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jennymwoo's review against another edition
4.0
This book is unlike anything I have ever read. I'm honestly not sure I understand everything, but it was a consistently entertaining and often funny read.
harryreadbook's review against another edition
5.0
This was a great book for me. The author did a great job of combining what was important to him: current events and soviet society, religion and philosophy, and past works. He does make you do a lot of work to fill in the gaps and much of the context is not easy to interpret as an american in the next century.
Most of the fun of reading this book comes from the humor and absurdity. The first few chapters were a whirlwind that got me so excited for the book, but it didn’t exactly go where I thought. The book just kind of keeps moving and doesn’t care if you’re struggling to keep up. It also makes you form the connections between all the stories going on and in the stories themselves. But, if you can form your own interpretations of the events and are happy with some ambiguity, this is an amazing book.
Most of the fun of reading this book comes from the humor and absurdity. The first few chapters were a whirlwind that got me so excited for the book, but it didn’t exactly go where I thought. The book just kind of keeps moving and doesn’t care if you’re struggling to keep up. It also makes you form the connections between all the stories going on and in the stories themselves. But, if you can form your own interpretations of the events and are happy with some ambiguity, this is an amazing book.
nkotek's review against another edition
dark
funny
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
sidharthvardhan's review against another edition
5.0
Devil
First of all it has Devil in it, he pays a visit to Russian world of vitches and vonas. Have you wondered how my many great writers are obseesed with him – Dante, Goethe, Dostoyevsky, Milton, Buglkhov, Rosa, Asimov, Mahfouz Rushdi.. I love Woland (that is Devil’s name in book) and his whole gang – his assistant Koroviev who often flirts with women but only gets Johnny-Bravo results, the walking-on-two-feet and talking large black cat Behemoth, Azazello whom I can relate to when he says:
“Punch a man on the nose, kick an old man downstairs, shoot somebody or any old thing like that, that’s my job. But argue with women in love—no thank you!”
Those characters provide such opportunities for humor that I got the idea of making a cartoon series out of their adventures, I even thought of a name - Wickedness Incorporated– copyright awaited.
If those were not enough, there are also in Woland’s gang - Abadonna (angel of death) and vampiress Hella who is generally naked. Incidentally there are a lot of naked women in there. Men? Nah, men are just have their heads stolen, getting murdered, going invidible etc – all for the great noble cause of humor.
Strangely, while Russians seems to have got over God when atheism became state religion, they still have no problem with swearing in Devil’s name. MB can’t get over all the possible puns when prince of darkness actually shows up.
Devil and his party brings with themselves chaos but wherever they go it is only wicked people or people with wrong sense of morality (MB’s definition) who suffer from their actions.
A Silent Protest
Mikhail Buglkhov spent 12 years writing, rewriting, improving, abandoning, returning to and at times burning ‘Master and margarita’ – add to that the lots of research that went into it. Why bother so much when he knew that he had no hope of seeing it get published (all his works were censored)? Moreover there were risks involved - merely being caught with it could have cost him his life, he worked on it till his very last days – it won’t be published for another quarter of a century after his death. The novel, so conscious of story of its own creation answers, famously ‘Manuscripts don’t burn’ Both book and author have first-hand experience in this regard – with MB having thrown in fire the first two drafts; only to return to it later and start all over again.
All MB’s works were censored, and so there was no way he could make a protest publically. He wrote it as a protest against state propaganda which denied existence of Christ – if only a mental protest.
You could expect a book written in such frustration to be full of direct attacks on Russian Government. Right? Not in this case. He refused to honor Stalin’s government and its oppression with a visible presence in the novel. Master’s (a unnamed character in a position not unlike MB) being questioned by government is simply skipped over – and only clue as to the event is a single vague sentence, so easy to ignore – was it not for the annotations. (this book can’t be fully understood without them)
Again, trial of another character is not directly described but through his dreams that night. MB refuses to acknowledge Stalin’s power just the way later’s government refuses to acknowledge historicity of Christ. The book has this whole Devil-may-care attitude (literally and figuratively) towards all that is wrong with Russia.
And yet, it is all more powerful for that. MB’s logic is simple – just the way existence of Devil proves existence of God, the presence of something as oppressive as Ceasor (or Stalin) proves a creature full of love like Jesus (or Margarita).
Margarita
There is a lot infidelity in there – both in Russia and Yesushalam of Christ’s times. For MB, spiritual bond is meaningless without sensual bond. MB himself was probably loyal to his (third) wife – whom he used to call ‘My Margarita’. As I said the book is too conscious of story of its creation. It was his wife who published book after his death.
And this love and MB’s sense of gratitude sparks out of his book. You can bet that writer’s wife was involved in process of writing the way Margarita was in Master’s novel:
“We are both the victims of our mental illness, which you perhaps got for me…. Well, so we’ll bear it together.”
And again …
Master was conscious that he was risking her life “But what can be done, the one who loves must share the fate of the one he loves.”
Good and Evil
Master’s novel (contained as a side-story within M&M) is about Pontius Pilate - the guy who signed the Jesus’ death sentence. PP’s later secret acts are efforts to reconcile with his earlier cowardice in signing the deal, just MB’s secret novel was an effort to reconcile his cowardly(he might have thought so) submission to government. (Jesus’ dying words were ‘Cowardice is the most terrible of vices.”)
Jesus of Master’s novel doesn’t impress – he is a good guy with a message about loving all; but he didn’t perform miracles, had only one disciple, suffered miserably on cross and was afraid of being beaten by PP’s men.
Woland, on the other hand, is not a bad guy despite all the bad reputation. He is true to his word, is the one who returns the manuscript to Master. He is also playing fairy-god-mother to Margarita (whose story lookss like a parody of Cinderella’s – Woland instead of fairy-godmother, husband instead of step-mother, broomsticks instead of horse carts and Satan’s ball instead of king’s) Why is MB being Devil’s advocate (the puns are catchy)? According to MB, you can’t separate good from evil:
And so goodness for goodness sake, empty spirituality is ridiculed too - Margarita’s husband doesn’t like sensual pleasure and so he too suffers like only wicked people did. You might feel sorry for him – but look, what he had made of Margarita; she must choking with so much of dullness which comes goodness deprived of sensuality, and how happy and lively she was when she struck a pact with Devil and turned a witch (a witch, btw, who stops creating breaking things to comfort a weeping child) and decided to leave him. A little of evil is necessary for one to be happy:
The Fate
MB must have occilated in between different moods and different fates must have presented him in different moods. He is constantly projecting those fates on his characters. Homeless is a character in whom MB embodies the frustration and fears arising out of trying to speak truth in a hostile environment, PP was result of author’s guilt, Master was result of his hope of redemption through act of writing the novel:
.. By the end, Master was so tired of everything, he wanted for nothing but peace with Margarita by his side.
“Actually, I do happen to resemble a hallucination. Kindly note my silhouette in the moonlight." The cat climbed into the shaft of moonlight and wanted to keep talking but was asked to be quiet. "Very well, I shall be silent," he replied, "I shall be a silent hallucination.”
First of all it has Devil in it, he pays a visit to Russian world of vitches and vonas. Have you wondered how my many great writers are obseesed with him – Dante, Goethe, Dostoyevsky, Milton, Buglkhov, Rosa, Asimov, Mahfouz Rushdi.. I love Woland (that is Devil’s name in book) and his whole gang – his assistant Koroviev who often flirts with women but only gets Johnny-Bravo results, the walking-on-two-feet and talking large black cat Behemoth, Azazello whom I can relate to when he says:
“Punch a man on the nose, kick an old man downstairs, shoot somebody or any old thing like that, that’s my job. But argue with women in love—no thank you!”
Those characters provide such opportunities for humor that I got the idea of making a cartoon series out of their adventures, I even thought of a name - Wickedness Incorporated– copyright awaited.
If those were not enough, there are also in Woland’s gang - Abadonna (angel of death) and vampiress Hella who is generally naked. Incidentally there are a lot of naked women in there. Men? Nah, men are just have their heads stolen, getting murdered, going invidible etc – all for the great noble cause of humor.
Strangely, while Russians seems to have got over God when atheism became state religion, they still have no problem with swearing in Devil’s name. MB can’t get over all the possible puns when prince of darkness actually shows up.
Devil and his party brings with themselves chaos but wherever they go it is only wicked people or people with wrong sense of morality (MB’s definition) who suffer from their actions.
A Silent Protest
Mikhail Buglkhov spent 12 years writing, rewriting, improving, abandoning, returning to and at times burning ‘Master and margarita’ – add to that the lots of research that went into it. Why bother so much when he knew that he had no hope of seeing it get published (all his works were censored)? Moreover there were risks involved - merely being caught with it could have cost him his life, he worked on it till his very last days – it won’t be published for another quarter of a century after his death. The novel, so conscious of story of its own creation answers, famously ‘Manuscripts don’t burn’ Both book and author have first-hand experience in this regard – with MB having thrown in fire the first two drafts; only to return to it later and start all over again.
All MB’s works were censored, and so there was no way he could make a protest publically. He wrote it as a protest against state propaganda which denied existence of Christ – if only a mental protest.
“You think so how can you be dead?”
You could expect a book written in such frustration to be full of direct attacks on Russian Government. Right? Not in this case. He refused to honor Stalin’s government and its oppression with a visible presence in the novel. Master’s (a unnamed character in a position not unlike MB) being questioned by government is simply skipped over – and only clue as to the event is a single vague sentence, so easy to ignore – was it not for the annotations. (this book can’t be fully understood without them)
Again, trial of another character is not directly described but through his dreams that night. MB refuses to acknowledge Stalin’s power just the way later’s government refuses to acknowledge historicity of Christ. The book has this whole Devil-may-care attitude (literally and figuratively) towards all that is wrong with Russia.
And yet, it is all more powerful for that. MB’s logic is simple – just the way existence of Devil proves existence of God, the presence of something as oppressive as Ceasor (or Stalin) proves a creature full of love like Jesus (or Margarita).
Margarita
“ Who told you that there is no true, faithful, eternal love in this world! May the liar's vile tongue be cut out! Follow me, my reader, and me alone, and I will show you such a love!”
There is a lot infidelity in there – both in Russia and Yesushalam of Christ’s times. For MB, spiritual bond is meaningless without sensual bond. MB himself was probably loyal to his (third) wife – whom he used to call ‘My Margarita’. As I said the book is too conscious of story of its creation. It was his wife who published book after his death.
And this love and MB’s sense of gratitude sparks out of his book. You can bet that writer’s wife was involved in process of writing the way Margarita was in Master’s novel:
“We are both the victims of our mental illness, which you perhaps got for me…. Well, so we’ll bear it together.”
And again …
“Really, there were times when I’d begin to be jealous of it (novel) “on account of her.”
Master was conscious that he was risking her life “But what can be done, the one who loves must share the fate of the one he loves.”
Good and Evil
“Once upon a time there was a lady. She had no children, and no happiness either. And at first she cried for a long time, but then she became wicked...”
Master’s novel (contained as a side-story within M&M) is about Pontius Pilate - the guy who signed the Jesus’ death sentence. PP’s later secret acts are efforts to reconcile with his earlier cowardice in signing the deal, just MB’s secret novel was an effort to reconcile his cowardly(he might have thought so) submission to government. (Jesus’ dying words were ‘Cowardice is the most terrible of vices.”)
Jesus of Master’s novel doesn’t impress – he is a good guy with a message about loving all; but he didn’t perform miracles, had only one disciple, suffered miserably on cross and was afraid of being beaten by PP’s men.
Woland, on the other hand, is not a bad guy despite all the bad reputation. He is true to his word, is the one who returns the manuscript to Master. He is also playing fairy-god-mother to Margarita (whose story lookss like a parody of Cinderella’s – Woland instead of fairy-godmother, husband instead of step-mother, broomsticks instead of horse carts and Satan’s ball instead of king’s) Why is MB being Devil’s advocate (the puns are catchy)? According to MB, you can’t separate good from evil:
“What would your good do if evil didn't exist, and what would the earth look like if all the shadows disappeared? After all, shadows are cast by things and people. Here is the shadow of my sword. But shadows also come from trees and living beings. Do you want to strip the earth of all trees and living things just because of your fantasy of enjoying naked light? You're stupid.”
And so goodness for goodness sake, empty spirituality is ridiculed too - Margarita’s husband doesn’t like sensual pleasure and so he too suffers like only wicked people did. You might feel sorry for him – but look, what he had made of Margarita; she must choking with so much of dullness which comes goodness deprived of sensuality, and how happy and lively she was when she struck a pact with Devil and turned a witch (a witch, btw, who stops creating breaking things to comfort a weeping child) and decided to leave him. A little of evil is necessary for one to be happy:
“If you ask me, something sinister lurks in men who avoid wine, games, the company of lovely women, and dinnertime conversation. Such people are either gravely ill or secretly detest everyone around them.”
The Fate
“He doesn’t deserve light, he deserves peace.”
MB must have occilated in between different moods and different fates must have presented him in different moods. He is constantly projecting those fates on his characters. Homeless is a character in whom MB embodies the frustration and fears arising out of trying to speak truth in a hostile environment, PP was result of author’s guilt, Master was result of his hope of redemption through act of writing the novel:
“Everything will turn out right, the world is built on that.”
.. By the end, Master was so tired of everything, he wanted for nothing but peace with Margarita by his side.
cosmichorrorsofmargo's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
inspiring
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
5.0
methusalah's review against another edition
It may be a great satire, but without enough context, it's just a series of nonsensical events. Amusing for a little bit, but difficult to follow and not much of a plot to carry things along
zoeyreads's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
gothhotel's review against another edition
4.0
"Manuscripts don't burn."
"Everything will turn out right. That's what the world was built on."
"He has not earned light, only peace."
70% amusing satire of Soviet society with a light comic tone, 30% aching reflection on art and the human experience. Some passages that made me stop and appreciate, though sadly not the kind of thing one can capture in a quote. The story of Pilate defies simple summary and can't be taken apart in brief, at least not by me. It's subtle and very clever, what Bulgakov does with agency, tense, detail. And the story echoes beyond itself a bit, especially towards the end, when Bulgakov was dying and knew his novel would never be published without significant censorship; the exhaustion, the quiet acceptance, the determination that it mattered - the manuscript can burn because "I remember it by heart", and "I shall never forget anything again."
Anyway, minus a star for gender politics that are tiresome and predictable, if not malicious. The restrained style doesn't lend itself to rich internality, but Margarita's almost comic-book - she's beautiful and intelligent, but frivolous, and she's utterly devoted to the Master. She's a wife, then a witch, then a wife again, and that's all women are throughout the novel. Margarita gets an intriguing moment at the ball - the episode with Frieda - where she's almost something else, resonating with Yeshua, but it goes away, and in the end she's little more than a dog.
"Everything will turn out right. That's what the world was built on."
"He has not earned light, only peace."
70% amusing satire of Soviet society with a light comic tone, 30% aching reflection on art and the human experience. Some passages that made me stop and appreciate, though sadly not the kind of thing one can capture in a quote. The story of Pilate defies simple summary and can't be taken apart in brief, at least not by me. It's subtle and very clever, what Bulgakov does with agency, tense, detail. And the story echoes beyond itself a bit, especially towards the end, when Bulgakov was dying and knew his novel would never be published without significant censorship; the exhaustion, the quiet acceptance, the determination that it mattered - the manuscript can burn because "I remember it by heart", and "I shall never forget anything again."
Anyway, minus a star for gender politics that are tiresome and predictable, if not malicious. The restrained style doesn't lend itself to rich internality, but Margarita's almost comic-book - she's beautiful and intelligent, but frivolous, and she's utterly devoted to the Master. She's a wife, then a witch, then a wife again, and that's all women are throughout the novel. Margarita gets an intriguing moment at the ball - the episode with Frieda - where she's almost something else, resonating with Yeshua, but it goes away, and in the end she's little more than a dog.
zosiagibb's review against another edition
challenging
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
I found this tough going. Some funny bits but ultimately I cared about none of the characters and most of the plot was too bizarre for my tastes.