“One hot spring evening, just as the sun was going down, two men appeared at Patriarch’s Ponds.”
The Son of a theological scholar and the descendant of Russian Orthodox clergymen, Mikhail Bulgakov was a Ukrainian-born Russian playwright and physician, best remembered today for his exceptional novels including the subject of this review and his magnum opus, The Master and Margarita.
Despite Stalin reportedly loving certain Bulgakov plays, the vast majority of his creative output was perhaps unsurprisingly censored and, in many cases, outrightly banned by the Soviet government. Despite being written between 1928 and 1940, The Master and Margarita fell victim to this prohibition and consequently was not published until 1966, 26 years after the death of its author, who would never receive the approbation he deserved.
The Soviet Union during the regime of Stalin was a dangerous place for writers to dissent from the status quo; furthermore, a tyrannical and ruthless leader proclaimed by propaganda to be essentially infallible, made any form of satire a particularly risky endeavour. It is, however, (perhaps ironically) that from this period that The Master and Margarita, of history’s foremost satirical novels emerged.
The Master and Margarita by Bulgakov is a masterpiece of 20th-century modernist literature, in which supernatural elements are expertly combined with Christian philosophy in a wonderfully dark and satirical manner.
In The Master and Margarita, Satan has come to Moscow to present a magic show whilst under the guise of Woland, a foreign professor and black magic expert. Satan is accompanied by an entourage of mischievous characters including, most famously, an enormous, bipedal, talking, demonic black cat named Behemoth.
The mischievous (often humorous) exploits of Satan and associates are interspersed by a second significantly more philosophical narrative set not in the contemporary Soviet Union, but first century Jerusalem during Pontius Pilate’s trial of Jesus of Nazareth. This second narrative focuses on Pilate’s internal struggle and ultimately acquiescence to Jesus’ crucifixion.
Although some of the novel’s sublime satirical humour comes purely from the absurdity of its demonic subject, much of it comes from the aforementioned Stalinist era backdrop in which half of it occurs and in which it was written. Bulgakov’s dark wit throughout the text illustrates how the self-serving interests of soviet society breed avarice and contempt in its citizens, juxtaposing the regime’s allegedly egalitarian ideals.
Whilst the novel is at its core a not so thinly veiled critique of Soviet society and a declaration of the author’s artistic frustrationat censorship, it is also Bulgakov’s love letter to classic literature; the novel is full of allusions and references to other works, particularly von Goethe’s rendition of Faust, as well as the works of fellow Russian satirists Nikolai Gogol and Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin.
The Master and Margarita has deservedly earned a place in the illustrious canon of Russian literature. It is witty, satirical, and farcical whilst also deeply philosophical, terribly dark, and perhaps even unnerving. Although the intermingling narratives of Jerusalem and Moscow may sound complex, they are truly complimentary and the way they ultimately come together in the second half of the book serves to make Mikhail Bulgakov’s opus a novel not to be passed up.
“The next morning he wakes up silent, but completely calm and well.”
This review of The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov is the third instalment of a fortnightly series called 50 Books. The series shines a spotlight on classical literature from throughout history and all over the world. If you have suggestions for future instalments comment and let me know.
Next time: The 11th-century Heian period Japanese Monogatari, The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu
Words by Luke Horwitz
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