Мастер и Маргарита

Автор Михаил Булгаков

Жанровая уникальность «Мастера и Маргариты» не позволяет как-то однозначно определить булгаковский роман. Очень хорошо это подметил американский литературовед М. Крепе в своей книге «Булгаков и Пастернак как романисты: Анализ романов «Мастер и Маргарита» и «Доктор Живаго»: «Роман Булгакова для русской литературы, действительно, в высшей степени новаторский, а потому и нелегко дающийся в руки. Только критик приближается к нему со старой стандартной системой мер, как оказывается, что кое-что так, а кое-что совсем не так. Фантастика наталкивается на сугубый реализм, миф на скрупулезную историческую достоверность, теософия на демонизм, романтика на клоунаду».
Если добавить еще, что действие ершалаимских сцен «Мастера и Маргариты» – романа Мастера о Понтии Пилате происходит в течение одного дня, что удовлетворяет требованиям классицизма, то можно с уверенностью сказать, что в булгаковском романе соединились весьма органично едва ли не все существующие в мире жанры и литературные направления. Тем более, что достаточно распространены определения «Мастера и Маргариты» как романа символистского, постсимволистского или неоромантического.
Кроме того, его вполне можно назвать и постреалистическим романом. С модернистской и постмодернистской, авангардистской литературой «Мастера и Маргариту» роднит то, что романную действительность, не исключая и современных московских глав, Булгаков строит почти исключительно на основе литературных источников, а инфернальная фантастика глубоко проникает в советский быт.
В первой редакции роман имел варианты названий: «Черный маг», «Копыто инженера», «Жонглер с копытом», «Сын Велиара», «Гастроль Воланда». Первая редакция «Мастера и Маргариты» была уничтожена автором 18 марта 1930 г. после получения известия о запрете пьесы «Кабала святош». Об этом Булгаков сообщил в письме правительству 28 марта 1930 г.: «И лично я, своими руками, бросил в печку черновик романа о дьяволе...»
Вторая редакция «Мастера и Маргариты», создававшаяся вплоть до 1936 г., имела подзаголовок «Фантастический роман» и варианты названий: «Великий канцлер», «Сатана», «Вот и я», «Шляпа с пером», «Черный богослов», «Он появился», «Подкова иностранца», «Он явился», «Пришествие», «Черный маг» и «Копыто консультанта».
Третья редакция «Мастера и Маргариты», начатая во второй половине 1936 г. или в 1937 г., первоначально называлась «Князь тьмы», но уже во второй половине 1937 г. появилось хорошо известное теперь заглавие «Мастер и Маргарита». В мае – июне 1938 г. фабульно завершенный текст «Мастера и Маргариты» впервые был перепечатан. Авторская правка машинописи началась 19 сентября 1938 г. и продолжалась с перерывами почти до самой смерти писателя. Булгаков прекратил ее 13 февраля 1940 г., менее чем за четыре недели до кончины, на фразе Маргариты: «Так это, стало быть, литераторы за гробом идут?».
В настоящем издании представлен подлинный текст романа «Мастер и Маргарита» в последней прижизненной редакции (рукописи хранятся в отделе рукописей Российской государственной библиотеки).

• Язык: Русский
• Издатель: StreetLib
• Дата выпуска: 22 апр. 2017 г.
• ISBN: 9788826077031

Отзывы о Мастер и Маргарита

[heikem_13 · Рейтинг: 5 из 5 звезд]

I have never been to Russia nor studied it in great length but this book to me is quintessential Russia. It is a love letter and a satire at the same time, a mirror held against the political and social faults of Moscow. The devil and a few of his assistants descend upon the Moscow of 1929 - not to gather souls, but to show the citizens and their greed and hunger for power and riches up. With magical shows, games, murders and general mayhem the devil manages to get most of the good people into mental asylums.....and more I will not tell you. Woven into the story is the tale of Yeshua (Jesus) and his execution by Pontius Pilate. This part is written very sensitive and gentle, very serene, different to the loud and colourful telling of the devils tale. And of course in the end both stories come together. I like this devil, who is so different from the one we think we know. I like hell's version of Death, called The Murderer, I like the cat, one of the devils acolytes, mischievous and evil, I like the way the language is handled, the phrasing, the way it seems to be steeped in Russian history and lore. Go people, read!

[timoroso · Рейтинг: 2 из 5 звезд]

I guess everyone once in a while comes across a book that makes him aware of his limitations. The Master and Margarita for me is that kind of book. Having already abandoned it once after a couple of chapters, I was determined to finish it this time.A good review should be to some extent objective. And objectively speaking this is probably a good book. Many people seem to think so anyway. But I cannot really find much good here. There is not enough continuity in the story to make it really a story. As someone already noted, it is just a bunch of things that happen. The characters are flat, and the fact that there are so many of them made it impossible to keep track of even the most important ones. I do remember that there was at least one talking cat, however. Some of the social commentary is mildly interesting, but I think it has already lost much of its relevance.There are probably reasons that I am unable to grasp what a great piece of literature this is. It does seem very complex and mysterious, and I just cannot see behind that complexity. Also, I do not get almost any of the jokes and other supposedly funny bits in the book. I am thinking this is because the cultural differences are too great: probably a Russian contemporary of Bulgakov would have had no such difficulties.In spite of everything, I cannot really excuse Bulgakov. There are many books that are complex but not obscure, and humorous without being incomprehensible to a non-contemporary reader. A good writer is able to tell stories regardless of the limitations of his readers.

[sworldbridger · Рейтинг: 3 из 5 звезд]

not a book to go into lightly. a good study.definitely had to do my research to enjoy it fully. hard to make sense of it or get the tone without knowing a lot about russian history. what an imagination. wild ride. Enjoyed the parts with Pontius Pilate and Yershalaim the most because they were the easiest to understand. still enjoyed it though. I had to learn something knew and also enjoyed the themes it was working with.

[jayne_charles_1 · Рейтинг: 4 из 5 звезд]

I enjoyed the surreal humour in this book, and it was nice to read a Russian based novel that was at least written in a light-hearted manner, even if the underlying themes were darker.The author struggled for many years under Communist oppression and I am certain the irrepressible singing, the naked witch et al had deep political meaning, but as with many books of this nature, the allegory went over my head!

[jamishafer · Рейтинг: 4 из 5 звезд]

This novel will make you think, and possibly give you a headache like none other! Soviet Russia seems to be the real target of Bulgakov's pen, and he spears it admirably.

[rmmee · Рейтинг: 5 из 5 звезд]

I can't say I understand the nuances that underpin The Master and Margarita, but I cannot remember the last time that I was so gripped by a book. I have heard it described as a masterpiece, and would not disagree. I think I shall be reading this again in the future, for I suspect that there was so much I missed.Mine is the Folio Society edition, which has some fascinating illustrations to accompany the work.

[patsplendore · Рейтинг: 4 из 5 звезд]

How did I not know this author existed? A must read, so contemporary it is mad that it was written in the 30's.

[jmoncton_1 · Рейтинг: 4 из 5 звезд]

This goes in my bucket of 'great' books that I know meant more than what I gleaned from reading it, but I didn't quite get. How to describe this one? It's a story that bounces back and forth in time from the crucifixion of Christ to Soviet Russia during the 1930's. It has elements of Dante's inferno and making a deal with the devil. Pieces of this story were amazingly descriptive and beautifully written, but I am embarrassed to say that much of this book was way over my head. If I had to draw a simple outline of what happened in this book, I'm not sure I could write something that was even slightly coherent. Definitely in the pile of books to read again.

[alriske · Рейтинг: 4 из 5 звезд]

The devil comes to Moscow. What fun! This highly imaginative novel is hard to follow if you haven't read Faust (which I haven't), but worth it for the author's re-imagining of Pilot's meeting with Jesus and the death of Judas.

[silkypumpkin · Рейтинг: 5 из 5 звезд]

I read the Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky translation and it is my favorite book to date. I haven't read any of the other translations but I would highly recommend this version. There were no oddly translated bits as you sometimes come across when something is colloquial in the original. This book has everything I love in a good read and even when I finished it I couldn't stop thinking about it for days. It has adventure, love, suspense, humor and a message. I read it just a few months ago but I may read it again soon. Just perfect.

[atiara_7 · Рейтинг: 5 из 5 звезд]

I didn't like this translation. I'm assuming there's a better one out there somewhere.

[edith1_1 · Рейтинг: 3 из 5 звезд]

Not a good translation, by Mirra Ginsburg.

[ariadnearanea · Рейтинг: 4 из 5 звезд]

The Master is a writer working in Moscow who – among many of his fellow citizens – falls victim to the satanic Woland, who has come to Moscow with his coterie to throw his annual ball – and to cause a little havoc while he is at it. The Master, a gibbering wreck after all the strange things he has seen – including the apparent murder of his friend Berlioz – ends up in an insane asylum. Margarita, the Master’s (married) lover is offered the chance of reunion with her beloved by the demon Azazello, if she will follow his and Woland’s instructions. She agrees, and becomes a witch, later to be hostess at the devil’s ball. Interwoven with this story is the manuscript of the Master: the story of Yeshua (Jesus) and his execution by Pontius Pilate. Unlike the fantastical events in “contemporary” (1929) Moscow, the ancient story of Yeshua is told with a quiet, calm realism.Sounds surreal? It is a bit. And I loved Margarita, adventuresome and courageous, and the only non-demonic character to profit by Woland’s visit – taking the bizarre in her stride, accepting the unacceptable, and demanding what is good from what is, to say the least, morally ambiguous. Big wow.

[the_awesome_opossum · Рейтинг: 4 из 5 звезд]

The Master and Margarita is about the ambivalence of power. Even when it is corrupt or overbearing, power can look alluring if not absolutely irresistible. Such a tension comes to a head when Satan and his assistants descend upon Russia, ostensible magicians who can offer fortune and luxury to its citizens. Yet it is not - at least overtly - Satan who destroys the society, by taking their souls or anything cliche like that. Instead the city rather self-destructs, economically and socially, with the need for wealth and power.Authors are an especially persecuted lot, as their writing is suppressed and several of them are rounded up for mental institutions. Again, is this Satan's work, or only the work of a paranoid and totalitarian regime? The Master and Margarita was itself suppressed for years - Bulgakov's satire would've probably posed a real danger to himself had it been published. Yet, as Satan tells an author similarly suppressed, "Manuscripts don't burn." The fact that this satire outlived Russia's Communism, and remains as a historical marker of its situation, testifies to this fact. Satan and power may seem irresistible in this novel, but power and resistance take many forms, some of them (hopefully) indestructible.

[fpdc_1 · Рейтинг: 4 из 5 звезд]

An absolutely brilliant classic. Witty, profound, beautiful. An accomplished example of how a bitter political satire can constitute great literature.

[murphy4jacobs · Рейтинг: 4 из 5 звезд]

I have no idea what I think of this strange tale of the devil and the mortals in early 20th century Soviet Russia. It is an angry tale, a vengeful satire, with references not known to me so that I couldn't appreciate the finer points and details. For me, it was a wild, whirling tale, a fluttering of colors and images told in an arch tone.

I read it slowly, taking in sections and letting them digest in my mind. I spent some time on Wikipedia looking up things like Primus Stoves and Woland, and reading about the novel itself. It does take some study to grasp a book translated from another language and written some 80 years ago.

It's hard to run down any proper narrative thread, for there really isn't any, at least, not until well into the novel, when one finally meets the titular Master. The story comes to the reader like fluttery bits of torn colored paper collected together and laid down, adjacent and overlapping, fixed into a collage that eventually forms first one picture, then another, until the whole is apparent. Yet what the picture is, I cannot tell. It's still beyond me. I grasp the sarcastic tone, the dislike of overwhelming bureaucracy, the anger at restraint and cruelty and greed for power, money, and status, but I sense there are other layers in the book to which I am blind -- jokes, observations, philosophy and references for which I have no clue, glimpses into a time and a culture of which I know little.

Ah well, there's no help for it. Still, I enjoyed reading the novel, enjoyed the madness of it, the resolution of it, the odd tilt of it. I'll have to put it on my list of books to reread.

[bunwat_1 · Рейтинг: 4 из 5 звезд]

Hmmm, well. This book took me forever to read. One reason is that its just a dense book, lots of plots and sub plots and a pretty big cast of characters. Another is that Russia of the 20's and 30's is a sufficiently alien world to me that it often took extra effort and attention to figure out what was going on. There is a whole subplot involving foreign currency, another recurring motif of primus stoves- I can tell these things are important but then I have to go to the afterward or check a history text to figure out why. Additionally in places Bulgakov was writing to evade the censors so he is often oblique - for example he refers to one character having no buttons on his coat, by which we are to understand that he has recently been released from prison because apparently in Russia in the 20's prisoners had the buttons cut off their coats.

It is funny in spots, passionate in spots, and some of the descriptions - of the witches ride for example, are weirdly magical. The book was not completed before the author's death and I think there are places where he would have edited the manuscript if he had lived to do so - some of the early scenes when the devil is making everything go awry in Moscow get a little repetitive, and could probably stand some tightening up. But still, its complicated challenging and interesting.

I also appreciate having read it because it helps me to understand more about the history and development of magical realism and fantasy and political satire in the 20th century. It seems to connect up in my head in ways that I'm still figuring out with Kafka and Borges and Isabel Allende and Alice Walker; something about how things that can't be told flat can be told more effectively through the lens of myth and the fantastical... still pondering, but there's something there some influence or through line.

So its a bit of a chewy hunk of beef, but there's nourishment in it if you just keep on chewing. ;)

[kidsisyphus · Рейтинг: 2 из 5 звезд]

I guess being a writer in Stalinist Russia must have somehow been like directing one of those chimerical music videos from the early 1980s. You know, "I've got it! We'll put Satan in Moscow! And he'll be accompanied by an evil black cat that talks! And laser beams and smoke and sequins and Pontius Pilate and jet skis! Genius!"

[anonymabuggywhip · Рейтинг: 5 из 5 звезд]

I was enthralled from the first page. When I finished the book I went online and read about Bulgakov and the history of the book. The next day, I started reading it again, something I've never done before. I kind of feel like I want to re-read this same book, and only this one, forever!

[cjyurkanin · Рейтинг: 3 из 5 звезд]

The devil went down to Georgia Moscow, he was looking for a soul to steal to satirize the Stalinist Soviet Union. Check.

Bizarre, absurd, slap-stick, Kafkaesque, Celine-like, Dostoevsky-worthy, and the like. The adjectives and accolades and comparisons used to describe this book over the years are endless, including: "the greatest novel of the 20th century." Come on now. I've liked every Russian writer I've ever invited into my brain and Bulgakov is no exception, however, being witty or clever doesn't automatically place you in the echelon of literary greats. In my opinion it was a fine book, and the sections dealing with Pontius Pilate are magnificently written, but it wandered around so that I frankly had a difficult time keeping track of just what was happening to who and when. And the "wackiness" of the unexpected didn't quite go far enough to keep me sufficiently interested.

I feel guilty for not enjoying this book as much as so many other people obviously have.

[woolenthusiast · Рейтинг: 5 из 5 звезд]

A book to read and reread. There is so much in this book that you can't absorb it all the first time. Bulgakov's descriptions are so vivid that you can see them well after you have read the book.

[gesta_1 · Рейтинг: 5 из 5 звезд]

The devil and a few of his minions wreak havoc in 1930s Moscow. Wherever they go, chaos follows... This is the story of Faust, if Faust were a woman, brilliantly clever and in love. Margarita holds her own with Satan, exchanging her soul for awesome powers, all for the sake of the Master whom she loves, her champion, the writer of the Pontius Pilate story, told parallel to the Moscow hi-jinks. Bulgakov's novel is by turns hysterically funny, then poignant and sad. This is a glorious book, and gorgeously written, yet every part is succinctly put. Even the simple description of Satan's appearance, from his build to what he wears, is nothing short of chilling. Rollicking nonstop action and a strange, exotic locale made this, for me, an un-putdownable read - until the last few chapters, when I realized with horror I would soon be finished! I wasn't ready to say good-bye! So I dragged my feet and did my very best to make it last. Imagine my pleasure when I discovered the commentary at the end, like the juiciest of DVD extras. I found these notes, a veritable play-by-play of anything and everything relevant and interesting, infinitely valuable - I highly recommend this edition.

[lesetraum · Рейтинг: 3 из 5 звезд]

Wunderbar verrückte Geschichte mit tiefem politischen Hintergrund

[jenneb_2 · Рейтинг: 3 из 5 звезд]

I think this book would have been awesome if I had been a Russian person of that era.
As it is, I didn't really get it. I did like the part where she turns into a witch and flies over the countryside. That pretty much ruled.

[dulac3_1 · Рейтинг: 3 из 5 звезд]

3 - 3.5 stars

I find myself a little conflicted about this book. On the one hand it is full of scenes and ideas that are unquestionably intriguing and thought-provoking, on the other there were significant parts of it that I found, not bad, but certainly less than compelling and these latter segments made up the bulk of the first part of the novel. It wasn't until the commencement of Part Two that I felt as though things were beginning to gel and the ultimate story began to show its head. Prior to that we have three excellent introductory chapters that set up the context of the ‘main’ story: the arrival of the mysterious “Professor, Magician, and Consultant” Woland and his retinue of oddballs in 1930’s Moscow; this then shifts to an intriguing excerpt from a historical novel (written, we discover, by the titular ‘Master’) about Pontius Pilate and a decidedly un-biblical Christ. These introductory chapters are followed by a return to Moscow and, for me at least, things started to fall apart a bit as the bulk of Part One ended up being a litany of 'set-up' segments wherein Soviet intelligentsia get their comeuppances at the hands of Woland’s demonic entourage. I think my main problems with these scenes lay in the fact that I didn’t find the concentration on the internal politics of the early Soviet literary world compelling, not to mention the fact that the humour that pervades these scenes is strongly in the realm of farce, an area of comedy that really isn’t my cuppa. That being said I don’t want to knock on Bulgakov too much given that this was an unfinished novel that he apparently didn’t even expect to ever reach publication. There’s a heck of a lot going on in this book and it is a shame that we are unable to see what Bulgakov might have produced as a finished and fully polished work. What we do have is still very compelling as three main plotlines interweave and ultimately come together: the depredations made against Moscow and its tyrannical regime by Woland, who is also a very interesting version of the devil; the continuing story of Pontius Pilate, a man convinced of the evil of both himself and the world yet who desperately wants to believe in its goodness and who finds the turning point, and apparent tragedy, of his life in his meeting with the strange Yeshua Ha-Notsri (Jesus); finally we have the love story of the titular Master and Margarita, the former a writer languishing in an insane asylum after his great work is rejected and denounced by the bureaucracy of Soviet Russia and the latter his bereaved lover whose only hope is to save him.

Woland and his retinue are easily the most colourful characters in the story and include a giant talking black cat, a checker-suited comic sorcerer, a red-haired and fanged assassin-butler, and a sultry vampiress-witch. One of the most intriguing aspects of this devil as presented by Bulgakov is that in many ways he is analogous to the totalitarian State, for who else can make people vanish without a trace, plant 'evidence' to frame the innocent (and not so innocent), and instill in all and sundry an instinctual hatred mingled with terror? At the same time, though, Woland undermines everything the State does and stands for, his victims are the petty members of its bureaucracy and he ends up doing good even if he is willing evil (see the epigram from Goethe’s _Faust_ that begins the book). Ultimately Woland comes across much more as a force of chaos than of pure evil and he even seems to have some kind of relationship with the powers of light that goes beyond the adversarial. This duality continues into Bulgakov’s presentation of the Christ-figure Yeshua Ha-Notsri: on the one hand he at first appears to be what one might expect from a novel written under the anti-religious Soviet regime: at best just a well-meaning random man from first century Palestine who was killed by the powers that be for offending the wrong people…certainly not a messiah. Yet enough hints are dropped to imply that there really is something to this strange man, though we are never told exactly what that is. In the end the only supernatural force evident in the story is the diabolic (or at least chaotic) and one is left wondering where is God? No easy answer is provided, though Bulgakov does not seem to imply a nihilistic answer to this and goes so far as to provide Woland with some distinctly un-Satanic things to say about the world that are meant to provide hope even in the face of suffering and adversity: "But what can be done, the one who loves must share the fate of the one he loves." and "But in this case, Margarita, you need not upset yourself. Everything will be made right, that is what the world is built on."

I found the ‘main’ characters of the Master and Margarita to be a mixed bag. The unnamed Master is interesting in the way he displays both elements of power (he is very self-possessed and knowledgeable as opposed to his asylum-mate Ivan's almost manic temperament and complete lack of understanding), but he also seems strangely passive at the same time. I like him, but I'm not quite sure why and I felt that he more or less remained something of a cipher throughout the novel. Margarita, on the other hand, is vivid and full of life. Her main concern may be to find her lover, but she is very active in pursuing this end and lets nothing stand in her way. She also displays a touching humanity in the face of the suffering of others. Still at times it felt like the novel should have been entitled _Woland and his Retinue_ as opposed to _The Master & Margarita_ especially since we see little enough of the Master himself throughout the book (and what we do see ends up being quite passive) and Margarita does not gain a significant presence until the second half of the book. One other character, the poet Ivan Nikolayevich Ponyryov, seems poised to play a major role in the story when we first meet him and shares many thematic commonalities with other characters in the text, but little seems to come of this, though this may again have been the result of the unfinished nature of the text.

As I mentioned most of the segments of satire worked less well, or were less interesting, for me than the moments of pathos and romance that characterized the stories of Pilate and M&M (with the notable exception of the cat Behemoth's ludicrous battle with the police in Apt. 50 which was great) and thus I found myself gravitating towards the Pilate chapters and the second half of the novel where the M&M romance story began to merge with that of Woland and his retinue. In the end I was left with a heck of a lot of questions. Why did Woland really come to Moscow in the first place? Why did he gravitate to the personal story of the Master and Margarita? How is first century Jerusalem like early 20th century Moscow? How is Woland like Pilate? What is Woland’s relationship to Yeshua Ha-Notsri? What is the meaning behind the ultimate fate of the Master and Margarita, the fact that they have "not earned light, [they have] earned peace”? Some of these questions get answers of a kind, while others are left purely to our imagination. In the end this novel certainly leaves one with much food for thought.

[foolplustime · Рейтинг: 4 из 5 звезд]

Clever, surreal, and quietly hillarious. Loved it.

[shirezu · Рейтинг: 4 из 5 звезд]

At one point I thought I was never going to finish this book. I thought it would end up on the DNF list to languish forever, my failed last attempt at Russian literature. The sticking point was an odd one. I had enjoyed the beginning but came to a part at Griboyedov's where I just couldn't read through it. It was a wall of Russian names and for some reason it just stopped me in my tracks. I attempted to get past it a couple times then left it on the wayside while I moved on to other books.

Something in the back of my mind kept pushing me to continue, some knowledge that it would get better. And as has happened before I was glad I did. In the end I just skipped the whole page and picked it up after it and didn't put it down again.

Once you're passed that and on to the institution and the theatre things really come to life. At times it was a bit confusing remembering exactly who was who. Russians tend to use a lot of diminutive names which is fine if you know the people but difficult in a book. One person can be called three or sometimes more different names. But it's worth it to push on.

There are a lot of references to various Russian people, both past and (as of the time of the book) present, and if it wasn't for the footnotes it might have been an impenetrable fence at times. Although there are a lot of timeless qualities this really was a book written for those of the time. With lots of veiled (and some not so veiled) references to the political climate of the time and things like the secret police, midnight abductions and show trials, there is a lot to the book the average reader, such as myself, just won't quite get. But even with that there is still much more to this book.

The three main parts of the book weave together until they are inseparable: the visitation of Moscow by the devil Woland and his cronies, the tale of Pontius Pilate and finally the love story of the master and Margarita. Fantasy, history, love, religion, politics and more. There really is a bit of everything in here. But not quite enough to push it to 5 stars. I really enjoyed it but I couldn't say I loved it. There's just that insurmountable gap due of not being well-versed in Russian history, politics and culture that I think are needed to truly get every nuance. A very good book though and I'm glad I finally persevered and finished it.

[xine2009 · Рейтинг: 5 из 5 звезд]

Fascinating, complicated and funny.

[laurenbdavis · Рейтинг: 5 из 5 звезд]

Brilliant satire. Poignant and bleakly humorous. Glenny's translation is, to me, the definitive one. Far more readable than others.

[jwhenderson_1 · Рейтинг: 5 из 5 звезд]

I read this novel for the second time after seeing a dramatic adaptation of it performed by a small theater company here in Chicago. This is a complex novel with three major story lines and fantastic elements including the presence of Satan and a large black cat as two major characters. The story is set in Moscow in the nineteen thirties with literature is controlled by the state. The major state literary association is chaired by a bureaucrat named Berlioz. One of the main reasons I liked the book was its fundamental literary foundation with strong influence of the Faust story and the work of Russians, particularly Gogol and Pushkin. The whimsy of naming several of the characters after famous composers, Berlioz and Rimsky for two, appealed to my musical interests. Satan prepares a fantastic ball and with the help of demons and a black Cat creates mayhem and ferocious comedy. The satire becomes more clear after rereading the novel and the other humor includes slapstick episodes and the sheer insanity of the story. Inserted into the novel is the story of Pontius Pilate and Christ as written by the poet known as the Master. With his mistress, Margarita the novel moves into a final phase that continues the fantastic elements of the story. I found the new translation by Pevear and Volokhonsky excellent as all their Russian translations have been. For those readers interested in magic and supernaturalism, Satan and Pontius Pilate with a beauty and a poet, this is the novel for you. Certainly a twentieth century masterpiece.