A Reader’s Companion to Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita

by J.A.E. Curtis

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.

Genres: Nonfiction, Russia, Russian Literature

194 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 17, 2019

Reviews

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Usually, I do not read secondary literature, but as I found this on our shelves and recently reread "The Master and Margarita" - one of my all-time favourites - I decided to go for it. The chapters on Bulgakov's biography are worth it. Falling in love for a married woman, scathed by the official critics, burning of manuscripts, mental illness, all these aspects of his life made it to the book. The book did not help me though in understanding the role of the “Pilate” chapters. It does not really explain but rather juxtaposes different interpretations, which makes it kind of academic. All these theories gave, however, rise to an idea of my own. Couldn’t Pilate be a symbol of Stalin and Yeshua of Bulgakov? The Soviet dictator did not convict the author, but the hope for a personal meeting with Stalin is a constant note in Bulgakov’s life. Furthermore, the stress on Pilate’s descent from the ranks of horsemen (equester ordo), i.e. not a nobleman and the change of his name to pontiyskiy, i.e. coming from the Pontus (the Roman Name for the Black Sea) goes in line with Stalin, who was the son of a Georgian cobbler. This insight made the book worth reading for me, though I read only those chapter that were of interest to me.

[Lola · Rating 5 out of 5]

A short companion book that offers great background and insight into Bulgakov’s Master and Margarita. No dull, overly scholarly writing here. Highly recommend, especially to those wanting to know more about the Jerusalem chapters.

Bonus: the book has a beautiful cover and is a high quality floppy paperback.

[feifei · Rating 4 out of 5]

i don't understand why half of the reviews of this book are hating on it so i'm going to hate on the haters. why did someone say that the only commentary in this companion is that "the book is about state repression" when ch.5 "a tale of two cities" pretty explicitly warns the reader against falling into the trap of pedantic analysis and trying to understand moscow/yershalayim as being "interchangeable," the point is that obviously the story is dotted with references to life under the soviet regime but the bigger question is that of good/evil and clearly living in an authoritarian state means that bulgakov experiences certain kinds of evil more viscerally and includes these anecdote-inspired events in the text. and as for the criticism that there was "too much jargon" and too many references to other interpretations—surely the point of a reader's companion is to introduce the more controversial interpretations and explain them. wholly unclear to me why someone would pick up a reader's companion and complain that it contains different potential readings.

chapters i liked: ch.5 "A Tale of Two Cities: The Structure of The Master and Margarita" and ch.6 "Woland: Good and Evil in The Master and Margarita"

also liked ch.9 "Literature and the Writer in The Master and Margarita," specifically the stuff at the end about Bulgakov as a kind of Romantic like his character, the Master. in the words of his bestie Pavel Popov: "Reading the lines that you have written, I know that a genuine literary culture still exists: transported by fantasy to the places you describe, I understand that the creative imagination has not run dry, that the lamp lit by the Romantics, by [E. T. A.] Hoffmann and others, burns and gleams, and that altogether the art of words has not forsaken mankind. . ."

[Debra Norris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Essential

[Banbury · Rating 2 out of 5]

This "Reader's Companion" is, unfortunately, a very dull companion. I had hoped for a book that would discuss the themes and deeper meanings of Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita, and perhaps illuminate some of its symbols. Alas, this book is over laden with references to scholarly articles to which a lay reader would not have ready access. There is an outline of Bulgakov's life, but it is sketchy (and yet filled with too much detail in parts), and it does not aid in understanding The Master and Margarita.

Much of the discussion of the text itself is nonsensical, as in the following example:

Over and above this device of "making strange" people or objects who possess more familiar and traditional Biblical appellations, Bulgakov also goes to considerable lengths to avoid such words as raspyatie ("crucifixion") or krest ("cross"), whose emotive symbolic power could distract from the individuality of his rendering.

Location 1844 on Kindle. How does a reader know that an author has gone to considerable lengths to avoid certain (or "such") words, when the words are not used? To whom does the word "his" refer? Who or what was rendered? The opaqueness evident in this passage darkens and dulls much of this book.

The most useful bit in the book was the comparison of different translations into English. A rather lengthy passage of The Master and Margarita was set forth, and then the same passage as translated by various translators. Moreover, there was then a convincing discussion about the strengths and weaknesses of each translation. The translation of The Master and Margarita by Diana Burgin and Katherine Tiernan O'Connor is recommended.

[Elzira Rai · Rating 3 out of 5]

A rather bland companion, dotted with stereotypical and shallow comments on Bulgakov's alleged struggle with censorship and the usual philistine reading of M&M as a comment on "state repression". The chapter on biblical themes could provide an excellent opportunity to elude these clichés, but the author seems to have no other interpretive framework in his bag.

[JoséMaría BlancoWhite · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nope

An academic blurting out jargon. 10% is salvageable.
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