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The Master and Margarita (Vintage Classics)
 
 
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The Master and Margarita (Vintage Classics) (Paperback)

by Mikhail Bulgakov (Author), Michael Glenny (Translator) "Once upon an unusually hot hour of sunset in spring, two gentlemen appeared at Patriarch's Ponds in Moscow ..." (more)
4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (81 customer reviews)
RRP: £7.99
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Product details

  • Paperback: 448 pages
  • Publisher: Vintage; New Ed edition (1 April 2004)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0099448696
  • ISBN-13: 978-0099448693
  • Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 12.8 x 3 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (81 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 2,211 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #2 in  Books > Fiction > Authors, A-Z > B > Bulgakov, Mikhail
    #82 in  Books > Fiction > By Period > 20th Century

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Product Description

Review
'A stunning, superb allegorical novel...Bulgakov is one of the greatest modern Russian writers, perhaps the greatest' Independent 'It is a hymn to the imagination' Desmond O'Grady 'This book is absorbing, brilliant slapstick, and looks deep in to the heart of fantasy and longing' Sunday Times 'A masterpiece...a classic of twentieth-century fiction' New York Times

Daily Telegraph, August 2, 2004
Outstanding adaptation...breathtaking in its ambition and originality...the literary range is extraordinary --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Once upon an unusually hot hour of sunset in spring, two gentlemen appeared at Patriarch's Ponds in Moscow. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews

81 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.5 out of 5 stars (81 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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36 of 37 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars I would give this 6 stars but I was not allowed., 4 Sep 2000
By S. J. Dillon (Liverpool) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: The Master and Margarita (Penguin Modern Classics) (Paperback)
There is little that I could write to do sufficient justice to such an inspired flight of the imaginaltion. The dual settings in the novel of the fantastical last few days in the life of Jesus Christ compared to the chaos of a timeless Moscow held in thrall by the Devil in the guise of a cheap stage magican. The plots are so diverse and the characters are totally compelling (amongst them is Behemoth a cigarette smoking, gun toting, 5ft Black cat!) I have never read anything so darkly compelling yet wickedly funny that works on so many levels. I have read this book at least once a year for the last 6 years and I think I will continue to do so until I have picked it clean, and that will take me good while yet. Bulgakov is the true Master.
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29 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Russian literature at its best, 8 April 2006
By James (Norfolk, NE USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Master and Margarita (Penguin Modern Classics) (Paperback)
My friend recommended this book to me, and what actually made me to buy it was because he considered it his favorite book of all time. I agree with him about that. It is an amazing book. Not only that, I developed an interest in the author's other works. Nevertheless, this is the best book written by Mikhail Bulgakov. It is an absolute masterpiece, a classic accepted in Russia and the rest of the world.

"MASTER AND MARGARITA" is about purges Stalin ordered in the Soviet Union. The curious thing about this book is that the purges are depicted not to have been carried out Stalin's men, but rather by Satan himself, and in the manner of Baron Munchaussen, we get to know of a huge talking cat. Like animal farm, the greater meaning of the book is revealed through the intelligent though bizarre, compelling and humorous story. One is constantly left anticipating what the next page holds. There are so many layers and so many little details that one wonders how the author managed to put them together.

Bulgakov is the Soviet version of Imperial Russia's Dostoevsky, but unlike Dostoyevsky who had a mastery of the mind/soul Bulgakov mastery is in the literature of oppression. I have recommended this book to many friends and family and recommend it to any reader interested in the enigma that is Russia, especially Stalinist Russia. Other interesting stories set in Russia are THE UNION MOUJIK,TARAS BULBA, PUTIN'S RUSSIA, THE LIFE AND DEATH OF LENIN, WAR AND PEACE. Also note that you are sure to find the widest selection of odd and creepy characters in this book .

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17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Terror, secrets, foreigners, jesus, death and manuscripts, 2 Aug 2001
By A Customer
This review is from: The Master and Margarita (Penguin Modern Classics) (Paperback)
Stalin's hierarchical, monolithic political structures of the 1930's intensified the struggle against "enemies of the people" by arresting and executing over 15 million Russians, amongst them managers, intelligentsia and writers. The Secret Police orchestrated State terror by raiding the houses of intellectuals at night if they were suspected of satirising the Soviet state. Bulgakov himself slept with a suitcase full of warm clothes beneath his bed, should the knock at the door at dawn be the KGB. If caught with the manuscript of The Master and Margarita, he would have been sent without trial to the prison camps of Siberia, where he would have been worked through exhaustion into death.

An appreciation of the harsh ideological backdrop to this vital and extraordinary novel makes its vision all the more astonishing. Bulgakov examines with a breathtaking wit such subversive issues as institutionalised atheism, Satan's sypmpathetic aspect, the similarities between the political and social systems of Pontius Pilate's Jerusalem and Stalin's Moscow, the arbitrariness of justice, the redemptive power of love (in this case adulterous), and the human effort towards regeneration through compassion and truth. In his generous yet clearly defined system of justice cowards are humiliated, guilty as they are of the worst sin, and the fearless are rewarded with a thin beam of moonlight, to freedom and salvation.

The Master and Magarita is as great a text as any I have ever read; Bulgakov's prodigious verbal gift is equal to Joyce or even Shakespeare, and as such deserves a special, exalted place at the pinnacle of World literature.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars masterful
I love this book but do not claim to be a literary authority so will leave the question of the translation to others who know more than me (see the debate in other reviews)... Read more
Published 19 days ago by JuJuDollie

4.0 out of 5 stars The Master and Margarita
A complicated but interesting plot. A book with many layers which can be enjoyed on different levels. Enjoy the learning and peel away!
Published 19 days ago by L. Saban-Smith

5.0 out of 5 stars Go for the Glenny translation!
There are several very accomplished and detailed reviews of this wonderful book here, and I am not going to attempt to write one myself. Read more
Published 27 days ago by Rebecca Bartleet

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliantly clever
A brilliantly clever and awe-inspiringly imaginative book. I have bought copies for many friends. It's one of those books that you dread to finish and often think of
Published 1 month ago by OB1

2.0 out of 5 stars The Master and Margarita
I first came across Bulgakov's classic when a teenager forty years ago. I devoured it eagerly then, and re-read it so often over the years that gradually my copy fell to bits... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Alison Balfour-lynn

5.0 out of 5 stars The Devil's Day Out
Bulgakov is one of the few Soviet writers (if not the only) who didn't seem to lose his sense of humour to the Bolsheviks. Read more
Published 5 months ago by D. Maskelyne

3.0 out of 5 stars Vintage Classics version - not the best translation
My review is less about the novel and more about the translation; while I am not a Russian speaker/reader and therefore have not read the original to be able to compare, I think... Read more
Published 7 months ago by M. Maxwell

5.0 out of 5 stars Different!
I am reading modern Russian authors at the moment and if this is anything to go buy then I am in for a big treat! What a strange tale. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Dostoyevsky

3.0 out of 5 stars Surreal soviet-era fantasy
Very strange book. I ought to have hated it more - the politics, in so far as there are any, are unpleasant - the book begins with a confrontation between Satan and soviet... Read more
Published 8 months ago by Jezza

5.0 out of 5 stars I can't wait to read it again!
Until my late teens I didn't much care for novels - school, frankly, could have offered better, plus there was just too much interesting non-fiction out there. Read more
Published 9 months ago by R. Davies

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