Master And Margarita

Product Description

Mikhail Bulgakovs The Master & Margarita" is a fiercely satirical fantasy that remained unpublished in its authors home country for over thirty years. This " Penguin Classics" edition is translated with an introduction by Richard Pevear & Larissa Volokhonsky the acclaimed translators of Tolstoys Anna Karenina. In Soviet Moscow God is dead but the devil
- to say nothing of his retinue of demons from a loudmouthed gun-toting tomcat to the fanged fallen angel Koroviev
- is very much alive. As death & destruction spread through the city like wildfire condemning Moscows cultural elite to prison cells & body bags only a madman the " Master & Margarita" his beautiful courageous lover can hope to end the chaos. Written in secret during the darkest days of Stalins reign & circulated in samizdat form for decades when " The Master & the Margarita" was finally published it became an overnight literary phenomenon signalling artistic freedom for Russians everywhere. This luminous translation from the complete & unabridged Russian text is accompanied by an introduction by Richard Pevear exploring the extraordinary circumstances of the novels composition & publication & how Bulgakov drew on carnivalesque folk traditions to create his ironic subversion of Soviet propaganda. This edition also contains a list of further reading & a note on the text. After finishing high school Mikhail Bulgakov (1891-1940) entered the Medical School of Kiev University graduating in 1916. He wrote about his experiences as a doctor in his early works " Notes of a Young Country Doctor". His later works treated the subject of the artist & the tyrant under the guise of historical characters but " The Master & Margarita" is generally considered his masterpiece. If you enjoyed " The Master & Margarita" you might like Jonathan Swifts " Gullivers Travels" also available in " Penguin Classics". " One of the great novels of the 20th century a scary darkly comic allegory". (" Daily Telegraph")."