The Master and Margarita: Introduction by Simon Franklin (Everyman's Library Contemporary Classics) - Hardcover

Bulgakov, Mikhail

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0679410465 ISBN 13: 9780679410461

Publisher: Everyman's Library, 1992

Synopsis

An audacious revision of the stories of Faust and Pontius Pilate, The Master and Margarita is recognized as one of the essential classics of modern Russian literature. The novel's vision of Soviet life in the 1930s is so ferociously accurate that it could not be published during its author's lifetime and appeared only in a censored edition in the 1960s. Its truths are so enduring that its language has become part of the common Russian speech. One hot spring, the devil arrives in Moscow, accompanied by a retinue that includes a beautiful naked witch and an immense talking black cat with a fondness for chess and vodka. The visitors quickly wreak havoc in a city that refuses to believe in either God or Satan. But they also bring peace to two unhappy Muscovites: one is the Master, a writer pilloried for daring to write a novel about Christ and Pontius Pilate; the other is Margarita, who loves the Master so deeply that she is willing literally to go to hell for him. What ensues is a novel of inexhaustible energy, humor, and philosophical depth, a work whose nuances emerge for the first time in Diana Burgin's and Katherine Tiernan O'Connor's splendid English version.

About this title

Review:

"One of the truly great Russian novels of [the twentieth] century." --NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW"The book is by turns hilarious, mysterious, contemplative, and poignant . . . A great work."--CHICAGO TRIBUNE"Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita is a soaring, dazzling novel; an extraordinary fusion of wildly disparate elements. It is a concerto played simultaneously on the organ, the bagpipes, and a pennywhistle, while someone sets off fireworks between the players' feet."--NEW YORK TIMES"Fine, funny, imaginative . . . The Master and Margarita stands squarely in the great Gogolesque tradition of satiric narrative."--NEWSWEEK "A wild surrealistic romp . . . Brilliantly flamboyant and outrageous."--Joyce Carol Oates"Sparkling, enchanting, funny, deeply serious and sometimes baffling . . . [The Master and Margarita is] a liberating, exuberant social and political satire combined with a profound moral and political allegory . . . A bravura performance of truly heroic virtuosity, a carnival of the imagination." --from the Introduction by Simon Franklin

From the Publisher:

New translation and commentary of Russian classic
A literary sensation from its original publication, this is a fully annotated translation of the most complete text of The Master and Margarita. Bulgakov's novel is now considered one of the seminal works of twentieth-century Russian literature.In this imaginative extravanganza the Devil, disguised as a magician, descends upon Moscow in the 1930s with his riotous band, which includes a talking cat and an expert assassin. Together they succeed in comically befuddling a population which denies the Devil's existence, even as it is confronted with the diabolic results of a magic act gone wrong. This visit to the world capital of atheism has several aims, one of which concerns the fate of the Master, a writer who has written a novel about Pontius Pilate, and is now in a mental hospital. Margarita, the despairing and daring heroine, becomes a witch in an effort to save the Master, and agrees to become the Devil's hostess at his annual spring ball. "The Master and Margarita has at last been translated accurately and completely...the book is by turns hilarious, mysterious, contemplative and poignant...a great work" Chicago Tribune

About this edition

• Publisher: Everyman's Library
• Publication date: 1992
• ISBN 10: 0679410465
• ISBN 13: 9780679410461
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 488