num_pages: 372
description: The first complete, annotated English Translation of Mikhail Bulgakov's comic masterpiece.An audacious revision of the stories of Faust and Pontius Pilate, The Master and Margarita is recognized as one of the essential classics of modern Russian literature. The novel's vision of Soviet life in the 1930s is so ferociously accurate that it could not be published during its author's lifetime and appeared only in a censored edition in the 1960s. Its truths are so enduring that its language has become part of the common Russian speech.One hot spring, the devil arrives in Moscow, accompanied by a retinue that includes a beautiful naked witch and an immense talking black cat with a fondness for chess and vodka. The visitors quickly wreak havoc in a city that refuses to believe in either God or Satan. But they also bring peace to two unhappy Muscovites: one is the Master, a writer pilloried for daring to write a novel about Christ and Pontius Pilate; the other is Margarita, who loves the Master so deeply that she is willing literally to go to hell for him. What ensues is a novel of inexhaustible energy, humor, and philosophical depth, a work whose nuances emerge for the first time in Diana Burgin's and Katherine Tiernan O'Connor's splendid English version.
language: English
title: The Master and Margarita
titlecomplete: The Master and Margarita
characters: Behemot, Master, Mikhail Alexandrovich Berlioz, Azazello, Stephan Bogdanovich Likhodeyev, Margarita Nicolaevna, Pontius Pilate, Ivan Nikolayevich Ponyryov, Hella (The Master and Margarita), Lucifer, Korovyev, Yeshua Ha-Nozri, Natasha (The Master and Margarita)
genres: Classics, Magical Realism, Fantasy, Russia, Novels, Russian Literature, Historical Fiction, Literature, 20th Century, Fiction
ratings_count: 333611
places: Moscow, Jerusalem, Russia
awards: awardedAt: 1072944000000
name: Premi Crítica Serra d'Or de Teatre i arts escèniques, awardedAt: 1388563200000
name: Read Russia Prize
category: 20th-Century Russian Literature for Alexander Nitzberg
publisher: Vintage International