Title: The Master and Margarita (Alma Classics)
Author: Mikhail Bulgakov
Tags: #russia #censorship #devil
Discovered: Thame Library, Oxfordshire
Where read: (In part) Heathrow Terminal 2
Why read now?: A great introduction to satirical (and at times crazy) Russian literature
The Word's Shortlist view:
"Really, I would pawn my soul to the devil to find out whether he is alive or dead."
A poet, a talking black cat, Pontius Pilate, a fanged hitman and Satan himself all feature in this complex and symbol laden tale written by Mikhail Bulgakov between 1928 and 1940. The book became a cult classic in the 70s following its publication some years after Bulgakov's own death.
Bulgakov is hailed as one of the greatest Russian writers of the 20th Century but first time readers of Russian literature, like me, will find this difficult to follow and at times impenetrable. Translated writing often feels like trying to break a code but this, with its heavy use of allegory and metaphor, is especially challenging.
On the other hand, once you begin to accept the style of the book you're rewarded with the key to an 'other world' in which good and evil, past and present, blur into a cultural soup.
The novel follows two strands, the first in 1930s Moscow with the arrival of a mysterious magician who proceeds to send the upper echelons of academia spiralling into chaos, and the second in the Jerusalem of Pontius Pilate. In the first book the Master is the protagonist and in the second we follow his Mistress Margarita more closely. For me the 1930s sections are stronger than the lengthy passages in the Holy Land. Likewise, the Margarita sections are the more memorable once she takes flight following Satan's Ball, surely one of the most enigmatic and inexplicable sequences in any book.
This is not an easy book to read and certainly one that will challenge your perseverance in places. Like many 'cult classics' the myth that surrounds the work is probably more significant than the book itself, checkout the Bulgakov House in Moscow which has become a Mecca to fiction fans, satanists and street artists. The novel has been suggested as an influence from the Rolling Stones to Star Trek and was recently cited by Daniel Radcliffe as his favourite book of all time!
Memorable, peerless and a bit zany. Read if you're up for a challenge.
See a clip from a Russian film adaptation here: http://youtu.be/a6zsQZd6UM4
Read 'Books that made a difference to Daniel Radcliffe' here http://www.cnn.com/2011/09/30/living/books-radcliffe-o/index.html?sr=sharebar_twitter
Twitter: @wordsshortlist
Instagram: your_next_read
No comments:
Post a Comment