The Master and Margarita - MXHDR BookWyrm

Paperback

English language

Published Feb. 27, 2010 by Picador.

ISBN:: 978-0-330-54393-4
OCLC Number:: 806477414

(1 review)

This is a fully annotated translation of the most complete text of Bulgakov's exuberant comic masterpiece.

A literary sensation from its first publication, The Master and Margarita has become an astonishing publishing phenomenon in Russia and has been translated into more than twenty languages, and made into plays and films. Mikhail Bulgakov's novel is now considered one of the seminal works of twentieth-century Russian literature. In this imaginative extravaganza 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 …

This is a fully annotated translation of the most complete text of Bulgakov's exuberant comic masterpiece.

A literary sensation from its first publication, The Master and Margarita has become an astonishing publishing phenomenon in Russia and has been translated into more than twenty languages, and made into plays and films. Mikhail Bulgakov's novel is now considered one of the seminal works of twentieth-century Russian literature. In this imaginative extravaganza 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.

By turns acidly satiric, fantastic and ironically philosophical, this work constantly surprises and entertains, as the action switches back and forth between the Moscow of the 1930s and first century Jerusalem. The commentary and afterword provide new insight into the mysterious subtexts of the novel, and here The Master and Margarita is revealed in all its complexity. --back cover

90 editions

Taru Luojola reviewed Saatana saapuu Moskovaan by Михаил Афанасьевич Булгаков

Satiirista kohellusta ja noitajuttuja

3 stars

Oikein vetävästi ja hilpeästi alkava kirja, joka kuitenkin pian rupeaa käymään hiukan puuduttavaksi. Joka tapauksessa kirja on sen verran kuuluisa, etten oikein tiedä, mitä odotin, mutta tapahtumat ja tyyli olivat lopulta jotain sellaista, mitä en ainakaan osannut odottaa. Saatana apureineen saa moskovalaiset lähinnä hölmöilemään itsekseen ja tekemään toisilleen pikkumaisia jäyniä ja kostoja, ei ryhtymään mihinkään todelliseen pahuuteen. Kiinnostavana lisänä tässä painoksessa on kursiivilla merkitty kohdat, joita Neuvostoliitossa julkaistussa painoksessa ei ole ollut, ja siitä voi yrittää miettiä, millaisia detaljeja siellä on sensuroitu. Jostain syystä esimerkiksi hymyily niin, että hampaat näkyvät, on päätynyt säännönmukaisesti sensuurin kouriin.