Here we are introduced to the Master, a bitter author whose desperation over the rejection of his historical novel about Pontius Pilate and Christ has led him to burn his manuscript and turn his back on the “real” world, including his lover, Margarita. His futile attempt to hunt and capture the eccentric gang and warn of their evil and mysterious nature leads the reader to other central scenes and lands Ivan himself in a lunatic asylum. The witness to this whole episode is the poet Ivan Bezdomny, whose transformation from “modern” to “traditional” and rejection of literature unifies the narrative. The carnivalesque opening of the book presents the clash between the unbelieving head of the literary bureaucracy, Berlioz, and Woland, depicted as an urbane foreign gentleman who defends belief and reveals his prophetic powers. The havoc wreaked by this group targets the literary elite, its trade union, MASSOLIT, and its privileged residence, the Griboyedov’s house. Woland arrives with an entourage that includes a grotesquely dressed valet Fagotto, a mischievous, giant black cat Behemoth, a fanged hit man Azazello, a pale-faced Abadonna with death-inflicting gaze, and a witch Gella. It tells the events that occur during four days, beginning on a Wednesday and ending on a Saturday in May. The first is Moscow in the 1930s, a city visited by Satan/Woland, a “magician” of dubious origin. The novel alternates between three settings and storylines. The Master and Margarita is composed of two parts: 32 titled chapters and an epilogue. The (mis)alliances between the fantastic and realism, myth with accurate historical fact, theosophy with demonism, romanticism with burlesque proclaim the work’s individuality and position it among the most acclaimed novels of the 20th century. Both its form and themes define The Master and Margarita as a unique masterpiece not only in the Russian literary landscape but also in any Western world tradition ( Salman Rushdie, among others, claims its influence upon The Satanic Verses). The uncensored edition was finally published in Moscow in 1973 since then it has been assimilated by the mainstream Soviet and post-Soviet literature and its appreciation has continuously grown. In 1967 a complete version was published in France by the YMCA Press and, soon after that, publication came in Germany by Possev. In stark opposition to the Bolshevik’s cultural norms, the novel depicts the devil as the main character and revolves around the grand themes of Christianity.Ī “drawer masterpiece,” The Master and Margarita was first published long after the author’s death, between 19, yet in a highly censored form (12 percent of the text was cut by Soviet censors for references to the secret police, nudity, and coarse language). The Russian author Mikhail Bulgakov (1891–1940) wrote The Master and Margarita ( Master i Margarita) between 1928 and early 1940 in a time when the official ideology of the Soviet state was based on militant atheism and obligatory historical optimism. Analysis of Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita
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