Reviews with content warning for Mental illness - The Master and Margarita

I finally did it! I finished The Master and Magarita! And I don't know what to say.
I 100% understand why people love this book. It has just been extremely tedious to read and I had to motivate myself a lot to get through it all.

The first 200 pages are basically just world building/ giving the readers all the knowledge they need in order to understand and enjoy the second half. It got really boring for me to the point where I would literally fall asleep after reading 3 pages (multiple times!!). I did not enjoy the first half. There were some very funny bits but most of it was exhausting.

Minor spoilers ahead

When I got to the second half though my opinion changed completely. I still think it's funny that the main protagonist (after whom the book is named!) Only appear halfway into the book. But as soon as we got to meet Magarita I started liking the book. I really enjoyed her character and story. Also the whole Satans Ball was super fun. I also finally felt like I understood Woland and the others.

The whole becoming a witch thing was entertaining and I finally understood why you need the first half because I wouldn't have understood anything in the second part if I hadn't read the first part.

Still I think it's ridiculous that you need to get through 200 pages(!!) to get to the really good part.

I want to give this book 4 stars but I really can't so 3.5 will have to do.

Content Warnings

giuliana_ferrari's review against another edition

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challenging dark funny mysterious reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

One of those books that really makes you wish you were a Literature major so you could dissect it through your classes on Russian Lit. Although at times a bit too crazy and hard to follow, the way Bulkagov weaves his words makes the whole scenario make sense, even in the weirdest of circunstances. Definitively a book that made me binge-read it to the end, and one that makes me envious of the people that are able to experience it for the first time. Incredibly funny when considering the plot, and clearly a very intelligent sort of social humour

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bluejayreads's review against another edition

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reflective slow-paced

Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.75

Ever since I read Vita Nostra I’ve been chasing that high, looking for another book that’s a similar combination of incomprehensible and enthralling – or even a book that’s equally enthralling as that masterpiece. I picked up this book because I hoped that maybe another Russian novel about Satan’s hijinks in Moscow would be what I’ve been searching for.

It really wasn’t. It was well-written, to be sure, and interesting enough to finish, but it didn’t hold a candle to Vita Nostra. I’m not entirely sure anything will.

There isn’t a main cast in this story, unless you count Woland (the alias Satan took for his time in Moscow) and his entourage. The story follows many different characters showing all the different ways Woland and company mess with the people Moscow – usually by getting them arrested or sent to an insane asylum. It’s not entirely clear to me if Woland has a reason for being there or if he’s just there to cause chaos. I did enjoy his companions, especially the cat. They were all unique, well-drawn, and entertaining personalities.

This book wasn’t published in the author’s lifetime because the censors didn’t like its portrayal of life under the Stalinist regime. I don’t know enough about Russia, Russian culture and attitudes, and what Russia was like under Stalin to pick up on any of that. In fact, I felt like I didn’t really pick up on anything this book was trying to say. It’s one of those where I wish I had an English teacher telling me what I’m supposed to be seeing, like those magic eye pictures where it’s easier to find the hidden image if someone tells me what I’m looking for.

The plot itself is fairly comprehensible on a surface level. (The hardest part was keeping track of the names, because many of the characters had nicknames that did not at all relate to their names. There were several times where I was confused at the introduction of a new character only to realize later that I’d already met him under a different name.) I understood the what, but not the why. I can tell that there’s some other layer of meaning behind Woland tormenting Moscow, the story of the Master and his lover Margarita, and whatever Pontius Pilate had to do with anything, but I couldn’t figure out what. It was a good story, but I finished it feeling like I’d figured out what it was about but was completely missed what it means.

I enjoyed the story for itself. Once I figured out that the guy the story started with was not the actual protagonist, it was a lot of fun. But I wish I had read this in an English class or with a friend who was really into Russian literature or something, because there’s a lot more underneath the surface here that I just can’t grasp.

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franzischi's review against another edition

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funny mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

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little_librophile's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

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liaandersson's review against another edition

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adventurous funny mysterious reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? N/A
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

This book surprised me in the best of ways. although I hadn't read much about it beforehand, I presumed it would be a piece of dry Russian classical literature, and boy was I fucking wrong. This book was so goddamn funny, sarcastic, ironic, I don't even know, but it had me laughing more than I usually do when I read. Bulgakov was very clever in his way of changing the narrative, giving us the backstory from which we could see, but fellow characters could not. It felt like we always knew more than they did. The only one knowing more than us being Woland, he is almighty. I strongly recommend reading this book.

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miamcmillan's review against another edition

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dark funny mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

i loved this! it was so surreal and weird and utterly incomprehensible at times, and all the better for it. the satire is so witty and sharp and the weaving of the tone of the pontius pilate sections with those of contemporary moscow were fascinating. i also loved how the chapters were set out and particularly loved margarita and natasha’s sections - they were fascinating. also a very notable and interesting portrayal of jesus as an unintentionally influential madman; definitely provoked a lot of questions about bulgakov’s actual aims with the novels. also a very accessible classic!

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fyre_flies's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita was my choice for a book club because I'd heard loads about it. It's vivid characters and beautiful descriptions captured my attention and I was intrigued.

Written between the 1920s and 40s, this classic was published posthumously due to the strict censorship of Soviet Russia.

The story follows the devil, Woland, and his peculiar entourage, which includes an enormous talking cat with a penchant for vodka and ill timed humor, in a visit to Russia.

Bukgakov combines supernatural elements with a layer of dark comedy and satire, flawlessly them playing off each other. The eponymous characters, however, only come into play in the latter half of the narrative after Margarita brokers a deal to be host, "Queen Margot", at the Devil's Ball in return for finding her missing lover - the unnamed Master, who has written an interesting tale of the history of Pontius Pilot...

Here is a very quick review:
The characters were vibrant, the descriptions magnificent and the action and dialogue was well constructed but the flow was bitty and all over the place. It appeared to me more like a set of short stories about the devil making trouble in numerous hilarious, satirical and at times serious ways. The ending too, felt a little underwhelming to me.

I also believe that readability and, in turn, enjoyability for this work depends a great deal on the translation and the format you read it in. I struggled through sections when reading certain translations but thoroughly enjoyed the audiobook experience (the one I chose was a Naxos edition read by Julian Rhind-Tutt which I really recommend).

Due to this, it didn't get my highest review, but it has definitely made me interested in reading more of Bulgakov's works in the future. I really enjoyed how he managed to blend humour with serious subjects in a way that doesn't clash and doesn't take away from the importance of the subject he is discussing.

Read if you like slow-paced yet action filled stories that are slightly wacky and very satirical, with sprinklings of seriousness and humour. It is literally the definition of a wild ride.

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