows everything, which happens. My favourite quotes of the book are:
"Yes, the man is mortal, but it could be jst a half of mosfortune. bad is that sometimes he is suddenly mortal, that's the joke! And he can't say, what he will do today in the evening"
"The truth is that you have a headache"
and so on...
I can say, that Bulgakov is a real hero, cuz he knew, that he was wrighting this book "into the table" (that means, it couldn't be published), but he finished it.
"Master and Margarita" takes the first place in my list of the most favourite books.

And I strongly recommend to read such his stories as "The Heart of a Dog", feuilletons, essays, "The White Guard" and ""Notes of a Young Doctor""

[titania7]

My favourite quotes of the book are:
"Yes, the man is mortal, but it could be jst a half of mosfortune. bad is that sometimes he is suddenly mortal, that's the joke! And he can't say, what he will do today in the evening"
"The truth is that you have a headache"
and so on...

Miriam,
I share your enthusiasm for Bulgakov and his ingenious work. Although I wouldn't say that The Master and Margarita is #1 favorite book, it is certainly one of them. Thank you for including those splendid quotes! Oh how I love to hear what peoples' favorite quotes from the books that are dear to them are!

Here are 3 quotes (from The Master and Margarita) that I found memorable:

"You have to admit, there are some smart people
even among the intelligentsia. . ."

"Today I'm unofficial, but tomorrow I might be official!"

"Even trifles should be remembered."


~Titania

"Dostoevsky is immortal."
~The Master and Margarita (Behemoth)

PS I keep hoping that Bulgakov had some secret
knowledge about Dostoevsky and that he was not
a mere mortal, like the rest of us. But I haven't yet
encountered anyone who resembled him (and, believe
me, I have studied photos of him well enough to
recognize a Dostoevsky lookalike if I should
come across one!)

PS That comment above is not to be taken seriously. I am not
delusional, and, even though Simone de Beauvoir painted a very
convincing portrait of an immortal in All Men Are Mortal, I understood
that it was a work of. . .ahem. . .fiction .

[Miriam]

Titania7,
I remember those quotes you've written! And do you like funny things: "There is onlyy one freshness exists - the first one and it is the last one. If the fish is of the second freshness, that means that it's rotten". And have you seen Bortko's screen version of the book? What's your attitude?
Mmm, do you believe, that Bulgakov and Dostoevsky had some kind of mysterious connection? Speaking about mortality... "Manuscpirts don't burn" and authors don't die

[Heteronym]

I finally decided to read this much praised novel, and I didn?t regret the effort. The Master and Margarita is one of the best novels I?ve ever read. In fact, it?s a novel devoted to seducing the reader, bringing him into the text without creating any hostility or barriers. Humor abounds in every page; the style is descriptive and fluid; there?s never a moment when the text tries to be clever or abstruse. It?s not just a great novel; it?s an effortless joy to read it.

The novel follows the arrival of the Devil, here called Woland, with his retinue of demons, to Russia to cause mischief and chaos. But this doesn?t say much about the novel because it is indescribable. After a hundred pages of Woland confusing the Russian intelligentsia, mocking writers and artists, the Master of the title finally appears, locked in an asylum, where he meets some of the victims Woland drove mad with his antics.

A hundred pages later we finally meet the hero ? or heroine ? of the novel ? Margarita, the faithful lover of the Master, who never lost hope of one day reuniting with him. After many chapters of nonsense, the novel begins finding a plot and Margarita accepts Woland?s offer to be his Queen during his Spring Ball, a sort of Walpurgis Night. Margarita becomes a witch and flies in a broom; in Satan?s Spring Ball she meets a cortege of historical figures. After enduring the ordeal, Woland gives her what she wants most: being with the Master again.

The plotlessness of the novel is a wonderful throwback to the dawn of the novel as a genre, when writers like Rabelais, Cervantes and Diderot were first exploring the possibilities of this new form and had their heroes going on in countless adventures without purpose or end, enjoying the fruits of chance. Like those masterpieces, The Master and Margarita is a novel that seems to have been written before the novel became a recognizable, metastasized form. Coincidences abound, characters appear and disappear for several chapters, subplots take over the action. Things don?t seem to go anywhere for a long time.

But I especially love this novel because its final purpose is correcting a grave injustice. The novel opens with a quote from Goethe?s Faust:

?? Who are you, then??
?I am part of that power which eternally wills evil and eternally works good.?

This explains Woland?s behaviour. Going against all expectations, he brings the two lovers together again in a happy ending that rather than feeling sentimental, feels like a cosmic injustice is finally being corrected.

Interspersed with this plot is a subplot about the novel the Master wrote about Jesus Christ and Pontius Pilates. The novel tells about the crisis Pilates endured after meeting Christ and how he failed to save this man he knew to be good because of cowardice. Pilates spends the rest of eternity wishing he could meet Christ again so they could continue a conversation they never finished. In the end, Margarita sets him free. It?s a second great moment in the novel.

This novel is so good, it?s really difficult to describe its beauty. It?s not just the plot, it?s also the way it?s written, every word, every sentence. It?s just a perfect text. There are so many tones in the novel: it?s funny, it?s serious, it?s poetic, it?s philosophical. The narrator is perhaps the best creation of the novel, alternating between several moods and ways of telling the story. It?s an unpredictable hymn to literary freedom, a work that celebrates the possibilities of the novel when it?s not hampered by preconceived notions.

This is a novel that looks at human existence as an inexhaustible miracle, immersing itself in the wonder, beauty, horror and absurd of mankind. It doesn?t pigeonhole its characters but lets them grow and manifest themselves in unpredictable but always familiarly human ways. And I haven?t even yet mentioned Woland?s retinue, a cast of demons with supernatural powers that ridicule everything and everyone. Azazello, Koroviev, and the incredible Behemoth, a huge black cat that walks on his hind legs, drinks vodka, plays chess and has a penchant for guns. This is literature at its best.

It?s disheartening to think that it?s only yet January and already I doubt I?ll read a better novel in 2010.

[Daniel del Real]

It?s disheartening to think that it?s only yet January and already I doubt I?ll read a better novel in 2010.

True, but again if you find three or four like this in the year, you will do a great job. Now your responsability is to be more careful to pick the rest of the year.

[beelzebubbles]

My God, a real novel!

*tears of joy run down face*

[Heteronym]

True, but again if you find three or four like this in the year, you will do a great job. Now your responsability is to be more careful to pick the rest of the year.

But that's the thing, novels like The Master and Margarita come out of the blue. It was like reading The Third Policeman last year, all of a sudden I realised I had read one of the greatest novels of the 20th century, I just wasn't expecting it.

[Daniel del Real]

But that's the thing, novels like The Master and Margarita come out of the blue. It was like reading The Third Policeman last year, all of a sudden I realised I had read one of the greatest novels of the 20th century, I just wasn't expecting it.

Sure you can. I was able to find three novels more less the same quality than The Master and Margarita last year. Ironically, when I started reading these three I never thought they'd be so great.

[Heteronym]

But that's what I mean: you never know a novel is as good as The Master and Margarita until you read it. You can't be prepared for it, there's no point looking for one, it's a matter of chance. When it comes, it's when you're least expecting it.

[learna]

The film adaptation ( the trailer):

YouTube - Master & Margarita - trailer

[lenz]

The film adaptation ( the trailer):

YouTube - Master & Margarita - trailer

I hope this film is released with English subtitles soon - I'd love to see it. There was talk in Hollywood some years ago of making a version there. I was horrified, as I was sure they'd ruin it. It simply wouldn't be understood as it is in Russia.

[Heteronym]

Roman Polanski once considered adapting the novel. He's said the script he wrote was one of his best ever.

Would it have been great? Would it have been a failure? Would Nastassja Kinski have played Margarita? Alas, we'll never know.

There was a '70s movie version of the novel, although it's not considered very good (lovely music by Ennio Morricone, though). This new version seems at least technically decent, with good special effects, which I think is a must in a novel involving flying brooms and talking, walking cats. Will it be any good? I hope I have the chance to see it to judge it

[learna]

I hope this film is released with English subtitles soon - I'd love to see it. There was talk in Hollywood some years ago of making a version there. I was horrified, as I was sure they'd ruin it. It simply wouldn't be understood as it is in Russia.

To film the novel "The Master and Margarita" is indeed a challenging task. There were several failed attempts ( really a mystic novel) and when Vladimir Bortko decided to make a film aduptation it became the most anticipated one: the promising combination of one of the great Russian film directors, who filmed "The Dog's Heart" and "Idiot", and the most famous novel by Bulgakov.
We can mark the carefully selected actors, playing with colours to accent some different moments and the music by modern composer - Korneluk but, to my mind, nevertheless there is something in this book that can not be filmed.

[DB Cooper]

So I started looking into buying this, but I had no idea there are so many different translations. Looks like Ill get either the Burgin and O'Connor or the Pevear and Volokhonsky. Can anyone comment as to which is better?

[Mirabell]

I hope this film is released with English subtitles soon - I'd love to see it.

it appears to be a TV show, if this is Bortko's version. Or rather a miniseries.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mas..._miniseries%29