Thinking-Training

This volume considers the Russian writer Bulgakov's work, The master and Margarita. It opens with the editor's general introduction, discussing the work in the context of the writer's oeuvre as well as its place within the Russian literary tradition. The introductory section also includes considerations of existing translations and of textual problems in the original Russian. The following sections contain several wide-ranging articles by other scholars, primary sources and background material such as letters, memoirs, early reviews and maps.

The Master and Margarita (Russian: Ма́стер и Маргари́та) is a novel by Mikhail Bulgakov, written between 1928 and 1940, but unpublished in book form until 1967. The story concerns a visit by the devil to the fervently atheistic Soviet Union. Many critics consider it to be one of the best novels of the 20th century, as well as the foremost of Soviet satires.

Presents a satirical drama about Satan's visit to Moscow, where he learns that the citizens no longer believe in God. He decides to teach them a lesson by perpetrating a series of horrific tricks. Combines two distinct yet interwoven parts, one set in contemporary Moscow, the other in ancient Jerusalem.

A classic anthology of wildly inventive and comic tales that brilliantly satirize post-revolutionary Russia. “Amusing and excellent,” this famous collection of Soviet satire from 1918 to 1963 devastatingly lampoons the social, economic, and cultural changes wrought by the Russian Revolution (Isaac Bashevis Singer). Among the seventeen bold and inventive writers represented here are the brilliant Mikhail Bulgakov, Ilf and Petrov, Mikhail Zoshchenko, Yevgeny Zamyatin, Valentin Katayev, and Yuri Kazakov. Whether the stories and novellas collected here take the form of allegory, fantasy, or science fiction, the results are ingenious, critical, and hilariously timeless. “The stories in this collection tell the reader more about Soviet life than a dozen sociological or political tracts.” —Isaac Bashevis Singer “An altogether admirable collection . . . by the highly talented translator Mirra Ginsburg . . . Many of these stories and sketches are delicious, even-a miracle!-funny, and full of subtlety and intelligence.” —The New Leader “Hilarious entertainment. Beyond this it illuminates with the cruel light of satire the reality behind the pretentious façade of the Soviet state.” —The Sunday Sun

Mikhail Bulgakov’s novel The Master and Margarita, set in Stalin’s Moscow, is an intriguing work with a complex structure, wonderful comic episodes and moments of great beauty. Readers are often left tantalized but uncertain how to understand its rich meanings. To what extent is it political? Or religious? And how should we interpret the Satanic Woland? This reader’s companion offers readers a biographical introduction, and analyses of the structure and the main themes of the novel. More curious readers will also enjoy the accounts of the novel’s writing and publication history, alongside analyses of the work’s astonishing linguistic complexity and a review of available English translations.

The Russian playwright and novelist Mikhail Bulgakov (1891 - 1940) is now widely acknowledged as one of the giants of twentieth-century Soviet literature, ranking with such luminaries as Pasternak and Solzhenitsyn. In his own lifetime, however, a casualty of Stalinist repression, he was scarcely published at all, and his plays reached the stage only with huge difficulty. His greatest masterpiece, The Master and Margarita, a novel written in the 1930s in complete secrecy, largely at night, did not appear in print until more than a quarter of a century after his death. It has since become a worldwide bestseller. In Manuscripts Don't Burn, J.A.E. Curtis has collated the fruits of eleven years of research to produce a fascinating chronicle of Bulgakov's life, using a mass of exciting new material - much of which has never been published before. In particular, she is the only Westerner to have been granted access to either Bulgakov's or his wife Yelena Sergeyevna's diaries, which record in vivid detail the nightmarish precariousness of life during the Stalinist purges. J.A.E Curtis combines these diaries with extracts from letters to and from Bulgakov and with her own illuminating commentary to create a lively and highly readable account. Her vast collection of Bulgakov's correspondence is unparalleled even in the USSR, and she draws on it judiciously to include letters addressed directly to Stalin, in which Bulgakov's pleads to be allowed to emigrate; letters to his sisters and to his brother in Paris whom he did not see for twenty years; intimate notes to his second and third wives; and letters to and from well-known writers such as Gorky and Zamyatin. Manuscripts Don't Burn provides a forceful and compelling insight into the pressures of day-to-day existence for a man fighting persecution in order to make a career as a writer in Stalinist Russia.

This book is with an introduction by Will Self. The devil makes a personal appearance in Moscow accompanied by various demons, including a naked girl and a huge black cat. When he leaves, the asylums are full and the forces of law and order in disarray. Only the Master, a man devoted to truth, and Margarita, the woman he loves, can resist the devil's onslaught.

Mikhail Bulgakov's novel «The Master and Margarita» is, among other things, a satire. The author criticises real people in the Soviet Union of the 30s and creates absurd situations by mixing reality and fiction. That mix is hidden everywhere throughout the novel in small details which, at first sight, seem to be trivial, but which are significant for those who know why they are mentioned. In this book you can find annotations, ordered by chapter, explaining the names, locations, situations, quotations and other elements which Mikhail Bulgakov used to illustrate his view of Soviet society, with the aim of better understanding the novel. The terms are mentioned in the order of their first appearance in the novel. On various places in this book you will find Quick Reference (QR) codes which you can scan to gain immediate access to more detailed information on the «Master and Margarita» website. The book also contains a series of 33 colour illustrations made by the author.

A mysterious stranger appears in a Moscow park. Soon he and his retinue have astonished the locals with the magic show to end all magic shows. But why are they really here, and what has it got to do with the beautiful Margarita, or her lover, the Master, a silenced writer? A carnival for the senses and a diabolical extravaganza, this most exuberant of Russian novels was staged in this adaptation at Chichester Festival Theatre.

Mikhail Bulgakov's masterpiece, The Master and Margarita, is by general consent one of the most important, controversial, and original novels to have emerged from the Soviet Union. The first comprehensive study of this novel in English, Between Two Worlds describes its genesis and reception inside and outside the Soviet Union.