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K**E
Read this translation for annotations only
Before you dive into this review, know this. I'm a native Russian, and a writer, and I have just completed a feat of rereading the novel in Russian and reading first Ginsburg and then Pevear & Volokhonsky translations, back to back, to compare. And Ginsburg's translation will give you the best feeling for the language, the culture, and the story. It's the bomb. This translation left me in tatters, it didn't speak to me as Bulgakov, it even impoverished his style for me. The rating you see is for the novel itself, which is the work of art. Now, to the review itself.The first time I read The Master and Margarita in Russian, it was, out of all places, in Berlin. I was a teenager, and I lived in Berlin with my father and his new wife and my half-sister, because my father was a writer and a journalist and was sent by Soviet Union to Berlin to be the correspondent for a large Russian newspaper agency. I remember reading the book so vividly, that even today every detail is etched in my brain like a colorful photograph. The soft bright chair I sat in, with my back toward the window, the book in my lap, the pages rustling, and the image of Margarita, most importantly, of her knee, the knee that's been kissed over and over and how it turned blue. And the cat, the black cat that could talk. That's all I remember, plus the feeling of fascination I got. And now, over 20 years later, I have read it again, after becoming a writer myself 2 years ago, not knowing back in my teens that I would ever write, but being struck by the genius of Bulgakov. And, my, oh my, rereading it now I understood for the first time what the book was about. I sort of thought of it as a fairy tale back in my teens, I felt something underneath it, but couldn't get it. I got it now, and I cried, I cried for Bulgakov, for his imprisonment as a writer in the country that oppressed him to the last of his days, and I cried because he refused to be broken, and because he has written a masterpiece, and I was holding it in my hands, reliving it like so many people, many many years after he died.As to the story. It's not just one story, and not even two, it's four. A story of love, and of darkness, and of life and death. There are four narratives, the love between Master and Margarita, the strange visitors and Satan who come to Moscow, the story of Moscow life itself, the city, the people, and the story of Yeshua in the ancient walls of Yershalayim. Each has its own flavor, breathes its own air, and weaves into one book that tethers on that notion that no work of art can be destroyed, "manuscripts don't burn", says Satan, and that's Bulgakov's pain, him against the system that wanted to crush him, and didn't. He escaped. The irony of the book is that, in some sense, it's autobiographical, and that makes it even more tragic. But the satire! Oh, the satire! I don't know how many times I snorted coffee and tea out of my nose, because I have this habit of drinking hot drinks while reading, curled up on the couch. So many memories burst on the scene, so many authentic Russian quirks and habits and characters, the wealth of which I have nearly forgotten over my 16 years in US, and which dazzled my mind like fireworks, albeit of course, because I was reading it in Russian, and I'm about to start reading two translations in English, one by Mirra Ginsburg, and another by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. Because, if there was ever a book worth reading 5, 10, 20 times in a row, it is The Master and Margarita by Bulgakov, his last book written over the course of 10 years, and not quite completed… he narrated changes to his wife right up to his death. No matter. It is perfect. Read it.
A**O
A Masterpiece of Russian Literature
When I think of masterpieces of Russian literature, I often think of Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace and Anna Karenina, as well as Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment, and The Brothers Karamazov. I also think of Alexander Pushkin’s epic poem Eugene Onegin, Ivan Turgenev’s A Hunter’s Sketches, Fathers and Sons, First Love and Faust, Mikhail Lermontov’s A Hero of Our Time, Anton Chekhov’s plays and short stories – “The Three Sisters,” “Uncle Vanya,” and “The Cherry Orchard” – and Nicholai Gogol’s Dead Souls. During the period of Soviet oppression, there are such writers as Boris Pasternak who wrote Dr. Zhivago, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn who wrote Cancer Ward, The Gulag Archipelago, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, August 1914, and March 1917. And then there is Mikhail Bulgakov, the author of noteworthy plays, and his masterpiece The Master and Margarita, written between 1928 and 1940, and published in 1966 and 1967.I read the Penguin Classic Deluxe Edition, translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, with an Introduction by Richard Pevear and a Foreword by Boris Fishman.You will discover that Bulgakov has infused The Master and Margarita with the political satire of the Soviet regime, and with interesting and fantastical characters. Moreover, the genre is not only political satire, but a fantasy, filled with allegories, and literary allusions.The fantasy is about the Devil (Woland) who arrives in modern-day Moscow with his henchmen – Koroviev, his valet, Azazello, his hit man, Hella, a female vampire, and Behemoth, a large black cat. They all possess supernatural powers and create chaos in their wake. Part of the chaos is slapstick comedy and quite hilarious, but other parts are quite serious, a commentary or satire on Soviet oppression, resulting in murder. For instance, the death of Mikhail Berlioz, the head of a writer’s union, after meeting Woland at Patriarch Ponds, where they sit on a bench and converse, is unexpected. From that moment onward, the chaos becomes more profound and alarming. This is evident at Woland’s séance at the Variety Theater, the shenanigans at Berlioz’s summer restaurant – The House of Griboedov - on Griboedov Street, and at Berlioz’s apartment, number 50, on Sadovaya Street. All three are primary locations where fantastical, supernatural, and black magical phenomena take place. Especially, at Berlioz’s much sought-after apartment, where Woland and his henchmen have taken up temporary residence.Margarita enters in book two, and she is a beauty, who is more than willing to do anything for her lover, the Master, who has authored a book about Pontius Pilate, the fifth procurator of Judea, and the passion and crucifixion of Jesus (Jeshua, Ha-Nozri), on Bald Mountain (Golgotha). Throughout the book, Bulgakov returns to the Master’s story, the Pontius Pilate story, (which is a story within a story) every now and again. You will find the conversation between Jesus and Pilate to be captivating and interesting, especially if you compare them to the Gospels of Matthew, Luke, Mark, and John. The story engenders strong emotions of sadness and guilt, analogous to what the secret police, and what others, might have felt later, after the downfall of the Soviet regime.For the sake of the Master, her lover, who the authorities locked away in room 118 in a psychiatric clinic, Margarita agrees to become a witch, temporarily, and accompany Woland and his retinue to a Devilish Ball. Afterwards, Woland grants her a wish, reuniting her and her lover in their basement apartment, where he spent years earlier writing the Pontius Pilate story.As Woland and his henchmen depart Moscow, with Margarita and the Master, riding strong steeds into the moonlight, and as Pontius Pilate simultaneously walks into the moonlight in Ivan Nikolaevich’s dream, you cannot help but feel the sadness and nostalgia of the penultimate and last chapter of the book. “Forgiveness and Eternal Refuge,” and the “Epilogue” could easily bring you to tears, as if someone - the regime, Pontius Pilate - were indeed asking for forgiveness. Walking into the moonlight, Pilate says to his companion, “Gods, gods…tell me it never happened! I implore you, tell me, it never happened!” And his walking companion replies, “Well, of course it never happened…you imagined it.” He swears to it, and Pilates says, “I need nothing more,” ending the story with profound emotions of denial and guilt. And thus ends Bulgakov’s political satire and masterpiece.Mikhail Bulgakov’s novel The Master and Margarita exceeded all my expectations. You will find this book to be enlightening, educational, and entertaining. It is a masterpiece, and thus, I highly recommend this book to all readers.
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