The Master And Margarita

By (author) Bulgakov Mikhail; Introduction by Self Will; Translated by Glenny Michael
Short description/annotation:

Bulgakov paints an excellent picture of Stalin’s regime in this allegorical masterpiece.

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY WILL SELF

The devil makes a personal appearance in Moscow accompanied by various demons, including a naked girl and a huge black cat.

Description:

In Moscow, truth needs a little help from the devil.

In Bulgakov’s allegorical masterpiece of Stalin’s regime, the devil is making a personal appearance in Moscow.

He is accompanied by a strange retinue of demons, including a naked girl and a huge black cat. As they move through the city, order gives way to chaos: the asylums fill, officials lose control and the forces of law are left bewildered.

At the centre of the novel are the Master, a writer devoted to truth, and Margarita, the woman who loves him. Against the absurdity, terror and moral compromise around them, their loyalty becomes one of the few powers able to answer the devil’s onslaught.

Behind the demonic spectacle is a novel about what survives when public life is ruled by fear. Bulgakov writes with dazzling comic freedom, but his deepest concern is serious: the courage to love, to imagine and to tell the truth.

TRANSLATED BY MICHAEL GLENNY, INTRODUCED BY WILL SELF

‘Stunning, superb...Bulgakov is one of the greatest Russian writers, perhaps the greatest’ Independent

‘A masterpiece – a classic of twentieth-century fiction’ New York Times

Review quote:
This book is absorbing, brilliant slapstick, and looks deep in to the heart of fantasy and longing
Review quote:
Stunning, superb...Bulgakov is one of the greatest Russian writers, perhaps the greatest
Biographical note:
Mikhail Bulgakov (1891 - 1940) was born and educated in Kiev where he graduated as a doctor in 1916. He rapidly abandoned medicine to write some of the greatest Russian literature of this century. After a lifetime at odds with the stultifying Soviet regime, he died impoverished and blind in 1940, shortly after completing his masterpiece, The Master and Margarita. None of his major fiction was published during his lifetime.
Promotional headline:
''A masterpiece - a classic of twentieth-century fiction'' New York Times