Book Summary and Reviews of The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov

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Cathryn_Conroy

Highly Imaginative! Humorous, Thought-Provoking, and Frightening—Sometimes All at Once
This is one of the most imaginative books I have ever read. It's also humorous, thought-provoking, and frightening—sometimes all at once. It is a satire and an allegory embedded with ideas of good and evil, courage and cowardice, as well as the power that art has to not only greatly impact, but also change a society.

Most of all, it's a really, really good story.

But do get ready for a bizarre roller coaster ride of characters, including an assortment of distinctive Russian citizens; Satan and his entourage of a huge black cat and a naked woman, among others; and Pontius Pilate, Jesus, Judas, and Levi Matvei (Matthew). Don't roll your eyes at this list. It's brilliant and it works magnificently. (See Piece of Advice No. 1 below.)

Written by Mikhail Bulgakov, this is actually a novel within a novel. The character known only as the Master has written a novel about Jesus's last days but told through the point of view of Pontius Pilate, and this novel, which has been shunned by the critics much to the Master's chagrin, is interwoven into "The Master and Margarita." (In 1930s Russia in which the novel is set, it was forbidden to practice religion, and those where were open about their Christian beliefs faced grave risks, including imprisonment, forced labor, and death.)

The main story begins in Moscow on the Wednesday before Easter Sunday when two Russian gentleman—Ivan Nikolayevich Ponyryov, a poet, and Mikhail Alexandrovich Berlioz, the chairman of a prestigious literary society—are sitting on a park bench enjoying the unusually warm spring weather. Their peaceful reverie is interrupted by an unexpected and mysterious guest named Professor Woland, who predicts the violent beheading death of Berlioz. Hours later, this is exactly what happens, sending Ivan into a deep state of insanity. Woland, we readers soon realize, is the devil. Satan himself.

Woland and his bizarre and evil entourage then proceed to wreak havoc on Moscow in progressively more bizarre and highly entertaining ways. Meanwhile, the master is falling into a depression over the state of his Pontius Pilate novel, and his illicit lover—the married Margarita—is determined to make this right for him, and with the devil's help she does just that.

As Ellendea Proffer Teasley writes in the commentary, "What happens when an entire culture is forced to deny belief in God—but meets up with the devil in the flesh?"

The portrayal of life in Stalinist Russia in the 1930s is so revealing and daring that the novel, written over a 12-year period from 1928 to 1940, could not be published until 1966-1967 when it was issued serially in a deeply censored version in a Soviet magazine. The full version of the novel as Mikhail Bulgakov wrote it was finally published in 1973. Bulgakov died in 1940 when he was still editing the book; he knew it wouldn't be published until long after his death as it was so subversive and would easily have gotten him arrested.

A Piece of Advice No. 1: Go to Wikipedia and print a list of the characters to have by your side as you are reading the book. As is typical of Russian novels, there are a lot of characters, and it can be tricky keeping in mind who is who. Do beware that this list is so descriptive there are plot spoilers in it. Still, I found it indispensable.

A Piece of Advice No. 2: There are multiple versions/translations of this novel. The one I read was translated into English by Diana Burgin and Katherine Tiernan O’Connor with a commentary and afterword by Ellendea Proffer Teasley. The commentary is extensive and extremely helpful. Organized by chapter, it offers important clues and explanations of the text—what is happening and why. Bookmark it and read it along with the novel.

Fun Trivia Fact: In the movie "A Man Called Otto" (based on the Fredrik Backman book "A Man Called Ove"), Otto meets Sonya, the woman who will become his beloved wife, by retrieving a book she dropped on a train platform and then jumping onto the train to return it to her. The book? "The Master and Margarita."