The Master and Margarita
Mikhail Bulgakov (1967)
“The Devil visits Soviet Moscow with a retinue of demons, and the only honest relationships in the city are between the damned.”
At a Glance
The Devil — appearing as Professor Woland — arrives in 1930s Stalinist Moscow with his retinue of supernatural assistants and proceeds to expose the corruption, hypocrisy, and cowardice of Soviet society through a series of increasingly violent magic shows. Intercut with this satire is a vision of Pontius Pilate judging Yeshua Ha-Nozri (a reimagined Jesus) in ancient Jerusalem, and the love story of the Master — a tormented novelist who has written exactly that Pilate story — and Margarita, who makes a pact with the Devil to save him. The three narratives (Moscow chaos, Yershalaim tragedy, Margarita's supernatural bargain) converge in a finale that delivers peace but not forgiveness to those who earned it.
Read full summary →Why This Book Matters
Written between 1928 and 1940, circulated in samizdat (handwritten copies) during the Soviet era, published in partial form in 1966–67 and in full only in 1973. Recognized immediately as a masterwork. Considered the greatest Russian novel of the twentieth century and one of the supreme achievements of magical realism. The Rolling Stones named their 1968 album Sympathy for the Devil after the novel; Mick Jagger read it before writing the song.
Diction Profile
Shifts radically by narrative strand — Soviet journalese in Moscow, spare declarative prose in Yershalaim, operatic grotesque in supernatural sequences
Very high