The Master and Margarita

The Master and Margarita  
Recent English paperback edition
The cover of the 2001 Penguin paperback edition features the painting An Englishman in Moscow by Kazimir Malevich.
Author Mikhail Bulgakov
Original title Мастер и Маргарита
Country Soviet Union
Language Russian
Genre(s) Novel
Publisher Posev
Publication date 1966–1967 (in series) & 1967 (in single volume)
Published in
English		 1967
Media type Print (Hardback & Paperback)
ISBN ISBN 0-14-118014-5 (Penguin paperback)
OCLC Number 37156277

The Master and Margarita (Russian: Ма́стер и Маргари́та) is a novel by Mikhail Bulgakov, woven around the premise of a visit by the Devil to the fervently atheistic Soviet Union. Many critics[1] consider the book to be one of the greatest novels of the 20th century, as well as one of the foremost Soviet satires, directed against a suffocatingly bureaucratic social order.

Contents

History

Bulgakov started writing the novel in 1928. He burnt the first manuscript of the novel in 1930, seeing no future as a writer in the Soviet Union.[2] The work was restarted in 1931 and in 1935 Bulgakov attended the Spring Festival at Spaso House, a party said to have inspired the ball of the novel.[3] The second draft was completed in 1936 by which point all the major plot lines of the final version were in place. The third draft was finished in 1937. Bulgakov continued to polish the work with the aid of his wife, but was forced to stop work on the fourth version four weeks before his death in 1940.

A censored version (12% of the text removed and still more changed) of the book was first published in Moscow magazine (no. 11, 1966 and no. 1, 1967).[4] The text of all the omitted and changed parts, with indications of the places of modification, was published on a samizdat basis. In 1967 the publisher Posev (Frankfurt) printed a version produced with the aid of these inserts.

In Russia, the first complete version, prepared by Anna Saakyants, was published by Khudozhestvennaya Literatura in 1973, based on the version of the beginning of 1940 proofread by the publisher. This version remained the canonical edition until 1989, when the last version was prepared by literature expert Lidiya Yanovskaya based on all available manuscripts.

Plot summary

The novel alternates among three settings. The first is 1930s Moscow, which is visited by Satan in the guise of Woland or Voland (Воланд), a mysterious gentleman "magician" of uncertain origin, who arrives with a retinue that includes the grotesquely dressed "ex-choirmaster" valet Koroviev (Fagotto) (Фагот, the name means "bassoon" in Russian and some other languages), a mischievous, gun-happy, fast-talking black cat Behemoth (Бегемот, a subversive Puss in Boots, the name referring at once to the Biblical monster and the Russian word for Hippopotamus), the fanged hitman Azazello (Азазелло, hinting of Azazel), the pale-faced Abadonna (Абадонна, a reference to Abaddon) with a death-inflicting stare, and the witch Hella (Гелла). The havoc wreaked by this group targets the literary elite, along with its trade union, MASSOLIT (a Soviet-style abbreviation for "Moscow Association of Writers", Московская ассоциация литераторов, but possibly interpretable as "Literature for the Masses"; one translation of the book also mentions that this could be a play on words in Russian, which could be translated into English as something like "LOTSALIT"), its privileged HQ Griboyedov's House, corrupt social-climbers and their women (wives and mistresses alike) – bureaucrats and profiteers – and, more generally, skeptical unbelievers in the human spirit.

The opening sequence of the book presents a direct confrontation between the unbelieving head of the literary bureaucracy, Berlioz (Берлиоз), and an urbane foreign gentleman who defends belief and reveals his prophetic powers (Woland). Berlioz brushes the prophecy of his death off, only to have it come true just pages later in the novel. This fulfillment of a death prophecy is witnessed by a young and enthusiastically modern poet, Ivan Ponyrev, who writes his poems under the alias Bezdomniy (Иван Бездомный – the name means "Homeless"). His futile attempt to chase and capture the "gang" and warn of their evil and mysterious nature lands Ivan in a lunatic asylum. Here we are introduced to The Master, an embittered author, the petty-minded rejection of whose historical novel about Pontius Pilate and Christ has led him to such despair that he burns his manuscript and turns his back on the "real" world, including his devoted lover, Margarita (Маргарита). Major episodes in the first part of the novel include Satan's magic show at the Variety Theatre, satirizing the vanity, greed and gullibility of the new rich; and the capture and occupation of Berlioz's apartment by Woland and his gang.

Part 2 introduces Margarita, the Master's mistress, who refuses to despair of her lover or his work. She is invited to the Devil's Walpurgis Night midnight ball, then made an offer by Satan (Woland), and accepts it, becoming a witch with supernatural powers. This coincides with the night of Good Friday, linking all three elements of the book together, since the Master's novel also deals with this same spring full moon when Christ's fate is sealed by Pontius Pilate and he is crucified in Jerusalem.

The second setting is the Jerusalem of Pontius Pilate, described by Woland talking to Berlioz and echoed in the pages of the Master's rejected novel, which concerns Pontius Pilate's meeting with Yeshua Ha-Nozri (Иешуа га-Ноцри, Jesus the Nazarene), his recognition of an affinity with and spiritual need for him, and his reluctant but resigned and passive handing over of him to those who wanted to kill him.

The third setting is the one to which Margarita provides a bridge. Learning to fly and control her unleashed passions (not without exacting violent retribution on the literary bureaucrats who condemned her beloved to despair), and taking her enthusiastic maid Natasha with her, she enters naked into the world of the night, flies over the deep forests and rivers of Mother Russia; bathes, and, cleansed, returns to Moscow as the anointed hostess for Satan's great Spring Ball. Standing by his side, she welcomes the dark celebrities of human history as they pour up from the opened maw of Hell.

She survives this ordeal without breaking, and for her pains and her integrity she is rewarded; Satan offers to grant Margarita her deepest wish. She selflessly chooses to liberate a woman she has met from her torment, instead of asking for anything for herself. The woman had suffocated her child by stuffing a handkerchief in its mouth, and now she must wake up every morning to find the same handkerchief lying on her nightstand. This characterizes Margarita very nicely—though we fully expect her to ask to be reunited with the Master, something we crave to happen, she instead asks for someone she has just met to be liberated from their eternal torment. Satan offers her another wish after he fulfills the first, showing a compassionate and decidedly non-manipulative devil that is at odds with what we perhaps expect. For her second wish, she chooses to liberate the Master and live in poverty and love with him. However, neither Woland nor Yeshua thinks this is a kind of life for good people, and the couple leaves Moscow with the Devil, as its cupolas and windows burn in the setting sun of Easter Saturday. The Master and Margarita leave and as a reward for not having lost their faith they are granted "peace" but are denied "light" -- that is, they will spend eternity together in a shadowy yet pleasant region similar to Dante's depiction of Limbo, having not earned the glories of Heaven, but not deserving the punishments of Hell.

Bulgakov Museum in Moscow

Bulgakov Museum in Moscow

Bulgakov's old flat, in which parts of The Master and Margarita are set, has since the 1980s become a gathering spot for Bulgakov's fans, as well as Moscow-based Satanist groups, and had various kinds of graffiti scrawled on the walls. The numerous paintings, quips, and drawings were completely whitewashed in 2003. Previously the best drawings were kept as the walls were repainted, so that several layers of different colored paints could be seen around the best drawings. The building's residents, in an attempt to deter loitering, have turned the flat into a museum of Bulgakov's life and works.[5]

On December 22, 2006, the museum in Bulgakov's flat was damaged by an anti-satanist protester and disgruntled neighbor, Alexander Morozov.[6][7]

The Bulgakov museum in Moscow remains open and contains personal belongings, photos, and several exhibitions related to Bulgakov's life and his different works. There is a museum and different poetic and literary events are often held in the flat. The museum's web site is only available in Russian but the entrance is free and its opening hours are 1 p.m. - 7 p.m. The flat is located close to Mayakovskaya metro station on the Sadovaya street, 10.

Major characters in The Master and Margarita

Contemporary Russians

The Master
An author who has written a novel about the meeting of Pontius Pilate and Yeshua Ha-Nozri (Jesus of Nazareth). Put away in a psychiatric clinic, where Bezdomny meets him. Very little is known about this character's past other than that he had no point in his life until he finally met Margarita.
Margarita
The Master's lover. Trapped in a passionless marriage; devoted herself to The Master, who she believes is dead. Does not appear until second half of the novel, where she serves as the hostess of Satan's Grand Ball on Walpurgis Night. She is named after Goethe's Faust's Gretchen – whose real name is Margarita – as well as Marguerite de Valois. Marguerite was the main character in an opera, Les Huguenots by Giacomo Meyerbeer which Bulgakov particularly enjoyed, and a novel by Alexandre Dumas, père, La Reine Margot. In these accounts the queen is portrayed as daring and passionate. The character was also inspired by Bulgakov's last two wives, the first of whom loved action and was physically daring, while the last was devoted to his work in the same way as Margarita is to the Master.
Mikhail Alexandrovich Berlioz
Head of the literary bureaucracy MASSOLIT, sentenced by Woland to death for his atheistic sentiment. He bears the last name of the French composer, Hector Berlioz who wrote the opera the Damnation of Faust. Got hit by a streetcar, as Woland predicted - got his 'head being severed by women'.
Ivan Nikolayevich Ponyryov (Bezdomny)
A young, aspiring poet. His pen name Bezdomny means "homeless". Initially a willing tool of the MASSOLIT apparatus, he is transformed by the events of the novel. Witnesses Berlioz's death and nearly goes mad, but later meets The Master in asylum and decides to cease his atheistic poetry once and for all.
Stephan Bogdanovich Likhodeyev
Director of the Variety Theatre and Berlioz's roommate. Often called by diminutive name Styopa. For his dishonest deeds, was thrown to Yalta by Behemoth without anything in order to free apartments for Woland.
Grigory Danilovich Rimsky
Treasurer of the Variety Theatre. At one point, Rimsky is ambushed by Varenukha (who has been cursed with the dark form of a vampire by Woland's order). He barely escapes the encounter and he is forced to flee to the train station to get away. The night of Woland's performance is the same night that Rimsky and vampires meet.
Ivan Savelyevich Varenukha
House-manager of the Variety Theatre. He is turned into a creature of darkness but is forgiven by the end of Walpurgisnacht - restoring his humanity.
Natasha
Margarita's young maid, later turned into a witch.
Nikanor Ivanovich Bosoy
Chairman of the House Committee at 302B Sadovaya Street (former residence of Berlioz). For his greed and trickery, was deceived by Koroviev and later arrested.

Woland and his retinue

Woland
A "foreign professor" who is "in Moscow to present a performance of 'black magic' and then expose its machinations". The exposure (as one could guess) never occurs, instead Woland exposes the greed and bourgeois behaviour of the spectators themselves. Satan in disguise.
Behemoth, Kiev, Andriyivskyy Descent
Behemoth
An enormous (said to be as large as a hog) black cat, capable of standing on two legs and talking. He has a penchant for chess, vodka and pistols. In Russian, "Begemot". The word itself means hippopotamus in Russian as well as the Biblical creature. A demon in disguise, able to take human form for short time.
Koroviev/Fagotto
A purported "ex-choirmaster"; this may imply that Koroviev was once a member of an angelic choir. Woland's assistant, capable of creating any illusions. Unlike Behemoth and Azazello, does not use violence at any point.
Azazello
A menacing, fanged and wall-eyed member of Woland's retinue, a messenger and assassin, may be one of the horsemen of the Apocalypse. Possible reference to Azazel. In the Old Testament apocryphal Book of Enoch 8:1-3, Azazel is the fallen angel who taught people to make weapons and jewelry, and taught women the "sinful art" of painting their faces. This explains Azazello giving Margarita the magical cream.
Hella
Beautiful, redheaded succubus. Serves as maid to Woland and his retinue. Remarked as being "perfect, were it not for a purple scar on her neck" – the scar suggesting that she is also a vampiress.
Abadonna
The pale-faced, black-goggled angel of death.

Characters from The Master's novel

Pontius Pilate
The Roman Procurator of Judaea, a procurator in this case being a governor of a small province.
Yeshua Ha-Nozri
Wanderer, "mad philosopher", as Pilate calls him, whose name means Jesus the Christian in Hebrew, or alternatively "Jesus of Nazareth", though some commentators dispute the "of Nazareth" interpretation.[8]
Aphranius
Head Of the Roman Secret Service in Judaea.
Levi Matvei
A Levite, former tax collector, follower of Yeshua, and author of the Gospel of St. Matthew. Although introduced as a semi-fictionalized character in the Master's novel, towards the end of The Master and Margarita the "real" Matthew makes a personal appearance in Moscow to deliver a message from Yeshua to Woland.
Joseph Kaifa
The High Priest of Judaea
Judah of Kiriaf
Testified against Yeshua thus causing him to be sentenced to death; later killed on Pilate's orders.

Themes and imagery

Ultimately, the novel deals with the interplay of good and evil, innocence and guilt, courage and cowardice, exploring such issues as the responsibility towards truth when authority would deny it, and the freedom of the spirit in an unfree world. Love and sensuality are also dominant themes in the novel. Margarita's devotional love for the Master leads her to leave her husband, but she emerges victorious. Her spiritual union with the Master is also a sexual one. The novel is a riot of sensual impressions, but the emptiness of sensual gratification without love is emphatically illustrated in the satirical passages. However, the stupidity of rejecting sensuality for the sake of empty respectability is also pilloried in the figure of the neighbour who becomes Natasha's hog-broomstick. The interplay of fire, water, destruction and other natural forces provides a constant accompaniment to the events of the novel, as do light and darkness, noise and silence, sun and moon, storms and tranquility, and other powerful polarities. There is a complex relationship between Jerusalem and Moscow throughout the novel, sometimes polyphony, sometimes counterpoint.

The novel is heavily influenced by Goethe's Faust, and its themes of cowardice, trust, intellectual curiosity, and redemption are prominent. Part of its literary brilliance lies in the different levels on which it can be read, as hilarious slapstick, deep philosophical allegory, and biting socio-political satire critical of not just the Soviet system but also the superficiality and vanity of modern life in general – jazz is a favourite target, ambivalent like so much else in the book in the fascination and revulsion with which it is presented. But the novel is also full of modern amenities like the model asylum, radio, street and shopping lights, cars, lorries, trams, and air travel. There is little evident nostalgia for any "good old days" – in fact, the only figure in the book to even mention Tsarist Russia is Satan himself. In another of its facets, perhaps showing a different aspect of Goethe's influence, the book is a Bildungsroman with Ivan as its focus. Furthermore, there are strong elements of Magical Realism in the novel.

A memorable and much-quoted line in The Master and Margarita is: "manuscripts don't burn" (Russian: рукописи не горят). The Master is a writer who is plagued by both his own mental problems and the oppression of Stalin's regime in the Moscow of the 1930s. He burns his treasured manuscript in an effort to hide it from the Soviet authorities and cleanse his own mind from the troubles the work has brought him. Woland later gives the manuscript back to him saying, "Didn't you know that manuscripts don't burn?" There is an autobiographical element reflected in the Master's character here, as Bulgakov in fact burned an early copy of 'The Master and Margarita' for much the same reasons.

Allusions and references to other works

The novel is influenced by the Faust legend, particularly the first part of the Goethe interpretation and the opera by Charles Gounod. The work of Nikolai Gogol is also a heavy influence, as is the case with many of Bulgakov's novels. The dialogue between Pontius Pilate and Yeshua Ha-Nozri is strongly influenced by Fyodor Dostoyevsky's parable "The Grand Inquisitor" from The Brothers Karamazov. [9] The novel references Tolstoy's Anna Karenina in the luckless visitors chapter "everything became jumbled in the Oblonsky household". The theme of the Devil exposing society as an apartment block, as it could be seen if the entire facade would be removed, has some precedents in El Diablo cojuelo (1641, "The Lame Devil" or "The Crippled Devil") by the Spaniard Luís Vélez de Guevara (famously adapted to 18th century France by Lesage's 1707 Le Diable boiteux(fr)).

Textual note

The final chapters are late drafts that Bulgakov pasted to the back of his manuscript; he died before he could incorporate these chapters into a completed fourth draft.

English translations

There are quite a few published English translations of The Master and Margarita, including but not limited to the following:

Ginsburg's translation was from a censored Soviet text and is therefore incomplete.

The early translation by Glenny runs more smoothly than that of the modern translations; some Russian-speaking readers consider it to be the only one creating the desired effect, though it may be somewhat at liberty with the text.[10] The modern translators pay for their attempted closeness by losing idiomatic flow.

However, according to Kevin Moss, who has at least two published papers on the book in literary journals, the early translations by Ginsburg and Glenny are quite hurried and lack much critical depth.[11] As an example, he claims that the more idiomatic translations miss Bulgakov's "crucial" reference to the devil in Berlioz's thought:

Several literary critics have hailed the Burgin/Tiernan O’Connor translation as the most accurate and complete English translation, particularly when read in tandem with the matching annotations by Bulgakov's biographer, Ellendea Proffer.[12] Note that these judgements predate the translation by Pevear and Volokhonsky.

Limited information is available, at the time of this writing, regarding the 2006 Karpelson translation.

The new graphic novel published by British publishing house Self Made Hero, adapted by Andrzej Klimowski and Danusia Schejbal, provides a fresh visual translation/interpretation of the original.

Allusions and references from other works

Various authors and musicians have credited The Master and Margarita as inspiration for certain works.

Film, TV, theatrical, and graphic novel adaptations

Footnotes

  1. ↑ The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB
  2. ↑ Neil Cornwell, Nicole Christian (1998). Reference guide to Russian literature. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 9781884964107. http://books.google.com/?id=ehaZrlRY_YgC&pg=RA1-PA102&dq=master+and+margarita+burned+1930. 
  3. ↑ Spaso House: 75 Years of History, U.S. Embassy Moscow website
  4. ↑ "Master: Russian Editions". http://cr.middlebury.edu/public/russian/Bulgakov/public_html/RUeditions.html. Retrieved 2007-01-23. 
  5. ↑ Stephen, Chris. "Devil-worshippers target famous writer's Moscow flat". The Irish Times, Saturday, February 5, 2005. Page 9.
  6. ↑ Bulgakov house destroyed, 2006-12-24
  7. ↑ Alexander Alexandrovich Morozov
  8. ↑ Yeshua Ha-Notsri, Kevin Moss
  9. ↑ Susan Amert (2002) (PDF). The Dialectics of Closure in Bulgakov's Master and Margarita. http://www.masterandmargarita.eu/archieven/endings.pdf. Retrieved 2009-03-23. 
  10. ↑ Sarvas, Mark. "The Elegant Variation: A Literary Weblog". http://marksarvas.blogs.com/elegvar/2003/12/master_margarit.html. Retrieved 2006-10-25. 
  11. ↑ Moss, Kevin. "Published English Translations". http://cr.middlebury.edu/public/russian/Bulgakov/public_html/Engeditions.html. Retrieved 2006-10-25. 
  12. ↑ Weeks, Laura D. (1996). Master and Margarita: A Critical Companion. Northwestern University Press. pp. 244. ISBN 0-8101-1212-4. 
  13. ↑ Cruickshank, Douglas. "Sympathy for the Devil"
  14. ↑ Garbarini, Vic. "All For One: Pearl Jam Yield to the Notion That United They Stand and Divided They Fall". Guitar World. March 1998.
  15. ↑ http://www.hrgiger.com/music/covers.htm
  16. ↑ Pilatus und andere – Ein Film für Karfreitag at the Internet Movie Database
  17. ↑ Il maestro e Margherita (1972) at the Internet Movie Database
  18. ↑ The Cambridge Guide to World Theatre, edited by Martin Banham (CUP 1988)
  19. ↑ Romania on Line - Cătălina Buzoianu
  20. ↑ Ştefan Iordache
  21. ↑ Valeria Seciu
  22. ↑ Dan Condurache
  23. ↑ Mitică Popescu.
  24. ↑ Gheorghe Visu
  25. ↑ Sorin Medeleni
  26. ↑ "Mistrz i Malgorzata" (1990) at the Internet Movie Database
  27. ↑ Theatre Record Index 1992
  28. ↑ Master i Margarita (1994) at the Internet Movie Database
  29. ↑ [1] (Use the Archive link on the left at the above site to access information for 2002 issues.)
  30. ↑ Review by John Thaxter for What's On (London, 11 August 2004)
  31. ↑ Minogue, Kenneth (August 23, 2004). "Bulgakov's Master and Margarita at the Chichester Festival". Social Affairs Unit. http://www.socialaffairsunit.org.uk/blog/archives/000151.php. Retrieved 17 July 2010. 
  32. ↑ Theatre Record Index 2004
  33. ↑ Andrew Lloyd Webber (2006-08-25). "Revealed: My next project!". http://www.andrewlloydwebber.com/sections/news/newsdb.php?article=13&section=news. Retrieved 2007-01-23. 
  34. ↑ "United state Copyright Office. Kouliev Alim. Master and Margarita. K.PAu003336612". USA copyright office f. http://cocatalog.loc.gov/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?Search_Arg=Kouliev+Alim&Search_Code=NALL&PID=YO70B7Xb8HsCujan8D5YNdq6p&SEQ=20091010161310&CNT=25&HIST. Retrieved 2009-10-10. 
  35. ↑ "The Master and Margarita Project.". masterandmargarita.org. http://www.masterandmargarita.org/. Retrieved 2009-10-10. 
  36. ↑ "The Devil World in The City of Angels" (in Russian). stihi.ru. http://www.stihi.ru/2009/04/07/7575. Retrieved October 10, 2009. 
  37. ↑ "Mästren och Margarita av Michail Bulgakov" (in Swedish). Stockholm City Theatre. http://www.stadsteatern.stockholm.se/index.asp?pjaser/mastaren.asp&main. Retrieved 17 July 2010. 
  38. ↑ Mukherjee, Neel (2008-05-09). "The Master and Margarita: A graphic novel by Mikhail Bulakov". London: The Times Online. http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/fiction/article3901149.ece. Retrieved 2009-04-15. 
  39. ↑ "Master and Margarita - Pixelache 09". http://2009.pixelache.ac/projects/master-and-margarita/. Retrieved 2010-03-24. 
  40. ↑ "...and the winner is...". http://colab.ic2.utexas.edu/futureplaces/2009/10/and-the-winner-is/. Retrieved 2010-03-24. 
  41. ↑ "Video Jack - Master and Margarita". http://www.videojackstudios.com/masterandmargarita/. Retrieved 2010-03-24. 
  42. ↑ "Master and Margarita: An opera in two acts and four scenes". AlexanderGradsky.com. http://www.alexandergradsky.com/d34.shtml. 
  43. ↑ "OUDS do Bulgakov Website". http://oudsdobulgakov.com/. 

References

Further reading

External links