Image from: Manuscripts Bon't Burn
What if the devil did come to Moscow (or any other city) disguised
as a magician? What if he and his minions played tricks and games with the
elite and powerful inhabitants of the city, only to depart just as abruptly as they'd arrived and leave a chaotic and dumbfounded city in their wake? What if
the consequence were to shock a group of sceptics into thinking about their
mortality and the existence of something beyond here and now?
Not exactly a summation of Bulgakov's "The Master and
Margarita", but nonetheless a gist of part of the story.
Bulgakov paints a fantastically surreal picture of Moscow, as we
follow the seemingly eccentric Woland (Satan disguised as a professor) and his
devilish sidekicks (who are at once fascinating and quite funny too), fittingly
named Behemoth, Azazello, Hella and Abadonna (there’s one other called
Koroviev, not sure how he fits into that list). They execute dangerous but humorous tricks on
the inhabitants, revealing their deepest natures; either good or bad.
Intertwined with this is an account of Pontius Pilate’s life, his
thoughts, actions and moral deliberations during the trial of Christ and the devils
role in all of this. The piece is penned by the ‘Master’, who has devoted his
entire life to its creation. However censorship means that he is forced to burn
his manuscript and is locked into an institution for the insane (a very
powerful metaphor for the censorships that existed in Stalin’s Russia). His
lover, Margarita, is distraught when he disappears, to the point that she
requests Woland’s help in finding her lost lover. At this point ensues more
craziness and we find ourselves following Margarita to a sensational ball for
the damned hosted by Woland. More craziness ensues, as the devilish tricks get
nastier and nastier, literally setting Moscow ablaze with fire!
I’ll leave it at that, not wanting to spoil too much for all of
you haven’t read it yet (what the hell are you waiting for? (Hehe is that a little pun I sense there?)). The entire book is a bit of a whirlwind read, making it almost
baffling at times. However the magical realism, the absurdly brilliant
characters, the moral and existential explorations and just the narrative itself
, make this an incredible book that almost makes your mind explode (I
immediately had to take pen to paper for the out pour of literary genius (seriously!)
that the book inspired).
Though my religious inclinations, do leave me feeling somewhat guilty (only slightly) for greatly loving a novel that explores the evil, power, ingenuity and dare I say, allure (?!) of the devil, the guilt isn't enough to prevent me from thinking that this is probably one of the best pieces of literature I have ever got my hands on. I was hooked from the start. And after I finished it I kept taking it off the shelf to re-read certain chapters or excerpts of the novel, just because of the sheer brilliance of Bulgakov's writing style.
I had to read on Bulgakov’s life straight after finishing the
novel and he’s become a hero of sorts in my eyes. It’s evident from the book
that it was written in a Moscow that was governed by a Stalinist regime and
upon reading about Bulgakov I realised he was a victim of the harsh consequences of censorship.
However, what really got to me was the fact that Mikhail had trained as physician,
but after falling sick he turned to writing. Being a medic (and totally loving
it), who has an incredible love for literature and writing, I aspire to, one
day, write a novel that will deeply influence or entertain at least a handful
of people. So upon reading about Bulgakov’s experiences my heart started
pounding as I saw a vision of myself being a physician who also wrote epic novels
on the side.
It’s been glued to my shelf of legendary books and has a space
beside it to accommodate Bulgakov’s other stuff. Any who loves literary classics/ surrealism/ fantasy/ Goethe/ Dostoevsky, or just anyone who wants to read some think brilliant, please get yourself a copy.
I thought I’d note how I
came across this book, as I found it mildly amusing when I thought over it:
I usually
spend five minutes or so scouring the shelves of "cancer research",
in my local high street whenever I'm there (which, because of University, isn't
very often these days). However on this particular day, I was in a rush to
finish my banking and get back to the car (damned HSBC queue meant my
dad had been waiting impatiently in the car, for about an hour and a half or
so, ringing me every 15 minutes to check if I'd "finished yet".). But
as I semi-skipped/ jogged towards the car park, the thought that I might miss
out on a really good find suddenly crossed my mind and I retraced my steps
(albeit running this time), hoping that any good books on the shelves would be
mine (there was only one other youngish guy, with too
many piercings and even more aftershave, that I usually found
fingering the kind of books I liked to read. The others were all little old
ladies, who smiled oddly whilst attempting to be discrete about looking through
the Mills and Boons). Luckily Piercings was nowhere to be seen and the
shelves were mine alone. I found a favourite of mine that I'd already read (The
map of love) and "The Master and Margarita". The cover was pretty
plain, but I liked the name Mikhail, so was drawn to the book. I usually have a
quick read of the first 1/2 pages of a book to see if I liked the authors
style, but in this instance I had to rely on the blurb. I'm so glad I did. I
was drawn into the story as soon as I started reading it, which I actually did
as I walked/jogged back to the car. This
meant a walk that would normally take about 5-7 minutes took me about 20
minutes! Though, when I finally got to the car, I had to hear a long lecture on
time-keeping etc. I was so glad and excited to have made that stop and
continued reading whilst my dad went on and on about the merits of waking up
early and maintaining time etc etc.
