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Title: The Master and Margarita
Series: ----------
Author: Mikhail Bulgakov
Rating: 1.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Modern Classic
Pages: 431
Words: 157K
Series: ----------
Author: Mikhail Bulgakov
Rating: 1.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Modern Classic
Pages: 431
Words: 157K
Synopsis:
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From Wikipedia
The
novel has two settings. The first is Moscow during the 1930s, where
Satan appears at Patriarch's Ponds as Professor Woland. He is
accompanied by Koroviev, a grotesquely-dressed valet; Behemoth, a
black cat; Azazello, a hitman; and Hella, a female vampire. They
target the literary elite and Massolit, their trade union,[note 1]
whose headquarters is Griboyedov House. Massolit consists of corrupt
social climbers and their women, bureaucrats, profiteers, and cynics.
The second setting is the Jerusalem of Pontius Pilate: Pilate's trial
of Yeshua Ha-Notsri (Jesus of Nazareth), his recognition of an
affinity with (and spiritual need for) Yeshua, and his reluctant
acquiescence to Yeshua's execution.
Part
one opens with a confrontation between Berlioz (the head of Massolit)
and Woland, who prophesizes that Berlioz will die later that evening.
Although Berlioz dismisses the prophecy as insane raving, he dies as
the professor predicted. His death prophecy is witnessed by Ivan
Nikolaevich Ponyrev, a young, enthusiastic, modern poet who uses the
pen name Bezdomny ("homeless"). His nom de plume alludes to
Maxim Gorky (Maxim the Bitter), Demyan Bedny (Demyan the Poor), and
Michail Golodny (Michail the Hungry). His futile attempts to capture
the "gang" (Woland and his entourage) and his warnings
about their evil nature land Ivan in a lunatic asylum, where he is
introduced to the Master, an embittered author. The rejection of his
novel about Pontius Pilate and Christ led the Master to burn his
manuscript in despair and turn his back on Margarita, his devoted
lover.
The
novel's first part includes satirical depictions of Massolit and
Griboyedov House; Satan's magic show at a variety theatre, satirizing
the vanity, greed, and gullibility of the new elite; and Woland and
his retinue appropriating Berlioz's apartment after his death.
(Apartments – scarce in Moscow – were controlled by the state,
and Bulgakov based the novel's apartment on his own.)
Part
two introduces Margarita, the Master's mistress, who refuses to
despair of her lover and his work. Azazello gives her a magical skin
ointment and invites her to the Devil's midnight Good Friday ball,
where Woland gives her the chance to become a witch.
Margarita
enters the realm of night and learns to fly and control her unleashed
passions. Natasha, her maid, accompanies her as they fly over the
Soviet Union's deep forests and rivers. Margarita bathes and returns
to Moscow with Azazello as the hostess of Satan's spring ball. At
Azazell's side, she welcomes dark historical figures as they arrive
from Hell.
Margarita
survives the ordeal, and Satan offers to grant her deepest wish: to
free a woman she met at the ball from eternal punishment. The woman,
who had been raped, murdered the child; her punishment was to wake
each morning next to the handkerchief she used to smother it. Satan
tells Margarita that she liberated the woman, and still has a wish to
claim from him. She asks for the Master to be delivered to her and he
appears, dazed and thinking he is still in the lunatic asylum. They
are returned to the basement apartment which had been their love
nest.
Matthew
Levi delivers the verdict to Woland: the reunited couple will be sent
to the afterlife. Azazello brings them a gift from Woland: a bottle
of Pontius Pilate's (poisoned) wine. The Master and Margarita die;
Azazello brings their souls to Satan and his retinue (awaiting them
on horseback on a Moscow rooftop), and they fly away into the
unknown, as cupolas and windows burn in the setting sun, leaving
Earth behind and traveling into dark cosmic space. The Master and
Margarita will spend eternity together in a shady, pleasant region
resembling Dante Alighieri's Limbo, in a house under flowering cherry
trees.
Woland
and his retinue, including the Master and Margarita, become pure
spirits. Moscow's authorities attribute its strange events to
hysteria and mass hypnosis. In the final chapter, Woland orders
Margarita to supply the missing end of the Master's story about
Pontius Pilate – condemned by cowardice to limbo for eternity. "You
are free!" she cries; Pontius Pilate is freed, walking and
talking with the Yeshua whose spirit and philosophy he had secretly
admired. Moscow is now peaceful, although some experience great
disquiet every May full moon.
My
Thoughts:
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My biggest take away from this book is that I do not like 20th
Century classics. They are almost all full of crap and are not even
worthy of being toilet paper. With this astounding revelation, I am
creating a new tag and genre, Modern Classics, that I shall give to
all “classics” written from 1900 and on. I will suspect them of
being nothing but bushwa until they prove otherwise to me.
Now, this book.
I had enjoyable times reading it. The devils sidekicks doing all
sorts of immature and childish pranks and tricks and even serious
ones, had me quite amused. The devil on the other hand, well, he was
a real party pooper. I'm not exactly the devil's biggest fan but even
still, where was the being that defied God Himself? This devil in the
book was practically a drunk, melancholic russian peasant. I kept
expecting him to burst into tears and go “boo hoo”. The antics
were amusing. Which is why this got as high a rating as it did.
What brought this down though, was the inclusion of the “Historical
Jesus” heresy. The quick and dirty explanation of that is that
Jesus was real, but that he was just a man, who said some nice things
and that what he was and what he said have been distorted and
manipulated to form this new religion called Christianity. It is
nothing less than an attack on the Godhood of Jesus and the veracity
of the Bible. Needless to say, the parts of the book about Pontius
Pilate and the story told were anathema to me.
Thankfully, I had been forewarned by Earnestly
Eccentic's Review, so I didn't walk into the situation
and take a baseball bat to the side of my literary head. I wore a
helmet so a light *Ka-Thunk* was all I felt. I don't know what else
Bulgakov might have written, but I won't be bothering.
★☆☆☆½