The Master and Margarita
Mikhail Bulgakov · 2026 · dropped
fiction satire russian-literature
The Devil visits Soviet Moscow to expose the absurdity and cowardice of its literary establishment.
I wanted to love this — the premise is wild, and the Satan-in-Moscow chapters are genuinely funny. But I bounced off the Pontius Pilate sections, which felt like a different (and slower) book stitched into the middle. Tried twice, got to the ball scene both times, then drifted away.
Might return to it with a different translation. The Pevear and Volokhonsky version felt stiff to me; I have heard the Burgin and O’Connor translation reads more naturally.
Notes
- The opening scene at Patriarch’s Ponds is one of the best cold opens in literature.
- Behemoth the giant cat is an all-time great literary character.
- The bureaucratic satire dates surprisingly well — the housing committee scenes could be set in any modern corporation.