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Underground > Books, Criticism & Writing >

The Master and Margarita: SPOILERS

19:40 / 16.03.02

by Mikhail Bulgakov.

Anyone read this? I heard of it from a friend of mine's brother in law, who told me it was the greatest book ever written.

It was pretty damn good too. Satan visits Moscow in the 1930s and plays around with everyone, mixed in with a different rendition of the trial and crucifixion of Jesus... which isvery entertaining

Interesting too, was the fact that it wasn't published until 27 years after Bulgakov died in 1940, and then only by a lapse in the censors(?)

[ 19-03-2002: Message edited by: Barry Auckland ]

Regrettable Juvenilia

23:19 / 17.03.02

I'm reading this at the moment - I seem to have been reading it forever. Anyway, almost done now. Then I will come back and make heavily spoiler-filled comments about the role of Satan as satirist (exposing human weakness and folly), and other stuff (like, why is The Master the hero of the story? what does he actully do?).

It is very, very good, by the way.

06:47 / 18.03.02

Not sure if the Master is really a hero as such... more of a plain old protagonist. Or a narrative construct - the glue holding the other elements together.

It's a wee while since I read this, but I loved it. I love the cat. The cat rules. And the opening scenes are just brilliant.

Regrettable Juvenilia

06:47 / 18.03.02

Well this is my point about the master - and notice he's the master, not the Master, eh - he's not exactly the hero, but he is introduced in a chapter entitled 'Enter The Hero', with some irony.

Finished it in the wee small hours last night. Lots of thoughts to come. First one: the relationship between whatever figure of 'God' there is or isn't in the book, and Yeshua, and Woland, and their various acolytes, is fascinating... As is the idea of there being a proper way to respond to demons/the Devil/the fantastical generally when you encounter them/him/it, in order to make sure you don't have something awful done to you...

There's probably a lot to be said about the role of women in the book too, or lack thereof (Margarita is in many ways a more central figure than the master, and certainly more purposeful, strong, useful, etc - and yet, and yet...). But in the meantime, I'll just settle for agreeing with Kit-Kat that Behemoth the cat rocks. Him and his "inseparable companion" Koroviev, the "interpreter". Someone should write some Behemoth/Koroviev slash...

06:47 / 18.03.02

quote:Originally posted by Flyboy:
and notice he's the master, not the Master, eh

How you can criticise me for doing this when you did the exact same thing in your earlier post is Beyond Me. Grrr.

I'm interested in what you think about the role of women in the book though... from what I remember (which is surprisingly little - must dig out my copy - horrid thought, I think it is is Southsea) I was surprised by the way in which Margarita, despite being as you say much more purposeful and so on than the master, is swept away by the naked witch ride part... almost as if Bulgakov is making a comment on 'woman's nature' - or am I talking rubbish?

Regrettable Juvenilia

16:10 / 18.03.02

quote:Originally posted by Kit-Cat Club:
How you can criticise me for doing this when you did the exact same thing in your earlier post is Beyond Me. Grrr.

Sorry, I wasn't even looking at your previous post or mine - I wasn't correcting you, I just suddenly realised that he's always referred to in the book with a lower case 'm'...

(I am tempted to see this as being about power relations between him and Margarita, but then that's just pervy me.)

More thoughts to come.

06:00 / 19.03.02

I think one of the greatest scenes was the restaurant manager at the end, who realizes who Behemoth and Koroviev are, gives them everything they ask for, and calmly gets his coat, some expensive food from the freezer, and waits for them to destroy the place.

I don't know if Bulgakov was commenting on women's nature with Margarita and the broom ride, but I'm awful with finding subtle meaning.

It seems that if any of the male characters were presented with this, they would end up (and did) in the mental hospital. Margarita and Natasha take full advantage, and the lower floor tenant ends the book regretting not enjoying himself as a pig and staying with the unclean powers.

15:43 / 19.03.02

Ahhh. Almost feels like home. The Master and Margarita is the best-loved novel in all of Russia, and nine out of ten will also tell you it's the best novel ever written. I shit you not.

The entire thing is a cataclysmic piss-take on the hypocrisies intrinsic to the Soviet regime. Even the 1967 version published in Russia was heavily edited. I suggest the O'Connor (?) translation...it has an excellent annotation set that really opens up the satirical elements of the novel to those who don't know the ins and outs of Soviet history. The book is great without it, but with an understanding of what Bulgakov was poking at, the book's hilarious and far more profound.

Also, try here:

Definitely the best Master and Margarita site I've ever found.

Try some of the art links, too. Very neat.

Regrettable Juvenilia

08:48 / 04.08.05

The Master and Margarita is the best-loved novel in all of Russia, and nine out of ten will also tell you it's the best novel ever written.

Nine out of ten Russians would, I increasingly find myself thinking, be entirely right. Certainly I find it hard to think of another opening two chapters or so of a novel that compare.

01:12 / 05.08.05

I take it you've finished? Did it take three years?

Regrettable Juvenilia

08:34 / 05.08.05

Hahaha. No, I finished it three years ago! I was just re-reading the first chapter or so (online, funnily enough), and felt the urge to gush. I find it very, very re-readable.

I'm using Woland as a role model for my life in many ways these days. Especially arguments. "Ah, fascinating, fascinating!", "You can tell me!", and so on.

hapax legomenon

07:55 / 09.08.05

A russian literature prof. introduced it to me as a book with something of a literary cult surrounding it. I wish I had stumbled accross it on my own. Either way, really a superb book. There's a pretty good website with lots of good resources related to the book, including annotated maps of places mentioned in the text. I read the Pevear and Volokhonsky translation (Amazon), which I found very fluid, but I noticed two other recent translations. Has anyone read more than one translation, and can compare?

12:23 / 09.08.05

I'm about halfway through the book, and loving it - thank you Barbelith!

12:31 / 11.08.05

I was half way through this thread before I realised it was three years old, which is kind of cool, because I first read it again when a very good friend gave it to me, and I just read it again when my boyfriend gave it me (first present: good taste - also liberated my old copy to be passed on...)

WRT Margarita, I've always thought - in agreement with Baz - that the ladies in the book have far more fun than anyone else, and Margarita's semi-sexual response to the broom and other witchy paraphenalia is simply exultation at the freedoms offered, which she readily accepts.

Has anyone read any other Bulgakov then?

19:34 / 11.08.05

I saw this on a table at work today, and flicked through it, making a note of title so that I could pick it up at a later date - now having read this thread, it's just bumped itself up the reading list.

03:06 / 26.12.06

RE: the master as the hero

When we're interested to him in "Enter the Hero," he is the poet's hero, isn't he? The poor poet has been arrested and sent to an asylum because nobody believes him about Woland and the cat and Pontius Pilot, and he finally meets someone who not only believes him, but knows what he's talking about.

He's also the one who wrote the book about Pontius Pilot, which is a pretty big theme in 'The Master and Margarita.' And he releases Pontius Pilot at the end and he can finally go and talk with Yesua.

Since the mater and Margarita are in the title of the book, you could also look at it as a love story, and they are the hero and heroine of the book.

The Black Sheep Girl

14:19 / 09.01.07

Hello there. I am new to this forum and totally extatic about it 'cause it is a great site indeed. I read you guys religiously and now, in the end I can take part in all your discussions which is really great.

Master and Margarita IS MY FAVOURITE BOOK EVER! I read it 3 times, even wrote some paper on it ages ago in school and I think it is a Masterpiece, with a capital M.

I couldn't put that book down once I'd started and I was reading everywhere: in the bath, on the bus, laughing like mad, people looking at me in a strange way.

Behemot and Koroviov do rule indeed, a truly explosive concoction. The knowledge about Russia's communist regime, about everyday reality and political implications does help a lot and it makes the book hilarious. I am Polish so the knowledge somehow comes naturally to me since polish and russian history shared a chapter some time ago. The book reduced me to tears but my boyfriend (British), as much as he liked it, didn't understant what it was that made me cry. And if you haven't been through it all you wouldn't know.

I have to go now but I'll be back to share some thoughts with you on that.

00:41 / 29.01.07

I just finished this on my housemate's recommendation. I was finding the first book kind of dull, not catching any Russian history references and the semi-related devil antics getting repetitive. So I was happy with the more straightforward narrative line in the second book, and amazed by the last few chapters - that graceful and sublime resolution to everyone's story, as if everyone in the universe somehow does get all the justice and peace they deserve in the end.

I think I read a pretty dud translation, though. The writing itself seemed uninspired.

17:36 / 03.02.07

i've had this recommended many times, and am just hesitating because i've heard a lot of conflicting opinions about the recent translations. which translations would y'all recommend?

15:34 / 07.02.07

I've read it in two (English) translations: the 1968 Grove edition, translated by Mirra Ginsburg and the mid- or late-1990s Penguin edition, translated by I forget who. The latter is more complete, since it has the chapter with the game-show-like denunciation of hard-currency hoarders, found only a few years ago, but I like the earlier version. Mirra Ginsburg left in trade names like the lemon drink in the first chapter, and other bits of local color, and I thought it sounded more rough-and-ready, vernacular.

Hoilly Prat, Amazon inexplicably carries an excellent Polish TV miniseries, from 1988, of the 1968 version of the book. It's VHS, NTSC (US) only. Apparently, the actor playing Woland had, at the time of the filming recently "rehabilitated" from political disgrace. Obviously it doesn't have a lot of special effects, but it's well-done and well-acted.

Last year Russian TV did a 10-part miniseries of the book. I'd heard somewhere that Russian fans of the book hated the miniseries, but it looked ok to me (I downloaded it). I can't understand much Russian, but remember enough of the story to follow along (and blow past the theological exchanges between Jesus and Pilate). The witches' sabbat scene looked fantastic.

01:47 / 06.03.07

There exists an online version from the 1997 Penguin Books edition, translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky.

However the idea of reading a book from the screen isn't that inviting. I suspect something may happen to my brain.

A book it is for me then.

MattShepherd: I WEDDED KALI!

14:56 / 02.10.07

I just finished it last night, and I have to confess... I didn't feel like I "got" it. That may be because I read it over a period of time with weeks going by between picking it up, or maybe a lot of the brilliance flew right by me because I'm a bit thick, or... not sure what else, really.

I really enjoyed it -- it reminded me of Twin Peaks in a really bizarre way, the blend of the fantastical and the mundane and the way that you can step from one world to the next without being entirely aware and without batting an eyelash -- but I really felt the whole time that there were things twining frustratingly just beneath the surface that I wasn't quite piecing together.

I'll probably read it again, but let it sit for a couple of months first. I'm never sure if I should read ABOUT these novels before I take a second run at them -- I'm the same way about Don DeLillo -- worried that what I'm told about the book will inform my second read too much and it'll feel like, well, cheating isn't the right word, but like I'm reading to conform to what I've read about what I'm reading.