The Master and Margarita
author: Mikhail Bulgakov
rating:
publication date: 1966 (censored & incomplete)
format: hardback
language: Russian
reread: yes
initial thoughts
slick to open
I'm so happy this book won the poll for the May read!!! It's one of my favorite books of all time, but it's been ages since my last reread. Reading it now, in times that are often compared to 1930s (when most of it was being written and when it's set) based on the level of repression, will be... interesting. I'm also wondering what non-Russian Bookbug members will make of this book and what their reading experience will be like.final thoughts
I first read The Master and Margarita when I was about 11. Of course, I didn’t understand any of the subtext and I pretty much only read the parts set in Moscow, but I enjoyed what I read very much. It was very engaging, and Berlioz’s severed head left a particularly lasting impression on my young self. From then on I’ve been very careful around tram tracks; even now, almost two decades later, I think of that scene whenever I need to take a tram.
Since then I’ve reread this wonderful novel several times, both as a teenager and as an adult, and I count it among my favorite books of all time. M&M is a mandatory part of a high school literature course in Russia and it’s always a breath of fresh air after the likes of Dostoevsky and Tolstoy, even for those who end up disliking this novel. Anyway, though it’s been a while since the last time I’ve reread it, it has never resonated with me as strongly as it did this time, in 2024, in Russia where censorship is getting stronger by day and one can be imprisoned for reposting something the government doesn’t like.
This is a novel about the relationship of the artist and the oppressive government, but it wasn’t always going to be one. Bulgakov first conceived it as “a novel about the Devil” – it’s hard to think of a topic less suited for publication in the USSR in the late 1920s. If I remember correctly, the first manuscript didn’t even mention the master OR Margarita at all! As time went on and as Bulgakov’s own relationship with the government and Stalin himself progressed, M&M changed and took more inspiration from Bulgakov’s own struggles. I read a lot about M&M’s publication history and connections to Bulgakov’s life, so it’s impossible for me to talk of this novel without mentioning that.
The theme of making fatal decisions that can’t be altered is likely to have an autobiographical element as well. After all his plays and novels were banned, Bulgakov wrote a personal letter to Stalin begging to be banished from the Soviet Union. He then received a phone call from Stalin himself, who asked him if they should really let him go (a minefield of a question when asked by a dictator tbh). Overwhelmed, Bulgakov said he’d rather remain in the country, and that sealed his fate. He regretted that momentary weakness for the rest of his life, judging by his letters to family and friends. I feel like the parts where Pilate grapples with his own order to crucify Yeshua and his subsequent regret read much rawer when you’re aware of that part of the author’s biography.
I’d never noticed before how permeated with the fear of being arrested this book is. There are so many little scenes that are written quite vaguely (astonishingly enough, Bulgakov actually hoped to publish the book for a while and had to be conscious of those things… and yet the writing is amazingly bold for those times) but are clear to anyone familiar with the state of things in 1930s USSR. The vagueness makes it even scarier, if you ask me. For example, the scene introducing the apartment no.50 as the place where people “disappear” is chilling because it hints at them being arrested never to be seen again.
The book is also full of a certain kind of manic energy that comes when you’re trying to live a life while there’s a looming invisible threat ready to swallow you whole. I was unexpectedly struck by one paragraph in particular – I’m not sure if Bulgakov really meant to convey the feeling I got from it, but I felt like it captured my exact emotions about *gestures wildly around* all of this.
"But no, no! The seductive mystics are lying, there are no Caribbean Seas in the world, no desperate freebooters sail them, no corvette chases after them, no cannon smoke drifts across the waves. There is nothing, and there was nothing! There is that sickly linden over there, there is the cast-iron fence, and the boulevard beyond it... And the ice is melting in the bowl, and at the next table you see someone’s bloodshot, bovine eyes, and you’re afraid, afraid... Oh, gods, my gods, poison, bring me poison!.."
(transl. Pevear and Volokhonsky)
"Но нет, нет! Лгут обольстители-мистики, никаких Карибских морей нет на свете, и не плывут в них отчаянные флибустьеры, и не гонится за ними корвет, не стелется над волною пушечный дым. Нет ничего, и ничего и не было! Вон чахлая липа есть, есть чугунная решетка и за ней бульвар… И плавится лед в вазочке, и видны за соседним столиком налитые кровью чьи-то бычьи глаза, и страшно, страшно… О боги, боги мои, яду мне, яду!.."
I very much enjoy the titular love story too (which also has many autobiographical elements), but it was secondary to the other topics for me this time around, so I don’t have much to say about that. I was surprised, however, to find out that Margarita is only thirty years old! I’m almost thirty now! I've never pictured her as being my own age before. Strange, the passage of time.
Lastly, another surprising thing for me was that there are some downright spooky scenes in the book – in the supernatural sense, that is – which I didn’t remember at all! I’m mainly talking about Rimsky’s encounter with the undead in his own office. That was genuinely scary.
As a bonus, here are some photos from our local theatre’s ballet based on M&M, which I adore and have seen multiple times ♥
quotes
…Ведь ваша подруга называет вас мастером, ведь вы мыслите, как же вы можете быть мертвы? Разве для того, чтобы считать себя живым, нужно непременно сидеть в подвале, имея на себе рубашку и больничные кальсоны? Это смешно!
Все будет правильно, на этом построен мир.
Ну, а колдовству, как известно, стоит только начаться, а там уж его ничем не остановишь.