The Master and Margarita
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The Master and Margarita (Russian: ) is a novel by Mikhail Bulgakov, woven about the premise of a visit by the Devil to the fervently atheistic Soviet Union. Many critics consider the book to be one of the greatest Russian novels of the 20th century, as well as one of the foremost Soviet satires, directed against an otherwise immobile social order.
History
Bulgakov started writing the novel in 1928. The first version of the novel was destroyed (according to Bulgakov, burned in a stove) in March 1930 when he was notified that his piece Cabal of Sanctimonious Hypocrites (Кабала святош) was banned. The work was restarted in 1931 and the second draft was completed in 1936 by which point all the major plot lines of the final version were in place. The third draft was finished in 1937. Bulgakov continued to polish the work with the aid of his wife, but was forced to stop work on the fourth version four weeks before his death in 1940. The work was completed by his wife during 1940-1941.A censored version (12% of the text removed and still more changed) of the book was first published in Moscow magazine (no. 11, 1966 and no. 1, 1967). The text of all the omitted and changed parts, with indications of the places of modification, was published on a samizdat basis. In 1967 the publisher Posev (Frankfurt) printed a version produced with the aid of these inserts. In Russia, the first complete version, prepared by Anna Saakyants, was published by Khudozhestvennaya Literatura in 1973, based on the version of the beginning of 1940 proofread by the publisher. This version remained the canonical edition until 1989, when the last version was prepared by literature expert Lidiya Yanovskaya based on all available manuscripts.
Plot
The novel alternates between three settings. The first is 1930s Moscow, which is visited by Satan in the guise of Woland (Воланд), a mysterious gentleman "magician" of uncertain origin, who arrives with a retinue that includes the grotesquely dressed "ex-choirmaster" valet Koroviev (Fagotto) (Фагот, the name means "bassoon" in Russian and some other languages), the mischievous, gun-happy, fast-talking black cat Behemoth (Бегемот, a subversive Puss in Boots, the name referring to the Biblical monster), the fanged hitman Azazello (Азазелло, hinting of Azazel), the pale-faced Abadonna (Абадонна, a reference to Abbadon) with a death-inflicting stare, and the witch Hella (Гелла). The havoc wreaked by this group targets the literary elite, along with its trade union, MASSOLIT (a Soviet-style abbreviation for "Moscow Society of Literature", but possibly interpretable as "Literature for the Masses"; one edition of the book also mentions that this could be a play on words in Russian, which could be translated into English as something like "LOTTALIT"), its privileged HQ-cum-restaurant Griboyedov's House, corrupt social-climbers and their women (wives and mistresses alike) – bureaucrats and profiteers – and, more generally, skeptical unbelievers in the human spirit.The opening sequence of the book presents a direct confrontation between the unbelieving head of the literary bureaucracy, Berlioz (Берлиоз), and an urbane foreign gentleman who defends belief and reveals his prophetic powers (Woland). This is witnessed by a young and enthusiastically modern poet, Ivan Bezdomny (Иван Бездомный - the name means "Homeless"). His futile attempt to chase and capture the "gang" and warn of their evil and mysterious nature lands Ivan in a lunatic asylum. Here we are introduced to The Master, an embittered author, the petty-minded rejection of whose historical novel about Pontius Pilate and Christ has led him to such despair that he burns his manuscript and turns his back on the "real" world, including his devoted lover, Margarita (Маргарита). Major episodes in the first part of the novel include Satan's magic show at the Variety Theatre, satirizing the vanity, greed and gullibility of the new rich, and the capture and occupation of Berlioz's flat by Woland and his gang.
In Part 2, we meet Margarita, the Master's mistress, who refuses to despair of her lover or his work. She is made an offer by Satan, and accepts it, becoming a witch with supernatural powers on the night of his Midnight Ball, or Walpurgis Night, which coincides with the night of Good Friday, linking all three elements of the book together, since the Master's novel also deals with this same spring full moon when Christ's fate is sealed by Pontius Pilate and he is crucified in Jerusalem.
The second setting is the Jerusalem of Pontius Pilate, described by Woland talking to Berlioz and echoed in the pages of the Master's rejected novel, which concerns Pontius Pilate's meeting with Yeshua Ha-Notsri (Jesus), his recognition of an affinity with and spiritual need for him, and his reluctant but resigned and passive handing over of him to those who want to kill him.
The third setting is the one to which Margarita provides a bridge. Learning to fly and control her unleashed passions (not without exacting violent retribution on the literary bureaucrats who condemned her beloved to despair), and taking her enthusiastic maid Natasha with her, she enters naked into the world of the night, flies over the deep forests and rivers of Mother Russia, bathes, and, cleansed, returns to Moscow as the anointed hostess for Satan's great Spring Ball. Standing by his side, she welcomes the dark celebrities of human history as they pour up from the opened maw of Hell.
She survives this ordeal without breaking, and for her pains and her integrity she is rewarded: Satan offers to grant Margarita her deepest wish. She chooses to liberate the Master and live in poverty and love with him. However, neither Satan nor God think this is any kind of life for good people, and the couple leave Moscow with the Devil, as its cupolas and windows burn in the setting sun of Easter Saturday.
Textual interpretations and influences
The interplay of fire, water, destruction and other natural forces provides a constant accompaniment to the events of the novel, as do light and darkness, noise and silence, sun and moon, storms and tranquility, and other powerful polarities. There is a complex relationship between Jerusalem and Moscow throughout the novel, sometimes polyphony, sometimes counterpoint.The novel is heavily influenced by Goethe's Faust, and the themes of cowardice, trust, treachery, intellectual openness and curiosity, and redemption are prominent.
The book may be read from a number of different perspectives, such as slapstick humor, philosophical allegory, or socio-political satire critical not just of the Soviet system but also of the superficiality and vanity of modern life in general. In another of its facets, the book is a Bildungsroman with Ivan as its focus.
Bulgakov employs entirely different writing styles in the alternating sections. The Moscow chapters, ostensibly involving the more "real and immediate" world, are written in a fast-paced, almost farcical tone, while the Jerusalem chapters – the words of the Master's fiction – are written in a hyper-realistic style. (See Mikhail Bulgakov for the impact of the novel on other writers.) The tone of the narrative swings freely from Soviet bureaucratic jargon to cinematic imagery, from sarcastic to deadpan to lyrical, as the scenes dictate.
The final chapters are late drafts that Bulgakov pasted to the back of his manuscript; he died before he could incorporate these chapters into a completed fourth draft.
English translations
- redirect
- Mirra Ginsburg, New York: Grove Press, 1967.
- Michael Glenny, New York: Harper & Row, 1967; London: Harvill, 1967; with introduction by Simon Franklin, New York: Knopf, 1992; London: Everyman's Library, 1992.
- Diana Burgin and Katherine Tiernan O'Connor, annotations and afterword by Ellendea Proffer, Ann Arbor: Ardis, 1993, 1995.
- Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, London: Penguin, 1997.
Glenny's translation runs more smoothly than that of Pevear and Volokhonsky; some Russian-speaking readers consider it to be the only one creating the desired effect, though it may be somewhat at liberty with the text. Pevear and Volokhonsky pay for their attempted closeness by losing idiomatic flow.
Several literary critics have hailed the Burgin/Tiernan O’Connor translation as the most accurate and complete English translation, particularly when read in tandem with the matching annotations by Bulgakov’s biographer, Ellendea Proffer.
Influence
Various authors and musicians have credited The Master and Margarita as inspiration for certain works.
- Salman Rushdie's novel The Satanic Verses, was influenced by Bulgakov's masterwork.
- The Rolling Stones have said the novel was key in their song "Sympathy for the Devil".
- The grunge band Pearl Jam were influenced by the novel's confrontation between Yeshua Ha-Notsri, that is, Jesus, and Pontius Pilate for their 1998 "Yield" album song, "Pilate".
- The Lawrence Arms based their album The Greatest Story Ever Told on the book and several of its themes.
- The Franz Ferdinand song "Love and Destroy" was based on a scene where Margarita flies over Moscow on her way to the Walpurgis Night Ball.
- The Canadian group The Tea Party also were inspired by this book when they wrote their song "The Master and Margarita."
- Arlie Carstens sings the line "Bulgakov to Woland's crowd," on the Juno song "The French Letter" from their album A Future lived in Past Tense.
- Elefant, a New York City-based group, released The Black Magic Show in April 2006. The title and first track reference Satan's magic show.
- The German composer York Höller's opera Der Meister und Margarita was premiered in 1989 at the Paris Opéra and released on CD in 2000.
TV and Film adaptations
1971: Polish director Andrzej Wajda makes a movie "Pilate and Others", based on biblical part of the book ('The Master's manuscript'). [link]1972: Joint Italian-Yugoslavian production of Aleksandar Petrovic's "The Master and Margaret" (Italian: "Il Maestro e Margherita", Serbo-croatian: "Majstor i Margarita") is released. Based loosely on the book, the main discrepancy is that Master in the movie has an actual name of Nikolaj Afanasijevic Maksudov, while in the original book Master is persistently anonymous. [link]
1989: Another Polish director Maciej Wojtyszko makes a mini-TV series of seven episodes (Polish: "Mistrz i Malgorzata"). This series have been aired on Russian Television at least once. [link].
1992: In an adaptation called "Incident in Judea" by Paul Bryers, only the Yeshua story is told. The film includes a prologue which mentiones Bulgakov and the other story-lines. The cast includes John Woodvine, Mark Rylance, Lee Montague and Jim Carter. The film was distributed by Brook Productions and Channel 4.
1994: A Russian movie of the same name is made by Yuri Kara. Although the cast included big names and talented actors (Anastasiya Vertinskaya as Margarita, Mikhail Ulyanov as Pilate, Nikolai Burlyayev as Jesus Christ, Valentin Gaft as Woland, Aleksandr Filippenko as Korovyev-Fagot) and its score was by the noted Russian composer Alfred Schnittke, the movie was never actually released on any media.[link]
According to rumours, at different times Elem Klimov, Vladimir Naumov [link] and Roman Polanski have also thought about making "Master and Margarita" adaptations.
2005: The Master and Margarita miniseries, 2005 - Russian director Vladimir Bortko, famous for his TV adaptation of Bulgakov's "Heart of a Dog" and Dostoyevsky's "The Idiot", makes a "Master and Margarita" TV miniseries of ten episodes. The miniseries was first released on December 19,2005. It starred Aleksandr Galibin as The Master, Anna Kovalchuk as Margarita, Oleg Basilashvili as Woland, Kirill Lavrov as Pontius Pilate and Valentin Gaft as Kaifa. The project was widely successful, and is considered by some to be closest to the book.
More details about these series can be found in the [main Russian article].
Theatre
- A German language stage adaptation of the novel, "Der Meister und Margarita", directed by [Frank Castorf] premiered in the summer of 2002 at the [Wiener Festwochen], Vienna, Austria and is discussed in the [August/September 2002 or 08|09 02 issue] of the German language theater magazine, [Theater heute]. (Use the Archive link on the left at the above site to access information for 2002 issues.)
- An adaptation of the novel was staged in 2004 at the Chichester Festival Theatre, UK. [link]
External links
- [Bulgakov and The Master and Margarita]: Useful introduction with lots of illustrative material.
- () [Master i Margarita] Amateur but very high-quality site, devoted solely to Bulgakov's Master and Margarita (in Dutch)
- [The Master and Margarita]: Excerpts in three languages
- [Complete online texts]: The full text in Russian, and in two English versions, Glenny and Pevear & Volokhonsky
- [Full text in Russian]: At Alexei Komarov's Internet Library
- [Russians Await a Cult Novel's Film Debut With Eagerness and Skepticism]: at The New York Times
- [Master and Margarita (mini)]: at the Internet Movie Database
- [Master and Margarita TV adaptation articles and comments] (in English)
- [The Wotch]: A webcomic featuring a character named after Ivan Bezdomny.
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