The Master and Margarita
The Master and Margarita, by Mikhail Bulgakov, is a hilarious, but deep book. Although I have never read Faust this book is influenced by it. The Master and Margarita deals with what happens in Moscow when the devil comes to town for a visit. The devil comes with his gang of miscreants that include a humongous talking black cat, a pirate, a naked witch, and Korovyov the choir master. They descend upon Moscow wreaking havoc wherever they go. However, since Muscovites don’t believe in God or Satan, they have to find some way to explain all of the strange occurrences that are befalling the city. This was a great book to read after The Brothers Karamazov, because one of the themes that Dostoevsky explores in it is the struggle between science and religion. In Dostoevsky’s work, one of the prevalent fears throughout is the loss of faith of the Russian people–especially in The Demons. He sees that nihilism is becoming too prevalent among the Russian people, and Dostoevsky worries about what may happen if this trend continues. Bulgakov’s book is written in the 1930’s when the ideals of communism are in full force, and many of Dostoevsky’s fears have been realized. Despite seeing the unbelievable and the supernatural the citizens of Moscow refuse to believe, and they actively try to dispel any notions that Satan is real. The devil and his retinue are hilarious, and yet, very scary. This is a devil that seems real. He is intelligent, conniving, and ruthless; although his gang is even more ruthless, and at times have to be restrained by the devil, but not often. These characters absolutely love creating chaos and mayhem, and although it can be a bit unnerving it is nevertheless an extremely enjoyable read.
The Master, however, is one of the few who dares to not only believe, but to write a story about Pontius Pilate. His story of Pontius Pilate and Jesus is like nothing you have ever read before, and is highly entertaining. It is this story that gets him into trouble, and eventually garners the attention of the devil.
Margarita, is the women who loves the Master. She loves him so much, in fact, that she is willing to do anything for him. She goes through her own heroes journey in the book, and proves that she is willing to move heaven and hell for the love of her life.
Bulgakov masterly interweaves history with fantasy throughout the novel. The book at the same time is a scathing review on Soviet life under Stalin. It was censored in by the Soviet Union, and was not published uncensored until late in the 20th Century. Like I mentioned above what is this book really comes down to is a realization of the fears that Dostoevsky perceived to be coming more than fifty years before this novel was published. Unlike other Russian novels, which are extraordinarily verbose and lengthy, The Master and Margarita clocks in at 335 pages. So if the long novels are too daunting for you than this is a much shorter novel, and more readable than Dostoevsky. It was an enjoyable read, and a very good book, but for me it still not as good as either The Brothers Karamazov, Crime and Punishment, or The Idiot. But then I am also a bit of a masochist and I really enjoy long, long well written novels. And now for the excerpt. During this scene the devil and his evil gang make their official entrance onto the Moscow scene in the form of a magic show at the Variety Theater.
“By God, they’re real! Ten-ruble notes!” came the joyous shouts from the balcony.
“Play me a game with a pack like that,” said a fat man merrily, who was seated in the center of the orchestra.
“Avec plaisir!” replied Fagot, “but why just you? Everyone will take part!” And he gave a command, “Everyone look up please!” “One!” A pistol appeared in his hand. “Two,” he shouted. The pistol jerked upwards. “Three!” he shouted. There was a flash, a bang, and suddenly white pieces of paper began to rain down onto the hall, falling from the dome ceiling, and diving in between the trapezes.
They whirled all around, scattered off to the sides, and pelted the balcony, piled into the orchestra pit and onto the stage. Within seconds, growing thicker as it fell, the rain of bills had reached the seats, and the audience began catching them.
Hundreds of hands went up, people held the bill up to the light from the stage and found watermarks that were perfectly genuine and authentic. The smell of the bills also left no room for doubt: it was the incomparably delectable smell of newly minted money. First merriment and then astonishment swept the theater. It was all abuzz with the words “ten-ruble notes,” and happy laughter was heard and shots of “ah, ah!” Some people were already crawling in the aisles, looking under the seats, and many were standing on top of their seats, trying to catch the capriciously twirling bills.
The faces of the policemen began to look more and more bewildered, and the performers piled out from backstage.
In the dress circle a voice was heard saying, “What’s that you’re grabbing? That’s mine! It was coming toward me!” Another yelled, “Don’t push me of I’ll push you back!” And suddenly a slap was heard, whereupon a policeman’s helmet appeared in the dress circle and someone was taken away.
The general excitement grew in intensity, and no one knows how it all would have ended if Fagot had not put a stop to the shower of rubles by suddenly blowing into the air.
“Citizens, we have just witnessed an example of so-called mass hypnosis. A purely scientific experiment, designed to prove beyond doubt that there are no miracles and that magic does not exist. Let’s ask Maestro Woland to show us how the experiment was done. Now, citizens, you shall see how these paper bills that seem to be money will disappear as suddenly as they appeared.”
Here he began to clap, but no one joined in. As he clapped, a confident smile played on his face, but that same confidence was not reflected in his eyes. They, on the contrary, were full of entreaty.
The audience did not like Bengalsky’s speech. A total silence ensued which was then broken bu the checked Fagot.
“Yet another example of what we call balderdash,” he announced in a loud braying tenor. “The paper bills, citizens, are real money!”
“Bravo!” a bass bellowed out from somewhere on high.
“And by the way,” said Fagot pointing at Bengalsky, “this fellow is getting to be a bore. he keeps butting in when nobody asks him to and spoiling the performance with his bogus comments! What should we do with him?”
“Tear off his head!” came a stern voice from the balcony.
“What did you say? What was that?” said Fagot, responding to the ugly suggestion. “Tear off his head? Now that’s an idea! Behemoth!” he screamed to the cat, “Do it! Eins, zwei, drei !!”
Then an incredible thing happened. The cat’s black fur stood on end, and he let out a spine-tingling “meow.” Then he shrunk into a ball, and like a panther, lunged straight at Bengalsky’s chest, and from there leapt onto his head. With a low growl, the cat stuck his chubby paws into the emcee’s greasy hair, and with a savage howl, tore the head off its thick neck in two twists.
The two and a half thousand people in the theater screamed in unison. Fountains of blood spurted from the severed arteries in the neck and poured down the emcee’s shirt front and tailcoat. The headless body’s legs buckled absurdly, and it plopped onto the floor. The hysterical screams of women were heard. The cat handed the head to Fagot who lifted it up by the hair and showed it to the audience, and the head cried out desperately to the whole theater, “Get a doctor!”
“Are you going to keep talking rubbish?” Fagot inquired of the weeping head in threatening tones.
“I won’t anymore!” rasped the head.
Well there it is, just a snippet of the ghoulish fun that is prevalent throughout this excellent book. I also found a Russian adaptation of the book complete with English subtitles on YouTube.
The next book I’ll be reading is Robert Lewis Stevenson’s Treasure Island. It will be a nice change of pace from the epic poems, and Russian literature that I have been reading of late, so stay tuned for that.
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