Behemoth master and margarita12/6/2023 The famous quote, “Manuscripts don’t burn!”, which Woland says to the Master as he helps the Master recover and tell his story about Ha-Nozri, is a direct reference to Bulgakov burning the first version of the book in order to avoid a crackdown from Stalin.ĭespite imprisoning and assassinating many prominent artists, writers, and critics, Stalin took a somewhat positive interest in Bulgakov. The Master and Margarita is a story about the author himself. I think that the nonlinearity of the story keeps the reader’s interest,” said Stansfield. “I wasn’t expecting how much it would jump around and how little you could plan for what was going to happen. Though all these time jumps, historical references, and parallel plots might be intimidating, the reader quickly becomes accustomed to the way the story is told. Meanwhile, the Master, a Christ-like figure, languishes in a mental hospital as his lover, Margarita, makes a pact with Woland in order to save the Master’s manuscript. The artists and writers of MASSOLIT, members of high society, are swept up in the chaos that this devilish entourage creates in a series of black magic, tricks, embarrassment, and gruesome murders, and many are brought to shame. Woland’s assistants - a giant talking cat (Behemoth), a beautiful vampire (Hella), a hitman with a single fang (Azazello), and a grotesque valet (Koroviev) - wreak havoc on the city. Though Berlioz, the head of MASSOLIT, dismisses these prophecies as insane ravings, they end up coming true within a few pages. He terribly frightens the poet, Homeless, by making bizarre predictions about Berlioz’s gruesome death. Ironically, MASSOLIT is a Russian abbreviation for “literature for the masses.” Woland engages them in discussions about theology, specifically through referencing the Master’s text about the story of Yeshua Ha-Nozri, or Jesus Christ, and Pontius Pilate. The book begins with Woland appearing next to two atheist members (Berlioz and a poet nicknamed Homeless) of MASSOLIT, Moscow’s elite institute for artists. It’s also one of the first books to feature magical realism: magic occurs in a society that claims to be rational, yet refuses to confront what’s happening in front of its very eyes. “It’s almost surrealist,” said Taylor Stansfield ’22. The Master and Margarita is a book that defies categorization into a single genre. At its core, The Master and Margarita is deeply ironic Christian theology is blended with supernatural elements that affect, and are sometimes embraced by, characters who claim to be atheist. There is also a subplot: the retelling of the story of Jesus Christ through a manuscript of the Master. Woland disrupts ordinary life with his absurd antics carried out by his fiendish assistants. It intertwines a beautiful love story between a great author, the Master, and his mistress, Margarita, with the story of the devil, named Woland, arriving in Soviet Moscow. Faust by combining characters from antiquity with modern figures. Although a samizdat version of the manuscript (meaning the work was self-published as a form of dissent) had been circulating for a while, the book was only officially published in its uncensored form in 1973.īulgakov masterfully retells the ancient story of Dr. An allegory for the USSR under the cult of personality of Stalin, Bulgakov’s work was greatly restricted. The Master and Margarita is Mikhail Bulgakov’s masterpiece, written over the course of the tumultuous last twelve years of his life, from 1928-1940. The cover art features Behemoth, the devilish talking cat. I like to imagine Bulgakov writing underneath a lamp such as this one. Here is my copy of ‘The Master and Margarita’ under a 1930s banker’s lamp.
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