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The Master and Margarita: Introduction by Simon Franklin (Everyman's Library Contemporary Classics Series) Hardcover – April 28, 1992
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The underground masterpiece of twentieth-century Russian fiction, Mikhail Bulgakov’s THE MASTER AND MARGARITA was written during Stalin’s regime and could not be published until many years after its author’s death.
When the devil arrives in 1930s Moscow, consorting with a retinue of odd associates—including a talking black cat, an assassin, and a beautiful naked witch—his antics wreak havoc among the literary elite of the world capital of atheism. Meanwhile, the Master, author of an unpublished novel about Jesus and Pontius Pilate, languishes in despair in a pyschiatric hospital, while his devoted lover, Margarita, decides to sell her soul to save him. As Bulgakov’s dazzlingly exuberant narrative weaves back and forth between Moscow and ancient Jerusalem, studded with scenes ranging from a giddy Satanic ball to the murder of Judas in Gethsemane, Margarita’s enduring love for the Master joins the strands of plot across space and time.
- Print length488 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherEveryman's Library
- Publication dateApril 28, 1992
- Dimensions5.21 x 1.18 x 8.27 inches
- ISBN-100679410465
- ISBN-13978-0679410461
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Meanwhile, a few doors down in the hospital lives the true object of Woland's visit: the author of an unpublished novel about Pontius Pilate. This Master--as he calls himself--has been driven mad by rejection, broken not only by editors' harsh criticism of his novel but, Bulgakov suggests, by political persecution as well. Yet Pilate's story becomes a kind of parallel narrative, appearing in different forms throughout Bulgakov's novel: as a manuscript read by the Master's indefatigable love, Margarita, as a scene dreamed by the poet--and fellow lunatic--Ivan Homeless, and even as a story told by Woland himself. Since we see this narrative from so many different points of view, who is truly its author? Given that the Master's novel and this one end the same way, are they in fact the same book? These are only a few of the many questions Bulgakov provokes, in a novel that reads like a set of infinitely nested Russian dolls: inside one narrative there is another, and then another, and yet another. His devil is not only entertaining, he is necessary: "What would your good be doing if there were no evil, and what would the earth look like if shadows disappeared from it?"
Unsurprisingly--in view of its frequent, scarcely disguised references to interrogation and terror--Bulgakov's masterwork was not published until 1967, almost three decades after his death. Yet one wonders if the world was really ready for this book in the late 1930s, if, indeed, we are ready for it now. Shocking, touching, and scathingly funny, it is a novel like no other. Woland may reattach heads or produce 10-ruble notes from the air, but Bulgakov proves the true magician here. The Master and Margarita is a different book each time it is opened. --Mary Park
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- Publisher : Everyman's Library (April 28, 1992)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 488 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0679410465
- ISBN-13 : 978-0679410461
- Item Weight : 1.31 pounds
- Dimensions : 5.21 x 1.18 x 8.27 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #89,758 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #915 in Fiction Satire
- #2,673 in Classic Literature & Fiction
- #6,346 in Literary Fiction (Books)
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About the author
Mikhaíl Afanasyevich Bulgakov (/bʊlˈɡɑːkəf/; Russian: Михаи́л Афана́сьевич Булга́ков, pronounced [mʲɪxɐˈil ɐfɐˈnasʲjɪvʲɪtɕ bʊlˈɡakəf]; May 15 [O.S. May 3] 1891 – March 10, 1940) was a Russian writer and playwright active in the first half of the 20th century. He is best known for his novel The Master and Margarita, which has been called one of the masterpieces of the 20th century.
Bio from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Photo by Unknown [Public domain or Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.
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Margarita calls her lover "The Master" because he has written a masterpiece book about Jesus and Pontius Pilate. This book is inside the book. Of course it is censored and the Master suffers terribly from the suppression of his book. But the Devil comes to rescue them.
Be sure to look up any words that you don't understand in order to fully appreciate what is going on.
Some mistranslations are irksome, but relatively inconsequential (i.e. mistranslating the Russian word "vanna" for "bath" as a personal name Vanna; mistranslating "apricot soda" as "apricot juice," "orderly" as "nanny," etc.). Others are outright nonsensical such as mistranslating Bozhedomka - a neighborhood in Moscow, written with the capital B because it is a proper name - as "an orphanage" (with the lower-case "o" and the indefinite article, indicating a non-specific common noun). This leads to the sentence stating that a somewhat influential wheeler-dealer pulled some strings to obtain a room for his estranged wife in an orphanage instead of stating that he pulled some strings to get her an apartment (or a room in a communal apartment - typical of the 1930s Moscow) in a neighborhood far away from where he lived. The latter makes sense. The former - placing an adult woman in an orphanage - is complete gibberish. One might wonder that it didn't strike the translator that it couldn't have possibly been what Bukgakov meant.
Some mistranslations are not bizarre, but they lead to the loss of a deeper meaning. "The daughter of a businessman" is quite different from the "daughter of a small-time merchant," which is what it says in Russian about one of the minor characters. The difference had significant social and political implications in the 1930s Russia. And a psychiatric nurse dealing with a major character is described as having an "easy and friendly manner," when in Russian she is described as having an "amusingly impudent" manner. In Russian, her patronizing behavior stuns the patient into speechlessness. In the English version, her friendliness disarms the patient and puts him at ease, and that is a distortion of what's really going on with the character.
My recommendations to those who choose the Glenny translation is to take some of the bizarreness with a grain of salt and not hold the occasional inadequacy of the translation against the book itself. For the most part, though, the translation is fluent and eloquent and is worth your time if you are interested in the brilliant Russian literature of the early 20th century.
Despite these shortcomings, after reading all four translations, I found that I enjoyed the Ginsburg translation the most. Since I do not read Russian, I based that opinion on the facts that (1) for me, it read the most smoothly, and (2) the comic passages were simply funnier in her translation (Russians, justifiably consider the novel to be a comic masterpiece). I attribute these characteristics to the Ms. Ginsburg having been born and raised in the country of Byelorussia and her being a successful writer (in English!) in her own right.
Based upon those criteria, I rank the translations as follows:
1. Mirra Ginsburg (1967) [ISBN 0802130119]. Simply the most readable. Read also her translation of "Life of a Dog."
2. Diana Burgin and Katherine O'Connor [ISBN: 0679760806]. Conveys a wonderful sense of mood, especially in the Pontius Pilate chapters.
3. Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky (1997) [ISBN: 0141180145]. I had the sense that this is the most accurate translation, but it is less literary than the two preceding choices. The comic passages simply do not come across. Pevear and Volokhonsky, a husband and wife team, are prolific translators of Russian literature. I have enjoyed several of their other translations, but this one just does not seem to work.
4. Michael Glenny (1967) [ISBN: 0679410465]. No reason to buy this one.
Having read all four, would I do it again? Absolutely! I'm convinced that this is one of the great novels of the 20th century, and with each reading I picked up subtleties that I had not noticed before.
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Reviewed in Poland on April 11, 2024
This is the most preferred translation, of course, we can't translate the whole language literally but they have tried to keep it as original as possible, also it's an uncensored version.
My favourite character, like many others, is Behemoth (the cat).....OMG 🤣🤣, his cheap jokes with bad timings will keep you engaging.
Bulgakov knew that he won't be able to publish this during his lifetime. But he continued writing it, in fact, due to frustration he burned the initial manuscripts as well. He again started writing this novel later after many years,
Bulgakov was right, Novel was never published during his lifetime. He was scared that if found by gov. he will be executed and his works will be burned, that never happened though. As Wolland says to the Master, "Manuscripts don't burn".
This extravagant Russian allegory is an adult Alice in Wonderland, bursting at the seams with mischief, darkness and rambunctiousness. The ghosts of Faust and Dante must have sat on the author's shoulders as he worked tirelessly on this masterpiece.
In short, this book was made for me! Come down from the heavens, Mikhail Bulgakov, and give me a hug, my brother from another мамочка. I'm so glad we found each other!
The Devil and his motley crew breeze into 1930s Moscow and begin to reap havoc by reading people's minds, decapitating citizens and throwing an astonishing stage show that scandalises the local glitterati. To give you some inkling of what we're dealing with here, one of Satan's sidekicks is a talking cat the size of a pig, who is always in the thick of things (Bulgakov was evidently writing magical realism before Gabriel García Márquez was even born). The humour is riotous and the badinage so hilarious that I was holding my ribs, kicking my legs and Cossack dancing around the room!
In tandem with all of this magic and mayhem (please bear with me, dear reader) is a travel back in time to the trial and eventual crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth. These subplot scenes are written in a completely different hist-fic style and are amazingly cinematic. The author's juxtaposition of the supernatural and the real is a constant stratagem throughout.
It would take me all day to discuss the symbolism that underpins this incredible book, so I won't bore you with every detail. Suffice to say that Bulgakov sets out to satirise the Stalinist regime he was oppressed by (was Orwell's Animal Farm inspired by this novel?) and the Devil is on hand to mete out an extreme brand of either punishment or reward to whoever displeases or pleases him (human cowardice is what really gets his goat).
The underlying parable jumps about all over the place – and sometimes out of windows on a broomstick! Heck, there is even a Magritte-style talking suit! I'd be lying if I said I'd grasped the significance of all of the author's philosophical analogies, but I certainly had a lot of fun trying.
I loved this book; really loved it. And it's incredible to think that The Master and Margarita was fashioned in the 1920s. It was years ahead of its time and is like no other novel I've ever read.
Clearly, this book wouldn't be for everyone, but if you like your literature dark, magical, intellectual, thought-provoking and absurd, then you should find room for it on your shelves.