13 ms·

Life Got You Down? Time to Read The Master and Margarita

534 points by wyndham 8y ago

peatmoss 8y ago
The Master and Margarita is indeed a fantastic read, but there’s a dark subtext. For example, the supernatural happenings and bumps in the night from the neighboring apartment are likely Bulgakov making commentary on the purges. Bulgakov layered things. On the surface, lightheartedness. Underneath, a very bleak and tortured soul.
- habosa 8y ago
  I read a version with enough footnotes to help me understand that underneath a funny and beautiful book is an attempt to use satire to say something serious about the regime that Bulgakov lived under. Part of what makes this book so great is how it is effective at this goal but also just fantastic literature. I'm a heavy reader but bad at reviews. All I can say is read this one. One of the best books I've ever read and that was clear to me before I finished it.
  - Tomte 8y ago
    I've read/skimmed two academic books commenting on The Master and Margarita and it lessened my enjoyment. There was lots and lots of "Woland is obviously not the devil, unlike everyone assumed" and much lofty discussion that I couldn't follow at all. I'd strongly advise to leave that out, but read a more conventional commentary like the web site linked somewhere in this thread.
    - innocentoldguy 8y ago
      I agree! I highly recommend against reading academic interpretations/critiques of any book. I graduated summa cum laude with a degree in creative writing. Much of my college study was focused on literary criticisms and theory. As someone trained in the art, I believe taking a perfectly good novel and blowing it through the enema of Marxist, Postmodernist, or Feminist activism, for instance, is the best way to shit all over an author's work.
      - blablablerg 8y ago
        I see how you graduated summa cum laude in creative writing.
        ironic_ali 8y ago
        Fair enough... But please explain why.
  - widforss 8y ago
    Do you have an ISBN or link to that version?
    - habosa 8y ago
      https://www.amazon.com/Master-Margarita-50th-Anniversary-Penguin-Classics/dp/0143108271/ https://www.amazon.com/Master-Margarita-50th-Anniversary-Pen...
  - StavrosK 8y ago
    I read the book without any annotations and, while I could understand that there were references to other things, I missed those references and the general cultural context, which led me to not really like the book very much.
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  - dhimes 8y ago
    So, this is a bit of a shameless plug, but also relevant. My wife won an award for her fictionalized/fantasy account of the writing of TMaM, and it illuminates the context for the work. You might enjoy it. http://centerforfiction.org/awards/the-first-novel-prize/2017-winner-julie-lekstrom-himes/ http://centerforfiction.org/awards/the-first-novel-prize/201...
- tzmudzin 8y ago
  ... that already realized there's nothing it can do to stop the terror machine. When you're robbed of everything, and things get worse every day, gallows humor is the only freedom you can enjoy. End even that only in private. "It is extraordinary that Bulgakov managed to write a novel that is so full of humor and wit and lightness of tone when he was living through this period", writes Groskop. I guess she missed the point.
  - varjag 8y ago
    Yep, there are many scenes where you have to know the zeitgeist to understand the gravity of situation. Like when NKVD finds 400 dollars in the janitor's apartment. It's set up like a sitcom scene but the guy's going to die.
    - samat 8y ago
      Not just him, but his family, possibly colleagues and friends would suffer.
- felipeerias 8y ago
  There is a point where most the inhabitants of a shared flat vanish one after the other as if by magic, leaving only one of them behind. Luckily, the footnotes point out the tiny clues in the text that tell the whole story: that tenant had denounced all of his flatmates to the secret police so he could keep the whole place for himself.
  - pvg 8y ago
    They're not really 'tiny clues' - this thread makes it sound like this stuff is some set of subtle veiled hints and allusions. It's certainly possible to miss if one is unfamiliar with the historical context and it's worth getting a well-annotated edition but it's hardly the intent of the author - there are lots of places where it's quite explicit and overt. The book itself could not be published when it was written and when it was originally published, many of the more obvious references to repression were edited out.
    - felipeerias 8y ago
      I happen to be reading the novel at the moment, so it was easy to find an example. In this fragment, the master recounts the last time that he saw his loved one. The sentences are spread over 3-4 pages: “This was at dusk, in mid-October. And she left. [...] A quarter of an hour after she left me, there came a knock at my window [...] Yes, and so in mid-January, at night, in the same coat but with the buttons torn off, I was huddled with cold in my little yard.” Just like that, three months have vanished. Those missing buttons are the only indication of where he spent those lost months: it was customary to remove belts, shoelaces and buttons from those held for questioning by the secret police.
      - pvg 8y ago
        Those missing buttons are the only indication That's a wonderful example and no, they aren't. To a contemporary Soviet reader (or a modern one with a bit more context), it's crystal clear who the 'they' knocking on the window in the middle of the night are. In fact, such readers would have a pretty good idea where things are headed the moment the new 'friend' Mogarich appears and is described. And after the knock but before the buttons, our knowingly winking omniscient narrator suddenly disappears, stops being omniscient and refuses to tell us what happened! The buttons are a nice detail at the tail end on which to hang an explanatory footnote, perhaps, but not some hidden clue, left in there for readers to suddenly slap their forehead and say 'Aha!'. It's a multilayered work and, stylistically, Bulgakov is often a circumspect narrator. But the repression bits are not some particularly deeply hidden layer at all. You're barely a few pages in when Ivan suggests Kant be sent to the Solovki, one of the OG Gulags. The very title of the first chapter is a reference to the paranoia and legitimate fears of the period.
siberianbear 8y ago
When I was living in the United States and studying Russian, I started to read some Russian literature. After reading some short stories by Chekhov, I decided to delve into something harder: Dostoevsky. I couldn't understand the first page of Crime and Punishment even with a dictionary. Dostoevsky has a very eloquent way of writing with very long sentences and complicated grammar, but it's very hard for a non-native speaker to understand. So, I went to a Russian colleague of mine, who recommended that I try to read "The Master and the Margarita" instead of Crime and Punishment. I found that I could read and mostly understand it, but the plot made no sense. I told this experience to my Russian teacher, and she laughed uncontrollably. She said that it's true that the grammar in The Master in the Margarita is easier, but you'll never really understand the plot without having lived in the Soviet Union. She said that every element in the story is a jab at some aspect of life or politics from that era. I continued to stick with short stories by Chekhov and Gogol after that.
- mynegation 8y ago
  Dostoyevsky is a hard read even for native speakers of Russian. I would not characterize him as eloquent, more like raw and rough around the edges. I can definitely imagine how hard it is for a non-native speaker to understand his writing, with his archaic words, words for things that do not exist anymore, references to Russian folk tales, or cultural context of the 19th century Russia, on top of all the things that you mentioned. In a way, Dostoyevsky is somewhat watered down Russian precursor of James Joyce.
  - madaxe_again 8y ago
    But Dostoyevsky is brilliant, his impenetrable style notwithstanding - in Crime and Punishment he paints such vivid scenes that I can still in my mind’s eye see Raskolnikov’s crappy apartment, the widow slumping to the floor, axe in her head, the markets of St Petersburg, the reeking drunks by the stables... it builds into something glittering, always, even when painted only in dun and ochre. Joyce is an apt comparison - he’s similarly a painter with words - I feel like I’ve visited 19th century Dublin having read his works, although he does make Dostoyevsky look sedate and restrained.
aleyan 8y ago
Life got you down? Take a piece of advice from another of Bulgakov's (author of Master and Margarita) novels and stop reading the news. There is nothing actionable in the news; next to no utility. News is simply a time sink that depress your spirit. So take the good doctor's words from Heart of a Dog: "If you care about your digestion, my advice is [sic] never read soviet newspapers before dinner" and generalize it to the sources of outrage in your life that are getting you down. With that said, I highly recommend reading Master and Margarita as it is my favorite novel. It is a work however that is deeply rooted in its time and place, so looking at annotations[1] that explain the subtlety is very useful. This comment was based on my previous two comments here[2][3]. [1] http://www.masterandmargarita.eu/en/ http://www.masterandmargarita.eu/en/ [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14282358 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14282358 [3] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14870327 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14870327
- js2 8y ago
  https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/10/style/the-man-who-knew-too-little.html https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/10/style/the-man-who-knew-to...
  - yosefk 8y ago
    What could he learn from the news that would influence his actions or even opinions? If the answer is "nothing", what's the downside for this guy?
    - ragequitta 8y ago
      In my case I've been publicly shamed once or twice because I'm not up on what the latest generation finds offensive. Maybe that's just what getting old is though. Apparently we're not allowed to say 'that one chick from the alien films' or 'miss/ms' enternamehere without deeply offending some of the population to the point of being yelled at. There are many other examples of this I'm sure, but I don't get out much. Isn't it also ironic that there's a group of people on a site called hackernews saying not to read the news? This is my only source, and it depresses me to no end. But how else do you keep up in a very quickly evolving world like ours?
mynegation 8y ago
For a context: Russian, read several Bulgakov's works as a teenager, as it was part of a school program. To provide an alternative view: I did not like "Master and Margarita", especially compared to "Heart of the Dog" and what I consider Bulgakov's best novel "The White Guard". Part of this has to do that with the fact that author chose religion and mysticism as literary vehicles and I am not a big fan of either. The whole book felt rather frivolous. I warmed up to this type of novel after reading several works of Gabriel Garcia Marquez though much later. "The White Guard" on the other hand left much deeper impression on me. The novel does a great job showing helplessness of people in front of their old life crumbling down, caught in a whirlwind of turbulent times.
- flatline 8y ago
  I like this genre - Marquez, Murkami, Allende, Wolfe are some of my favorite authors, yet I didn’t really enjoy Master and Margarita that much. I may try another of his based on this comment though.
- trhway 8y ago
  >teenager ... part of a school program Sounds like a great way to inoculate the new generation against Bulgakov. Nothing against White Guard, it is just the current pendulum swing and cultivation of kind of nostalgia and tragical romantization of the White movement makes it for relatively safe reading for young/unprepared. >The novel does a great job showing helplessness of people in front of their old life crumbling down, caught in a whirlwind of turbulent times. I think it is the opposite. While people can't change their historical context, their ultimate fate is mostly defined by themselves - i see that in the Master and in the Guard.
- madaxe_again 8y ago
  Likewise loved The White Guard - and unlike a sibling reply I agree with you that it reflects helplessness - I certainly didn’t see any of the protagonists “controlling their destiny” - I saw them being washed up on and dashed against the shores of time like so much flotsam and jetsam, making ultimately meaningless decisions against a backdrop of inevitability. Another Bulgakov book I loved was “A Country Doctor’s Notebook”, which reflects both the hope and the privations of the early USSR. Finally, if you like Bulgakov, I really recommend Andrei Kurkov and Victor Pelevin - they explore similar themes in a similar fashion.
murrayb 8y ago
Disappointed to find out that there is no Kindle version. I actually find that uncommon lately so it is a surprise when there isn't one.
- peteretep 8y ago
  From a UK account, I find many Kindle versions of it. A specific translation may not have one.
- politelemon 8y ago
  I was able to find multiple Kindle editions on Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00BKA4H6W https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00BKA4H6W https://www.amazon.co.uk/Master-Margarita-Vintage-Classic-Russians-ebook/dp/B003ELY7JM https://www.amazon.co.uk/Master-Margarita-Vintage-Classic-Ru... and Amazon US https://www.amazon.com/Master-Margarita-Vintage-Classic-Russians-ebook/dp/B003ELY7JM https://www.amazon.com/Master-Margarita-Vintage-Classic-Russ... https://www.amazon.com/Master-Margarita-Mikhail-Bulgakov-ebook/dp/B01DC7OGSO https://www.amazon.com/Master-Margarita-Mikhail-Bulgakov-ebo... However I can't tell which is the 'best' version - some classics have appeared on Kindle full of typos or can be translated badly so you have to look for a good one.
  - murrayb 8y ago
    Apparently I was searching wrong- no clue how, possibly as a result of following a Google link into Amazon. Thank-you for the links.
IndrekR 8y ago
I was not expecting much from the book when I started reading it. Yet it is one of the few I could not put down before it was 9am and I had read it all. The wit and all the layers! A true surprise for me, in a positive way.
msadowski 8y ago
Master and Margarita is one of my favorite books. First time I've read it when I was 17 or 18, then around 22 and then around 25. Each time I've read it I took something else from it and was surprised that it's the same book. Probably it has something to do with growing up. At some point I was really into Russian and Polish fantasy/sci-fi and I especially liked the social aspects of some of the stories.
- Bartweiss 8y ago
  I picked it up at about the same time for some English class, and I remember being a bit shocked that something so obviously Deep and Literary could be quite so much fun. It's not the only example, of course, but for me it still occupies a special intersection between "flip through it when I'm not up to anything heavy" and "reread it carefully to see something new". I first picked up Lem not long after, and got the same feeling. I wonder if the "literary vs. genre" dichotomy is less engrained outside of English writing - or perhaps I was just mislead by our stereotypes about the weight of "Russian Literature".
  - toyg 8y ago
    Or perhaps "Russian literature" is a concept as vast as the country, and some of it transcends easy labels. Like Bulgakov, Dostoevsky was capable to write at various different levels.
    - Bartweiss 8y ago
      Yes, certainly. I wasn't very clear, but my meaning was that there's a certain Western/American concept of "Russian Literature" as being exclusively long, philosophical, realistic, and depressing - as though The Brothers Karamazov and Anna Karenina are the prototype for everything else. But it's obviously not true; reducing Russian-language literature to Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, and Solzhenitsyn is insulting crude. (And even Dostoevsky can be funny!) Bulgakov and Pasternak are at least recognized, but reduced to one work each. Zamyatin ought to be taught next to Orwell and Huxley, but he and a great many others are basically unknown. And all of that's before the conflation of Russian, Soviet, and Eastern Bloc work. Lem, Čapek, and so on aren't even Russian writers but get subsumed in the same category of thought. It's a frustrating gap in American-read canon all around, and as a particular fan of sci-fi I think the focus on Russian 'literary' over 'genre' work has left a major hole in our perception of SF.
smsm42 8y ago
I love this novel, but I wonder if it's possible to really appreciate it without knowing the realities of the time it was written about (the 1930th is Russia, the time of the Big Terror) and the personal situation of Bulgakov himself (he was intending for Stalin to read the novel and expected it would make him change Bulgakov's very problematic stance with literary and theatrical establishment). And of course I am not sure how it is possible to translate Bulgakov's rich and masterful language. But do try it anyway, still worth it.
zyvy 8y ago
Novel for Stalin. Noticed that this book is loved by the all security/intelligence services like KGB-FSB -> don’t like it more https://ru-bykov.livejournal.com/2015279.html https://ru-bykov.livejournal.com/2015279.html
- Muha_ 8y ago
  This book is not for Stalin and not against Stalin. This book is about bad people, good people and faith in fairness. And this is just a good fiction.
satori99 8y ago
I have never heard of this book before, but the description made me think of the Robert Heinlein novel 'Job: A Comedy of Justice'. Especially the line "The final joke of the book is that maybe Satan is not the bad guy after all" I am adding it to my reading list. Thanks! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Job:_A_Comedy_of_Justice https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Job:_A_Comedy_of_Justice
person_of_color 8y ago
Just finished The Name of The Wind and time to read this ;)
- tk75x 8y ago
  You should check out the sequel to The Name of the Wind, A Wise Man's Fear.
  - mindcrime 8y ago
    You should check out the sequel to The Name of the Wind, A Wise Man's Fear. Yes, then re-read both, as well as the entire catalog of Dostoevsky, the Bible, the Koran, the Bhagavad Gita, The Illiad, and The Odyssey, and by then Rothfuss might actually be finished with the third book in the trilogy...
    - tingol 8y ago
      I kinda lost interest after the second book, it was pretty bad tbh...
  - person_of_color 8y ago
    Is it any good?
Tharkun 8y ago
Any book that features a tommy gun toting tomcat is worth a read, regardless of whether life got you down. It's one of my favourite books, and it's one that can reread multiple times, each time revealing new insights and references.
Graham24 8y ago
there was a great radio 4 adaptation of this from the 90s, but I can only find references to a 2015 version.
CraneWorm 8y ago
I'd like to offer a supplementary medicine for falling of the gravy train of life. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EchbzHN3lek https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EchbzHN3lek
yakshaving_jgt 8y ago
I read TMaM when I was 25, after being given a copy for Christmas from my father. He's Polish, and studied Russian in school. I put off reading it for two years, because I don't read much. Among my English friends, there's an air of sophistication to being able to say you're reading a Russian novel. My girlfriend is Russian, and she said she enjoyed the book when she read it as a child. A humbling moment.
konart 8y ago
Life Got You Down? Time to read Ilf and Petrov (The Twelve Chairs, The Little Golden Calf, One-storied America)
- doombolt 8y ago
  It is very often overlooked, but "The Little Golden Calf" is awesome. It is an amazingly fun read yet it is full of deep insights into pre-war Soviet Union's everyday life. The character is basically a superhero who goes through this society as a hot knife through butter. Yet it is much more serious than "Twelve Chairs" which is basically a sitcom.
  - romwell 8y ago
    Wouldn't call "The Little Golden Calf" overlooked (not by Russian speakers, at least); and yes, after reading it, I wondered how it ever passed censorship back in the days. The movie[1] is also great. Shot in black and white, it adds to the solemnity amid the humor. [1]https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%97%D0%BE%D0%BB%D0%BE%D1%82%D0%BE%D0%B9_%D1%82%D0%B5%D0%BB%D1%91%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%BA_(%D1%84%D0%B8%D0%BB%D1%8C%D0%BC,_1968) https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%97%D0%BE%D0%BB%D0%BE%D1%82...
    - doombolt 8y ago
      The movie is also awesome and I think I saw the movie first.
- dmitripopov 8y ago
  Hell yes!
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- qqqwww 8y ago
  One-Storied America, unlike the other two books which are (humorous) fiction, is a travelogue of Soviet writers visiting the USA in the 30's. It's a fascinating account, and some editions include the photographs taken by one of the authors. The thing that struck me the most is that many trivial observations they made about US in the same ones I made when I immigrated in the 90's. I'm talking mostly about everyday things: giant parking lots, drug stores that sell mostly not drugs, trucks that hold multiple new cars, fast food, etc. Amazing how little has changed and how old the modern everyday American way of life is.
Insanity 8y ago
Since I don't understand Russian, is there any English translation that you'd recommend over another? I've only ventured slightly into Russian litarature (English translations thereof) with "The death of Ivan Ilych" and "the dream of a rediculous man". I consider the former to be one of the best books I have read this year, and would like to give TMaM a try but always have trouble deciding on a translation.
- thelastidiot 8y ago
  I read that one and I was happy with it: The Master and Margarita Paperback – March 19, 1996 by Mikhail Bulgakov (Author), Diana Burgin (Translator), Katherine Tiernan O'Connor (Translator) Of course, Amazon will provide reviews for all translations in one big bucket so it's hard to know which one gets the best review. You can go to sub reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/1lngmm/which_the_master_and_margarita_translation_should/ https://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/1lngmm/which_the_mas...
- 80801 8y ago
  Richard Pevear & Larissa Volokhonsky. Since they get so much praise, anything russian I have read was translated by them.
  - FabHK 8y ago
    And they did the Penguin 50 yr anniversary edition [1]. It has some useful notes at the end, too. I found the notes in the Annotated Lolita [2] very helpful, unfortunately I haven't really found an annotated version of M&M (beyond what's in [1]). [1] https://www.amazon.com/dp/0143108271 https://www.amazon.com/dp/0143108271 [2] https://www.amazon.com/Annotated-Lolita-Revised-Updated/dp/0679727299 https://www.amazon.com/Annotated-Lolita-Revised-Updated/dp/0...
  - billfruit 8y ago
    They have many critics also who refuse to buy into the Pevear-Volokhknsky hype, even considering their translations as 'disastrous': https://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2013/01/the-pevearvolokhonsky-hype-machine-and-how-it-could-have-been-stopped-or-at-least-slowed-down/ https://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2013/01/the-...
petecooper 8y ago
Thanks for this. Life has got me down a bit at the moment, and I wasn't aware of this book -- so thank you for the pointer.
- onewhonknocks 8y ago
  I'm just a random, anonymous, internet person, but I hope that you feel better Pete. Remember that the way you feel now is just a snapshot in time, and that things will almost certainly get better from here.
  - petecooper 8y ago
    Thank you, that made me smile. I really appreciate your words.
pjmlp 8y ago
One of the best books I have read.
JerryPavlic 8y ago
I attended a Russian poetry event by accident a couple of days ago. I didn't understand a thing but this made my whole experience of it even more beautiful. I could literally feel what the artists were talking about and the reactions of the crowd. I guess it had to do a little with the fact that they were expats and the Russian poetry probably reminded them at home, but the energy in the room was so intense. Later i spoke with one of the attendees and he explained that poetry (or literature in this case) is a way of connecting similair perspectives to life to people divided by the enormous distances in Russia. Thats why the people attending the event - even though they didnt know each other, had a great feeling of connection and were prone to expressing their patriotic emotions. To quote him: "I felt Russian for the first time in a long time tonight."And this is a great quote: "Literature can be a catalyst for change. But it can also be a safety valve for a release of tension and one that results in paralysis"
sonnyg 8y ago
For people who have read it, what translation do you recommend?
- bardam 8y ago
  Richard Pevear/Larissa Volokhonsky, a husband and wife team who have been translating Russian novels for close to 30 years. Having read most of Dostoevsky's works, some their translations, some others, I highly recommend their translations when available.
  - notyourday 8y ago
    Those two are fantastic, largely because they don't translate. Rather they re-write the works in the target language that both of them speak extremely well.
  - t3h2mas 8y ago
    amazon (no ref): https://www.amazon.com/dp/0143108271 https://www.amazon.com/dp/0143108271 in case anyone has the same issues I did finding it.
atomical 8y ago
> I have a friend who married her husband almost exclusively because he told her he had read it. So believable.
- Koshkin 8y ago
  ... and now he wishes he hadn't.
deleted 8y ago
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barbarian 8y ago
I've read a great deal of Russian literature old and modern, but I didn't much like this book. It was like an unplanned Salmon Rushdie novel, where the metaphors don't seem to add up to anything - very likely there was a lot of cultural reference in the symbology that went over my head - but still, just didn't get much pleasure from reading it.
- JauntTrooper 8y ago
  I felt the same way. My wife and I each got copies of the book so we could read it together and were excited about it, given the rave reviews, but neither of us could get into it. I think I would get a lot more out of it as part of a structured class or group discussion that could explain some of the cultural references and symbology, as you say.
- robin_reala 8y ago
  Slight digression, but I’m trying to expand my productions of Russian literature for Standard Ebooks: I’ve produced some Dostoyevsky, Gogol, Garshin and Sologub so far. Was considering a Bunin or Leskov compliation next, but is there anyone slightly off the beaten path that I’m missing with a decent public domain translation?
dmitripopov 8y ago
I always wonder why non-Russian speakers perceive books like "The Master and Margarita" as "fun". I guess the reason is that the spirit of the novel gets lost in translation. In Russian all humorous elements sum up as a dark depressing feeling towards the end of the novel. That what makes it a Russian classic.
- notyourday 8y ago
  It is just signaling of intellectualism. Most of English translations of classic Russian lit suck -- for example one is highly unlikely to get by reading English translation of "The Master and Margarita" that it is satire even if one gets hundreds of pages of foot notes. Volokhonsky and Peavar do the best but one still needs those hundreds of pages of footnotes which are just not there. Reading TMAM pretty much requires jumping off the TMAM train every few paragraphs and venturing into Literaturnaya Gazeta, history of KPSS, lore of the MGU, etc just to realize the mood of those paragraphs.
  - simias 8y ago
    That's pointless projection. I read The Master and Margarita a long time ago because I read somewhere that it was one inspiration for the Rolling Stone's Sympathy for the Devil, so I wasn't exactly driven by pretentious intellectualism. It still managed to become one of my favorite novels and I even started learning Russian because of it (still working on that actually). I hope someday I'll be able to read it in the original language. In hindsight I only regret starting with an English translation instead of a French one as I suspect that Russian maps better (although obviously still very imperfectly) with French grammar. Now if you want signaling of intellectualism I've also seen Simon McBurney's adaptation of the novel as a play at Avignon's theater festival a few years ago and it was absolutely magnificent.
    - notyourday 8y ago
      > I read The Master and Margarita a long time ago because I read somewhere that it was one inspiration for the Rolling Stone's Sympathy for the Devil, so I wasn't exactly driven by pretentious intellectualism. I have a hunch you do not discuss The Master and Margarita at parties. Edit: The downvotes on this is the exact reason why McDuff is popular - it is intellectual masturbation. The one mocked by Russian writers. One, of course, should read it in Russian on in V&P translation to notice this plot twist. It is always fun to watch.
krueger71 8y ago
Great book! When I borrowed it the librarian said she envied me the experience of reading it for the first time
kharms 8y ago
The Russian language version on Audible is one of the best narrated books I’ve listened to, with the other being The Sympathizer. I recommend it.
dmitrygr 8y ago
I love the book as much as the next Russian, and have read it the requisite three times, but this article is nonsense. It gets even the basic facts wrong (Margarita flies around before the ball, Woland is not in any way unhappy about her asking for the Master to be freed, etc) That being said, do read this book a few times! If not reading in Russian, read different translations. If too young (or unaware of Russian history) to get many references, reading "Дети Арбата" beforehand will help slightly.
GeoffKnauth 8y ago
This is one of my favorite books ever. I've read it in Russian and English. I have the DVDs of the TV series made in Russia about 10 years ago. Is there a Russian audiobook version anywhere?
- Koshkin 8y ago
  https://duckduckgo.com/?q=мастер+и+маргарита+аудиокнига https://duckduckgo.com/?q=мастер+и+маргарита+аудиокнига
usermac 8y ago
I found it just now using the iOS app Libby which links to my local library card and allows me to check it out for two weeks.
simtam 8y ago
Say, how are things with adaptations of "The Master and Margarita" into other media? There was some Hollywood movie undergoing, or wasn't it? Pretty sure I didn't mistake it with the Fantastic Beasts franchise... I myself gonna humblebrag, one of my mods for Skyrim is named "Never Talk To NPCs" after the first chapter of the book. Of course it's only rehashing a few selected tropes, not an adaptation in the strict sense. So is "The Master and Margarita" really for people who feel low in their lifes? My activity once led me to reading a thread on 4chan about "The Master and Margarita", where the OP-anon insisted there's no point in a book where there is magic and "the protaganist [i.e., Woland] can do everything". Not sure if it was genuine trolling or some poor soul forced to read in for a class assignment, but there's a grain of good question in that observation. SPOILER if Woland frees the Master only after Margarita wished to free other person, maybe Woland wasn't in power to free the Master without that happening? we'll never know in the book, but I shall imply that the whole thing was set up precisely for that accomplishment END SPOILER.
janvanhellemont 8y ago
You can now read «The Master and Margarita» and understand its satire through a free smartphone app with annotations per chapter. iPhone https://itunes.apple.com/app/id770608895 https://itunes.apple.com/app/id770608895 Android https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.app.p9370GG https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.app.p9370G... The annotations are also on the «Master and Margarita» website https://www.masterandmargarita.eu/en/02themas/aantekeningen.html https://www.masterandmargarita.eu/en/02themas/aantekeningen....

534 points by wyndham 8y ago

The Master and Margarita is indeed a fantastic read, but there’s a dark subtext. For example, the supernatural happenings and bumps in the night from the neighboring apartment are likely Bulgakov making commentary on the purges. Bulgakov layered things. On the surface, lightheartedness. Underneath, a very bleak and tortured soul.

habosa 8y ago
I read a version with enough footnotes to help me understand that underneath a funny and beautiful book is an attempt to use satire to say something serious about the regime that Bulgakov lived under. Part of what makes this book so great is how it is effective at this goal but also just fantastic literature. I'm a heavy reader but bad at reviews. All I can say is read this one. One of the best books I've ever read and that was clear to me before I finished it.
- Tomte 8y ago
  I've read/skimmed two academic books commenting on The Master and Margarita and it lessened my enjoyment. There was lots and lots of "Woland is obviously not the devil, unlike everyone assumed" and much lofty discussion that I couldn't follow at all. I'd strongly advise to leave that out, but read a more conventional commentary like the web site linked somewhere in this thread.
  - innocentoldguy 8y ago
    I agree! I highly recommend against reading academic interpretations/critiques of any book. I graduated summa cum laude with a degree in creative writing. Much of my college study was focused on literary criticisms and theory. As someone trained in the art, I believe taking a perfectly good novel and blowing it through the enema of Marxist, Postmodernist, or Feminist activism, for instance, is the best way to shit all over an author's work.
    - blablablerg 8y ago
      I see how you graduated summa cum laude in creative writing.
      - ironic_ali 8y ago
        Fair enough... But please explain why.
- widforss 8y ago
  Do you have an ISBN or link to that version?
  - habosa 8y ago
    https://www.amazon.com/Master-Margarita-50th-Anniversary-Penguin-Classics/dp/0143108271/ https://www.amazon.com/Master-Margarita-50th-Anniversary-Pen...
- StavrosK 8y ago
  I read the book without any annotations and, while I could understand that there were references to other things, I missed those references and the general cultural context, which led me to not really like the book very much.
- deleted 8y ago
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- dhimes 8y ago
  So, this is a bit of a shameless plug, but also relevant. My wife won an award for her fictionalized/fantasy account of the writing of TMaM, and it illuminates the context for the work. You might enjoy it. http://centerforfiction.org/awards/the-first-novel-prize/2017-winner-julie-lekstrom-himes/ http://centerforfiction.org/awards/the-first-novel-prize/201...
tzmudzin 8y ago
... that already realized there's nothing it can do to stop the terror machine. When you're robbed of everything, and things get worse every day, gallows humor is the only freedom you can enjoy. End even that only in private. "It is extraordinary that Bulgakov managed to write a novel that is so full of humor and wit and lightness of tone when he was living through this period", writes Groskop. I guess she missed the point.
- varjag 8y ago
  Yep, there are many scenes where you have to know the zeitgeist to understand the gravity of situation. Like when NKVD finds 400 dollars in the janitor's apartment. It's set up like a sitcom scene but the guy's going to die.
  - samat 8y ago
    Not just him, but his family, possibly colleagues and friends would suffer.
felipeerias 8y ago
There is a point where most the inhabitants of a shared flat vanish one after the other as if by magic, leaving only one of them behind. Luckily, the footnotes point out the tiny clues in the text that tell the whole story: that tenant had denounced all of his flatmates to the secret police so he could keep the whole place for himself.
- pvg 8y ago
  They're not really 'tiny clues' - this thread makes it sound like this stuff is some set of subtle veiled hints and allusions. It's certainly possible to miss if one is unfamiliar with the historical context and it's worth getting a well-annotated edition but it's hardly the intent of the author - there are lots of places where it's quite explicit and overt. The book itself could not be published when it was written and when it was originally published, many of the more obvious references to repression were edited out.
  - felipeerias 8y ago
    I happen to be reading the novel at the moment, so it was easy to find an example. In this fragment, the master recounts the last time that he saw his loved one. The sentences are spread over 3-4 pages: “This was at dusk, in mid-October. And she left. [...] A quarter of an hour after she left me, there came a knock at my window [...] Yes, and so in mid-January, at night, in the same coat but with the buttons torn off, I was huddled with cold in my little yard.” Just like that, three months have vanished. Those missing buttons are the only indication of where he spent those lost months: it was customary to remove belts, shoelaces and buttons from those held for questioning by the secret police.
    - pvg 8y ago
      Those missing buttons are the only indication That's a wonderful example and no, they aren't. To a contemporary Soviet reader (or a modern one with a bit more context), it's crystal clear who the 'they' knocking on the window in the middle of the night are. In fact, such readers would have a pretty good idea where things are headed the moment the new 'friend' Mogarich appears and is described. And after the knock but before the buttons, our knowingly winking omniscient narrator suddenly disappears, stops being omniscient and refuses to tell us what happened! The buttons are a nice detail at the tail end on which to hang an explanatory footnote, perhaps, but not some hidden clue, left in there for readers to suddenly slap their forehead and say 'Aha!'. It's a multilayered work and, stylistically, Bulgakov is often a circumspect narrator. But the repression bits are not some particularly deeply hidden layer at all. You're barely a few pages in when Ivan suggests Kant be sent to the Solovki, one of the OG Gulags. The very title of the first chapter is a reference to the paranoia and legitimate fears of the period.

siberianbear 8y ago

When I was living in the United States and studying Russian, I started to read some Russian literature. After reading some short stories by Chekhov, I decided to delve into something harder: Dostoevsky. I couldn't understand the first page of Crime and Punishment even with a dictionary. Dostoevsky has a very eloquent way of writing with very long sentences and complicated grammar, but it's very hard for a non-native speaker to understand. So, I went to a Russian colleague of mine, who recommended that I try to read "The Master and the Margarita" instead of Crime and Punishment. I found that I could read and mostly understand it, but the plot made no sense. I told this experience to my Russian teacher, and she laughed uncontrollably. She said that it's true that the grammar in The Master in the Margarita is easier, but you'll never really understand the plot without having lived in the Soviet Union. She said that every element in the story is a jab at some aspect of life or politics from that era. I continued to stick with short stories by Chekhov and Gogol after that.

mynegation 8y ago
Dostoyevsky is a hard read even for native speakers of Russian. I would not characterize him as eloquent, more like raw and rough around the edges. I can definitely imagine how hard it is for a non-native speaker to understand his writing, with his archaic words, words for things that do not exist anymore, references to Russian folk tales, or cultural context of the 19th century Russia, on top of all the things that you mentioned. In a way, Dostoyevsky is somewhat watered down Russian precursor of James Joyce.
- madaxe_again 8y ago
  But Dostoyevsky is brilliant, his impenetrable style notwithstanding - in Crime and Punishment he paints such vivid scenes that I can still in my mind’s eye see Raskolnikov’s crappy apartment, the widow slumping to the floor, axe in her head, the markets of St Petersburg, the reeking drunks by the stables... it builds into something glittering, always, even when painted only in dun and ochre. Joyce is an apt comparison - he’s similarly a painter with words - I feel like I’ve visited 19th century Dublin having read his works, although he does make Dostoyevsky look sedate and restrained.

aleyan 8y ago

Life got you down? Take a piece of advice from another of Bulgakov's (author of Master and Margarita) novels and stop reading the news. There is nothing actionable in the news; next to no utility. News is simply a time sink that depress your spirit. So take the good doctor's words from Heart of a Dog: "If you care about your digestion, my advice is [sic] never read soviet newspapers before dinner" and generalize it to the sources of outrage in your life that are getting you down. With that said, I highly recommend reading Master and Margarita as it is my favorite novel. It is a work however that is deeply rooted in its time and place, so looking at annotations[1] that explain the subtlety is very useful. This comment was based on my previous two comments here[2][3]. [1] http://www.masterandmargarita.eu/en/ http://www.masterandmargarita.eu/en/ [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14282358 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14282358 [3] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14870327 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14870327

js2 8y ago
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/10/style/the-man-who-knew-too-little.html https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/10/style/the-man-who-knew-to...
- yosefk 8y ago
  What could he learn from the news that would influence his actions or even opinions? If the answer is "nothing", what's the downside for this guy?
  - ragequitta 8y ago
    In my case I've been publicly shamed once or twice because I'm not up on what the latest generation finds offensive. Maybe that's just what getting old is though. Apparently we're not allowed to say 'that one chick from the alien films' or 'miss/ms' enternamehere without deeply offending some of the population to the point of being yelled at. There are many other examples of this I'm sure, but I don't get out much. Isn't it also ironic that there's a group of people on a site called hackernews saying not to read the news? This is my only source, and it depresses me to no end. But how else do you keep up in a very quickly evolving world like ours?

mynegation 8y ago

For a context: Russian, read several Bulgakov's works as a teenager, as it was part of a school program. To provide an alternative view: I did not like "Master and Margarita", especially compared to "Heart of the Dog" and what I consider Bulgakov's best novel "The White Guard". Part of this has to do that with the fact that author chose religion and mysticism as literary vehicles and I am not a big fan of either. The whole book felt rather frivolous. I warmed up to this type of novel after reading several works of Gabriel Garcia Marquez though much later. "The White Guard" on the other hand left much deeper impression on me. The novel does a great job showing helplessness of people in front of their old life crumbling down, caught in a whirlwind of turbulent times.

flatline 8y ago
I like this genre - Marquez, Murkami, Allende, Wolfe are some of my favorite authors, yet I didn’t really enjoy Master and Margarita that much. I may try another of his based on this comment though.
trhway 8y ago
>teenager ... part of a school program Sounds like a great way to inoculate the new generation against Bulgakov. Nothing against White Guard, it is just the current pendulum swing and cultivation of kind of nostalgia and tragical romantization of the White movement makes it for relatively safe reading for young/unprepared. >The novel does a great job showing helplessness of people in front of their old life crumbling down, caught in a whirlwind of turbulent times. I think it is the opposite. While people can't change their historical context, their ultimate fate is mostly defined by themselves - i see that in the Master and in the Guard.
madaxe_again 8y ago
Likewise loved The White Guard - and unlike a sibling reply I agree with you that it reflects helplessness - I certainly didn’t see any of the protagonists “controlling their destiny” - I saw them being washed up on and dashed against the shores of time like so much flotsam and jetsam, making ultimately meaningless decisions against a backdrop of inevitability. Another Bulgakov book I loved was “A Country Doctor’s Notebook”, which reflects both the hope and the privations of the early USSR. Finally, if you like Bulgakov, I really recommend Andrei Kurkov and Victor Pelevin - they explore similar themes in a similar fashion.

murrayb 8y ago

Disappointed to find out that there is no Kindle version. I actually find that uncommon lately so it is a surprise when there isn't one.

peteretep 8y ago
From a UK account, I find many Kindle versions of it. A specific translation may not have one.
politelemon 8y ago
I was able to find multiple Kindle editions on Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00BKA4H6W https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00BKA4H6W https://www.amazon.co.uk/Master-Margarita-Vintage-Classic-Russians-ebook/dp/B003ELY7JM https://www.amazon.co.uk/Master-Margarita-Vintage-Classic-Ru... and Amazon US https://www.amazon.com/Master-Margarita-Vintage-Classic-Russians-ebook/dp/B003ELY7JM https://www.amazon.com/Master-Margarita-Vintage-Classic-Russ... https://www.amazon.com/Master-Margarita-Mikhail-Bulgakov-ebook/dp/B01DC7OGSO https://www.amazon.com/Master-Margarita-Mikhail-Bulgakov-ebo... However I can't tell which is the 'best' version - some classics have appeared on Kindle full of typos or can be translated badly so you have to look for a good one.
- murrayb 8y ago
  Apparently I was searching wrong- no clue how, possibly as a result of following a Google link into Amazon. Thank-you for the links.

IndrekR 8y ago

I was not expecting much from the book when I started reading it. Yet it is one of the few I could not put down before it was 9am and I had read it all. The wit and all the layers! A true surprise for me, in a positive way.

msadowski 8y ago

Master and Margarita is one of my favorite books. First time I've read it when I was 17 or 18, then around 22 and then around 25. Each time I've read it I took something else from it and was surprised that it's the same book. Probably it has something to do with growing up. At some point I was really into Russian and Polish fantasy/sci-fi and I especially liked the social aspects of some of the stories.

Bartweiss 8y ago
I picked it up at about the same time for some English class, and I remember being a bit shocked that something so obviously Deep and Literary could be quite so much fun. It's not the only example, of course, but for me it still occupies a special intersection between "flip through it when I'm not up to anything heavy" and "reread it carefully to see something new". I first picked up Lem not long after, and got the same feeling. I wonder if the "literary vs. genre" dichotomy is less engrained outside of English writing - or perhaps I was just mislead by our stereotypes about the weight of "Russian Literature".
- toyg 8y ago
  Or perhaps "Russian literature" is a concept as vast as the country, and some of it transcends easy labels. Like Bulgakov, Dostoevsky was capable to write at various different levels.
  - Bartweiss 8y ago
    Yes, certainly. I wasn't very clear, but my meaning was that there's a certain Western/American concept of "Russian Literature" as being exclusively long, philosophical, realistic, and depressing - as though The Brothers Karamazov and Anna Karenina are the prototype for everything else. But it's obviously not true; reducing Russian-language literature to Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, and Solzhenitsyn is insulting crude. (And even Dostoevsky can be funny!) Bulgakov and Pasternak are at least recognized, but reduced to one work each. Zamyatin ought to be taught next to Orwell and Huxley, but he and a great many others are basically unknown. And all of that's before the conflation of Russian, Soviet, and Eastern Bloc work. Lem, Čapek, and so on aren't even Russian writers but get subsumed in the same category of thought. It's a frustrating gap in American-read canon all around, and as a particular fan of sci-fi I think the focus on Russian 'literary' over 'genre' work has left a major hole in our perception of SF.

smsm42 8y ago

I love this novel, but I wonder if it's possible to really appreciate it without knowing the realities of the time it was written about (the 1930th is Russia, the time of the Big Terror) and the personal situation of Bulgakov himself (he was intending for Stalin to read the novel and expected it would make him change Bulgakov's very problematic stance with literary and theatrical establishment). And of course I am not sure how it is possible to translate Bulgakov's rich and masterful language. But do try it anyway, still worth it.

zyvy 8y ago

Novel for Stalin. Noticed that this book is loved by the all security/intelligence services like KGB-FSB -> don’t like it more https://ru-bykov.livejournal.com/2015279.html https://ru-bykov.livejournal.com/2015279.html

Muha_ 8y ago
This book is not for Stalin and not against Stalin. This book is about bad people, good people and faith in fairness. And this is just a good fiction.

satori99 8y ago

I have never heard of this book before, but the description made me think of the Robert Heinlein novel 'Job: A Comedy of Justice'. Especially the line "The final joke of the book is that maybe Satan is not the bad guy after all" I am adding it to my reading list. Thanks! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Job:_A_Comedy_of_Justice https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Job:_A_Comedy_of_Justice

person_of_color 8y ago

Just finished The Name of The Wind and time to read this ;)

tk75x 8y ago
You should check out the sequel to The Name of the Wind, A Wise Man's Fear.
- mindcrime 8y ago
  You should check out the sequel to The Name of the Wind, A Wise Man's Fear. Yes, then re-read both, as well as the entire catalog of Dostoevsky, the Bible, the Koran, the Bhagavad Gita, The Illiad, and The Odyssey, and by then Rothfuss might actually be finished with the third book in the trilogy...
  - tingol 8y ago
    I kinda lost interest after the second book, it was pretty bad tbh...
- person_of_color 8y ago
  Is it any good?

Tharkun 8y ago

Any book that features a tommy gun toting tomcat is worth a read, regardless of whether life got you down. It's one of my favourite books, and it's one that can reread multiple times, each time revealing new insights and references.

Graham24 8y ago

there was a great radio 4 adaptation of this from the 90s, but I can only find references to a 2015 version.

CraneWorm 8y ago

I'd like to offer a supplementary medicine for falling of the gravy train of life. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EchbzHN3lek https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EchbzHN3lek

yakshaving_jgt 8y ago

I read TMaM when I was 25, after being given a copy for Christmas from my father. He's Polish, and studied Russian in school. I put off reading it for two years, because I don't read much. Among my English friends, there's an air of sophistication to being able to say you're reading a Russian novel. My girlfriend is Russian, and she said she enjoyed the book when she read it as a child. A humbling moment.

konart 8y ago

Life Got You Down? Time to read Ilf and Petrov (The Twelve Chairs, The Little Golden Calf, One-storied America)

doombolt 8y ago
It is very often overlooked, but "The Little Golden Calf" is awesome. It is an amazingly fun read yet it is full of deep insights into pre-war Soviet Union's everyday life. The character is basically a superhero who goes through this society as a hot knife through butter. Yet it is much more serious than "Twelve Chairs" which is basically a sitcom.
- romwell 8y ago
  Wouldn't call "The Little Golden Calf" overlooked (not by Russian speakers, at least); and yes, after reading it, I wondered how it ever passed censorship back in the days. The movie[1] is also great. Shot in black and white, it adds to the solemnity amid the humor. [1]https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%97%D0%BE%D0%BB%D0%BE%D1%82%D0%BE%D0%B9_%D1%82%D0%B5%D0%BB%D1%91%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%BA_(%D1%84%D0%B8%D0%BB%D1%8C%D0%BC,_1968) https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%97%D0%BE%D0%BB%D0%BE%D1%82...
  - doombolt 8y ago
    The movie is also awesome and I think I saw the movie first.
dmitripopov 8y ago
Hell yes!
deleted 8y ago
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qqqwww 8y ago
One-Storied America, unlike the other two books which are (humorous) fiction, is a travelogue of Soviet writers visiting the USA in the 30's. It's a fascinating account, and some editions include the photographs taken by one of the authors. The thing that struck me the most is that many trivial observations they made about US in the same ones I made when I immigrated in the 90's. I'm talking mostly about everyday things: giant parking lots, drug stores that sell mostly not drugs, trucks that hold multiple new cars, fast food, etc. Amazing how little has changed and how old the modern everyday American way of life is.

Insanity 8y ago

Since I don't understand Russian, is there any English translation that you'd recommend over another? I've only ventured slightly into Russian litarature (English translations thereof) with "The death of Ivan Ilych" and "the dream of a rediculous man". I consider the former to be one of the best books I have read this year, and would like to give TMaM a try but always have trouble deciding on a translation.

thelastidiot 8y ago
I read that one and I was happy with it: The Master and Margarita Paperback – March 19, 1996 by Mikhail Bulgakov (Author), Diana Burgin (Translator), Katherine Tiernan O'Connor (Translator) Of course, Amazon will provide reviews for all translations in one big bucket so it's hard to know which one gets the best review. You can go to sub reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/1lngmm/which_the_master_and_margarita_translation_should/ https://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/1lngmm/which_the_mas...
80801 8y ago
Richard Pevear & Larissa Volokhonsky. Since they get so much praise, anything russian I have read was translated by them.
- FabHK 8y ago
  And they did the Penguin 50 yr anniversary edition [1]. It has some useful notes at the end, too. I found the notes in the Annotated Lolita [2] very helpful, unfortunately I haven't really found an annotated version of M&M (beyond what's in [1]). [1] https://www.amazon.com/dp/0143108271 https://www.amazon.com/dp/0143108271 [2] https://www.amazon.com/Annotated-Lolita-Revised-Updated/dp/0679727299 https://www.amazon.com/Annotated-Lolita-Revised-Updated/dp/0...
- billfruit 8y ago
  They have many critics also who refuse to buy into the Pevear-Volokhknsky hype, even considering their translations as 'disastrous': https://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2013/01/the-pevearvolokhonsky-hype-machine-and-how-it-could-have-been-stopped-or-at-least-slowed-down/ https://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2013/01/the-...

petecooper 8y ago

Thanks for this. Life has got me down a bit at the moment, and I wasn't aware of this book -- so thank you for the pointer.

onewhonknocks 8y ago
I'm just a random, anonymous, internet person, but I hope that you feel better Pete. Remember that the way you feel now is just a snapshot in time, and that things will almost certainly get better from here.
- petecooper 8y ago
  Thank you, that made me smile. I really appreciate your words.

pjmlp 8y ago

One of the best books I have read.

JerryPavlic 8y ago

I attended a Russian poetry event by accident a couple of days ago. I didn't understand a thing but this made my whole experience of it even more beautiful. I could literally feel what the artists were talking about and the reactions of the crowd. I guess it had to do a little with the fact that they were expats and the Russian poetry probably reminded them at home, but the energy in the room was so intense. Later i spoke with one of the attendees and he explained that poetry (or literature in this case) is a way of connecting similair perspectives to life to people divided by the enormous distances in Russia. Thats why the people attending the event - even though they didnt know each other, had a great feeling of connection and were prone to expressing their patriotic emotions. To quote him: "I felt Russian for the first time in a long time tonight."And this is a great quote: "Literature can be a catalyst for change. But it can also be a safety valve for a release of tension and one that results in paralysis"

sonnyg 8y ago

For people who have read it, what translation do you recommend?

bardam 8y ago
Richard Pevear/Larissa Volokhonsky, a husband and wife team who have been translating Russian novels for close to 30 years. Having read most of Dostoevsky's works, some their translations, some others, I highly recommend their translations when available.
- notyourday 8y ago
  Those two are fantastic, largely because they don't translate. Rather they re-write the works in the target language that both of them speak extremely well.
- t3h2mas 8y ago
  amazon (no ref): https://www.amazon.com/dp/0143108271 https://www.amazon.com/dp/0143108271 in case anyone has the same issues I did finding it.

atomical 8y ago

> I have a friend who married her husband almost exclusively because he told her he had read it. So believable.

Koshkin 8y ago
... and now he wishes he hadn't.

deleted 8y ago

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barbarian 8y ago

I've read a great deal of Russian literature old and modern, but I didn't much like this book. It was like an unplanned Salmon Rushdie novel, where the metaphors don't seem to add up to anything - very likely there was a lot of cultural reference in the symbology that went over my head - but still, just didn't get much pleasure from reading it.

JauntTrooper 8y ago
I felt the same way. My wife and I each got copies of the book so we could read it together and were excited about it, given the rave reviews, but neither of us could get into it. I think I would get a lot more out of it as part of a structured class or group discussion that could explain some of the cultural references and symbology, as you say.
robin_reala 8y ago
Slight digression, but I’m trying to expand my productions of Russian literature for Standard Ebooks: I’ve produced some Dostoyevsky, Gogol, Garshin and Sologub so far. Was considering a Bunin or Leskov compliation next, but is there anyone slightly off the beaten path that I’m missing with a decent public domain translation?

dmitripopov 8y ago

I always wonder why non-Russian speakers perceive books like "The Master and Margarita" as "fun". I guess the reason is that the spirit of the novel gets lost in translation. In Russian all humorous elements sum up as a dark depressing feeling towards the end of the novel. That what makes it a Russian classic.

notyourday 8y ago
It is just signaling of intellectualism. Most of English translations of classic Russian lit suck -- for example one is highly unlikely to get by reading English translation of "The Master and Margarita" that it is satire even if one gets hundreds of pages of foot notes. Volokhonsky and Peavar do the best but one still needs those hundreds of pages of footnotes which are just not there. Reading TMAM pretty much requires jumping off the TMAM train every few paragraphs and venturing into Literaturnaya Gazeta, history of KPSS, lore of the MGU, etc just to realize the mood of those paragraphs.
- simias 8y ago
  That's pointless projection. I read The Master and Margarita a long time ago because I read somewhere that it was one inspiration for the Rolling Stone's Sympathy for the Devil, so I wasn't exactly driven by pretentious intellectualism. It still managed to become one of my favorite novels and I even started learning Russian because of it (still working on that actually). I hope someday I'll be able to read it in the original language. In hindsight I only regret starting with an English translation instead of a French one as I suspect that Russian maps better (although obviously still very imperfectly) with French grammar. Now if you want signaling of intellectualism I've also seen Simon McBurney's adaptation of the novel as a play at Avignon's theater festival a few years ago and it was absolutely magnificent.
  - notyourday 8y ago
    > I read The Master and Margarita a long time ago because I read somewhere that it was one inspiration for the Rolling Stone's Sympathy for the Devil, so I wasn't exactly driven by pretentious intellectualism. I have a hunch you do not discuss The Master and Margarita at parties. Edit: The downvotes on this is the exact reason why McDuff is popular - it is intellectual masturbation. The one mocked by Russian writers. One, of course, should read it in Russian on in V&P translation to notice this plot twist. It is always fun to watch.

krueger71 8y ago

Great book! When I borrowed it the librarian said she envied me the experience of reading it for the first time

kharms 8y ago

The Russian language version on Audible is one of the best narrated books I’ve listened to, with the other being The Sympathizer. I recommend it.

dmitrygr 8y ago

I love the book as much as the next Russian, and have read it the requisite three times, but this article is nonsense. It gets even the basic facts wrong (Margarita flies around before the ball, Woland is not in any way unhappy about her asking for the Master to be freed, etc) That being said, do read this book a few times! If not reading in Russian, read different translations. If too young (or unaware of Russian history) to get many references, reading "Дети Арбата" beforehand will help slightly.

GeoffKnauth 8y ago

This is one of my favorite books ever. I've read it in Russian and English. I have the DVDs of the TV series made in Russia about 10 years ago. Is there a Russian audiobook version anywhere?

Koshkin 8y ago
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=мастер+и+маргарита+аудиокнига https://duckduckgo.com/?q=мастер+и+маргарита+аудиокнига

usermac 8y ago

I found it just now using the iOS app Libby which links to my local library card and allows me to check it out for two weeks.

simtam 8y ago

Say, how are things with adaptations of "The Master and Margarita" into other media? There was some Hollywood movie undergoing, or wasn't it? Pretty sure I didn't mistake it with the Fantastic Beasts franchise... I myself gonna humblebrag, one of my mods for Skyrim is named "Never Talk To NPCs" after the first chapter of the book. Of course it's only rehashing a few selected tropes, not an adaptation in the strict sense. So is "The Master and Margarita" really for people who feel low in their lifes? My activity once led me to reading a thread on 4chan about "The Master and Margarita", where the OP-anon insisted there's no point in a book where there is magic and "the protaganist [i.e., Woland] can do everything". Not sure if it was genuine trolling or some poor soul forced to read in for a class assignment, but there's a grain of good question in that observation. SPOILER if Woland frees the Master only after Margarita wished to free other person, maybe Woland wasn't in power to free the Master without that happening? we'll never know in the book, but I shall imply that the whole thing was set up precisely for that accomplishment END SPOILER.

janvanhellemont 8y ago

You can now read «The Master and Margarita» and understand its satire through a free smartphone app with annotations per chapter. iPhone https://itunes.apple.com/app/id770608895 https://itunes.apple.com/app/id770608895 Android https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.app.p9370GG https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.app.p9370G... The annotations are also on the «Master and Margarita» website https://www.masterandmargarita.eu/en/02themas/aantekeningen.html https://www.masterandmargarita.eu/en/02themas/aantekeningen....