A Reader’s Companion to Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita (Companions to Russian Literature) - Softcover

Curtis, J.A.E.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1644690780 ISBN 13: 9781644690789

Publisher: Academic Studies Press, 2019

Synopsis

Mikhail Bulgakov’s novel The Master and Margarita, set in Stalin’s Moscow, is an intriguing work with a complex structure, wonderful comic episodes and moments of great beauty. Readers are often left tantalized but uncertain how to understand its rich meanings. To what extent is it political? Or religious? And how should we interpret the Satanic Woland? This reader’s companion offers readers a biographical introduction, and analyses of the structure and the main themes of the novel. More curious readers will also enjoy the accounts of the novel’s writing and publication history, alongside analyses of the work’s astonishing linguistic complexity and a review of available English translations.

About this title

About the Author

J. A. E. Curtis has been exploring the life and works of Mikhail Bulgakov since the 1970s, when The Master and Margarita sensationally appeared for the first time. She teaches Russian Literature at the University of Oxford, and has also published research on Evgenii Zamiatin, and on 21st-century Russian drama.

Review

“A novel without precedent in the Russian tradition, alien to the conditions of its era and hidden away during and after its writing, The Master and Margarita is now an absolute twentieth-century classic. But its many drafts, filters, codes and satirical subtexts need a master key. J. A. E. Curtis, one of our best and most experienced Bulgakov scholars, has provided just this: the lucid, compassionate backstory to a masterpiece, which itself reads with all the crispness and suspense of a novel. A wonderful achievement that pays tribute to the writer’s life and its transformation into fantastically authentic art.”

―Caryl Emerson, A. Watson Armour III University Professor Emeritus of Slavic Languages and Literatures, Princeton University

“Authoritative yet accessible, this work by one of our preeminent Bulgakov scholars should be read by anyone interested in the novel that changed the Soviet literary landscape. It is especially recommended for non-specialists and first-time readers of the novel, who may need some contextual scaffolding to help them navigate the devil’s madcap visit to Stalinist-era Moscow. A gem of patient research, distilled analysis, and broad erudition.”

―David Bethea, Emeritus Professor of Slavic Languages and Literature, University of Wisconsin-Madison

“A Reader’s Companion to Mikhail Bulgakov’s 'The Master and Margarita', by preeminent Bulgakov scholar J. A. E. Curtis of Oxford University, is certain to become a standard for scholarship and teaching. The Reader’s Companion provides an ideal combination of biographical and historical background for Bulgakov’s famous novel, as well as key insight into the novel’s aesthetic and philosophical stakes. Curtis’ discussion of the novel’s various English translations is invaluable.”

―Justin Weir,Curt Hugo Reisinger Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures and Professor of Comparative Literature, Harvard University

Edition details

• Publisher: Academic Studies Press
• Publication date: 2019
• ISBN 10: 1644690780
• ISBN 13: 9781644690789
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 194