![]() ![]() More ironic and mischevious, really, but with a very clear sense of fair play. ::grin:: Not evil not even in oppostion to good. This is exactly how I think of the Devil (and I won't say, "if I believed in the Devil." That would be incredibly cheeky right on the heels of reading this book). His bravery was remarkable, and it makes the whole thing so much more poignant.As for the story itself, one of my favourite things is the portrayal of Satan. Things that he couldn't have safely written openly (and, I believe, the reason this wasn't published until a couple of decades after his death). There's some autobiographical stuff in the story, as well as a *lot* of carefully presented "commentary" about the Russian government of the day (this was written in the late 1930s through early 1950s, IIRC). It was *so* interesting to learn all the layers that Bulgakov had incorporated into the book, and also some biographical things about him. As I read through the notations, I realised that I'd missed a lot of irony, humour and meaning because I don't speak Russian, and am not familiar with Russian history - for example, I missed a lot of word play on character names. I enjoyed the book while I was reading it, but what I loved was reading the endnotes (this was one book I'd have preferred to have footnoted, actually). On the surface, it's a story about Satan and some of the shenanigans he and his cohorts get up to during a few days in Russia. This was a really remarkable book, recommended by alpheratz (and I'm so glad she did). It does not give the original publication date, but merely states that the copyright is 2009.Someday I may tackle this book again. ![]() Aside from all this, the book makes no mention of the name of the translator. Again, I had to re-read to be sure who was speaking. Besides this, there were sometimes spaces just after quotation marks, before the quotes, adding to the confusion since there is dialogue from different speakers in one paragraph. In order to justify the margins, gaping spaces were inserted into the middle of sentences in random spots, forcing me to read the lines over and over to finally gather meaning from the text. (It is.) It is something I’d never paid attention to before, but couldn’t help being distracted by in the Classic House Books edition. I actually had to check some other books to see if print is normally justified on both the right and left hand margins of the page. The printing justification was irritating, as well. Besides the countless “normal” spelling errors on each page, some letters were replaced by semicolons and the letter “z” often (not always) was replaced by the number “2,” giving me the impression that the typesetter not only couldn’t read English, but was unfamiliar with the Roman alphabet. First and foremost, the editing was appalling. This book came to me very highly recommended, but I found the magical realism hard for relate to, and at this point I don’t feel equipped to write a meaningful review of the novel.I would, however, like to say a few words about the Classic House Books edition, which is the one I read. It is full of theatrical characters and fantastic events, narrated in a matter of fact voice. Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita is a work of magical realism, dealing with the themes of God and the devil, good and evil. What ensues is a novel of inexhaustible energy, humor, and philosophical depth, a work whose nuances splendidly emerge in Diana Burgin’s and Katherine Tiernan O’Connor's superb English translation, with an afterword and extensive commentary by Ellendea Proffer. 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 to literally go to hell for him. The visitors quickly wreak havoc in a city that refuses to believe in either God or Satan. 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. Now The Overlook Press is reissuing this acclaimed translation in an all-new package. Its truths are so enduring that its language has become part of the common Russian speech. The novel’s vision of Soviet life in the 1930s is so ferociously accurate that it could not be published during its author’s lifetime and appeared only in a censored edition in the 1960s. The acclaimed, bestselling translation of Mikhail Bulgakov’s masterwork, an undisputed classic of Russian and world literatureĪn audacious revision of the stories of Faust and Pontius Pilate, The Master and Margarita is recognized as one of the essential classics of modern Russian literature.
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