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The Master and Margarita

Though I'm not nearly done with it yet, I really, really like this book by Mikhail Bulgakov. It's a new twist on the Faustian legend... The story revolves around the Devil coming to Moscow to put on a magic show. His first encounter in town revolves around him telling a story of Pontius Pilate, and then subtley predicting the death. This book has a lot of history behind it as well; it was written over a long period of time in Bulgakov's life when his plays and stories were being repeadtedly banned by the government. This novel, his masterpiece, was not quite a finished work at the time of his death and was printed posthumously. "THE REASON for his arrival was a telegram he had received late at night two days before. The telegram read: Have just been run over by streetcar at Patriarchs' Pond funeral Friday three afternoon come Berlioz." Though my review might not give it justice since I'm not even halfway through with it, I'll offer two websites as extended reviews of the books (the second URL's timeline is a big spoiler): http://www.violetbooks.com/REVIEWS/rbadac-bulgakov.html http://cweb.middlebury.edu/bulgakov/index.html

Posted by Brian on October 17, 2001 10:13 AM