Picture Credit - Alma Books
It’s getting pretty absurd how often we use the devil in any storytelling. There is always a devil, an evil, someone who stops the two lovers, someone who wants to destroy the world, but I firmly believe, given a chance, the devil definitely would want to live a normal life.
With the talents and magic, he has, a job of let's say performer or magician will suit him right? And that too in USSR’s Stalin regime, I think it was only to tip the scales that the devil actually works for the good in ‘Master and Margarita’.
Introduction
Book’s Name - Master and Margarita
Author’s Name - Mikhail Bulgakov
Genre - Supernatural fiction, Modern literature
Language - Russian, English
Synopsis - Spoiler Alert!
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 and Katherine Tiernan O'Connor's splendid English version.
About the Book
Master and the Margarita, which was written by Bulgakov, had a really tough time publishing. Bulgakov worked on the book for almost 10 years, but couldn't publish it due to Stalin's USSR’s rule.
A censored version was published in the 1960s, while copies of the unabridged manuscripts continue to circulate in underground literary circles. The full text was only published in 1973, over 30 years after its completion.
The truths in the book were so endearing that they became a part of the Russian language and its phrases were used in Russian Speech
Theme Involved
Master and Margarita took on really big issues of its time so bravely that it couldn't even be published. The story was set in the same setting as the time book was written. As during the Stalin rule, the artists and authors worked under strict censorship, subject to imprisonment, exile, or execution if they were seen as undermining state ideology.
And if approved, they would still be under convoluted bureaucracy. And such was in the Novel, where Woland the magician finds himself in a similar setting but he manipulates the system and reality and gets hilarious results. He shows the citizens acting in petty self-interest showing how Soviet society bred greed and cynicism, despite its ideal.
As Bulgakov wasn't able to publish this, we see the second half of the book as similar to autobiography. So we realize the namesake as we know ‘The Master’ is a nameless author who’s worked on years on a novel and the master’s mistress ‘Margarita’ whose devotion to her lover’s abandoned dream became surreal and carries the novel and doesn't let it all cynicism.
Famous Quotes
1. “You should never ask anyone for anything. Never- and especially from those who are more powerful than yourself.”
2. “What would your good do if evil didn't exist, and what would the earth look like if all the shadows disappeared?”
3. “There is no greater misfortune in the world than the loss of reason.”
The Bottom Line
Master and Margarita, despite its appearance and with a mindset of Russian classics being dark and deep and full of horrors of the human soul, this book is actually fun to read, actually engrosses you for a long hour, and helps you get up in your life if you are feeling down. So go ahead, believe this review and go read Master and Margarita.
My ratings for this book - 4 out of 5
You can buy a copy of this book - Master and Margarita
Written By - Ashish Joshi
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