num_pages: 176
description: A masterpiece of black comedy by the author of The Master and Margarita. When Maxudov's novel fails, he attempts suicide. When that fails, he dramatizes his novel. To Maxudov's surprise-and the resentment of literary Moscow-the play is accepted by the legendary Independent Theater, and Maxudov plunges into a vortex of inflated egos. Each rehearsal sees more and more sparks flying higher and higher . . . and less and less chance of poor Maxudov's play ever being performed. Black Snow is the ultimate backstage novel and a brilliant satire on Mikhail Bulgakov's ten-year love-hate relationship with Stanislavsky, Method acting, and the Moscow Arts Theater. After a lifetime spent struggling against censorship, not least in the theater, Bulgakov died in 1940, not long after completing his masterpiece, The Master and Margarita. None of his major fiction was published during his lifetime.
language: English
title: Black Snow
titlecomplete: Black Snow
characters: Ivan Vasilyevich, Sergei Maxudov
genres: Fiction, Theatre, Humor, Literature, Classics, Novels, Russian Literature, 20th Century, Literary Fiction, Russia
ratings_count: 4069
places: Moscow, Russia
publisher: Harvill Pr