The Master and Margarita
By: [by Mikhail Bulgakov] ; translated by Diana Burgin & Katherine O'Connor ; annotations and afterword by Ellendea Proffer.
Contributors: Burgin, Diana Lewis.; O'Connor, Katherine Tiernan.
Edition: 1st Vintage International ed. (2)
Publisher: Vintage International
Published: 1996-03
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Translated from: rus
Translation of: Мастер и Маргарита
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 373
ISBN-13: 9780679760801
Copyright date: 1995
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 the novel's vision of Soviet life in the 1930s is so ferociously accurate that it could not be published during its author's lifetime and appeared only in a censored edition in the 1960s.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 immens 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 in exhaustible 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.
(back cover)
Notes: Reprint. Originally published: Dana Point, Calif. : Ardis, 1995.
US / CAN edition