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Reading lists

100 must-read classics, as chosen by our readers

The Master and Margarita

This book is absorbing, brilliant slapstick, and looks deep in to the heart of fantasy and longing

Stunning, superb...Bulgakov is one of the greatest Russian writers, perhaps the greatest

Mikhail Bulgakov (1891 - 1940) was born and educated in Kiev where he graduated as a doctor in 1916. He rapidly abandoned medicine to write some of the greatest Russian literature of this century. After a lifetime at odds with the stultifying Soviet regime, he died impoverished and blind in 1940, shortly after completing his masterpiece, The Master and Margarita. None of his major fiction was published during his lifetime.

in Bulgakov's allegorical masterpiece of Stalin&rsquo;s regime the devil is making a personal appearance in Moscow. 
 
He is accompanied by various demons, including a naked girl and a huge black cat. When he leaves, the asylums are full and the forces of law and order are in disarray. Only the Master, a writer and a man devoted to truth, and Margarita, the woman he loves, can resist the devil&rsquo;s onslaught. 
 
&lsquo;Stunning, superb...Bulgakov is one of the greatest Russian writers, perhaps the greatest&rsquo; Independent 
 
&lsquo;A masterpiece &ndash; a classic of twentieth-century fiction&rsquo; New York Times 
 
TRANSLATED BY MICHAEL GLENNY, INTRODUCED BY WILL SELF

The Master And Margarita

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Mikhail Bulgakov's devilish salute to artistic freedom, now in a beautiful clothbound edition 
 
'Bulgakov is one of the greatest Russian writers, perhaps the greatest' Independent 
 
Written in secret during the darkest days of Stalin's reign, The Master and Margarita became an overnight literary phenomenon when it was finally published it, signalling artistic freedom for Russians everywhere. Bulgakov's carnivalesque satire of Soviet life describes how the Devil, trailing fire and chaos in his wake, weaves himself out of the shadows and into Moscow one Spring afternoon. Brimming with magic and incident, it is full of imaginary, historical, terrifying and wonderful characters, from witches, poets and Biblical tyrants to the beautiful, courageous Margarita, who will do anything to save the imprisoned writer she loves. 
 
Translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky with an Introduction by Richard Pevear

Mikhail Bulgakov was born in Kiev in May 1891. His sympathetic portrayal of White characters in his stories, in the plays The Days of the Turbins (The White Guard), which enjoyed great success at the Moscow Arts Theatre in 1926, and Flight (1927), and his satirical treatment of the officials of the New Economic Plan, led to growing criticism, which became violent after the play The Purple Island. He also wrote a brilliant biography of his literary hero, Jean-Baptiste Molière, but The Master and Margarita is generally considered his masterpiece. Fame, at home and abroad, was not to come until a quarter of a century after his death at Moscow in 1940.

Written in secret during the darkest days of Stalin's reign, The Master and Margarita became an overnight literary phenomenon when it was finally published it, signalling artistic freedom for Russians everywhere. Bulgakov's carnivalesque satire of Soviet life describes how the Devil, trailing fire and chaos in his wake, weaves himself out of the shadows and into Moscow one spring afternoon. Brimming with magic and incident, it is full of imaginary, historical, terrifying and wonderful characters, from witches, poets and biblical tyrants to the beautiful, courageous Margarita, who will do anything to save the imprisoned writer she loves. 
 
Translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, with an Introduction by Richard Pevear

The Master and Margarita (Vintage Classic Russians Series)

The Vintage Classics Russians Series - sumptuous editions of the greatest books to come out of Russia during the most tumultuous period in its history

A masterpiece - a classic of twentieth-century fiction' New York Times 
 
 Bulgakov paints a powerful picture of Stalin's regime in this allegorical classic. 
 
 The devil makes a personal appearance in Moscow accompanied by various demons, including a naked girl and a huge black cat. When he leaves, the asylums are full and the forces of law and order are in disarray. Only the Master, a man devoted to truth, and Margarita, the woman he loves, can resist the devil's onslaught. 
 
VINTAGE CLASSICS RUSSIAN SERIES - sumptuous editions of the greatest books to come out of Russia during the most tumultuous period in its history.

A masterpiece - a classic of twentieth-century fiction

'A masterpiece - a classic of twentieth-century fiction' New York Times 
 
Bulgakov paints a powerful picture of Stalin's regime in this allegorical classic. 
 
 The devil makes a personal appearance in Moscow accompanied by various demons, including a naked girl and a huge black cat. When he leaves, the asylums are full and the forces of law and order are in disarray. Only the Master, a man devoted to truth, and Margarita, the woman he loves, can resist the devil's onslaught. 
 
The Vintage Classics Russians Series - sumptuous editions of the greatest books to come out of Russia during the most tumultuous period in its history

Black Snow

A brilliant satire on Method Acting and the Moscow Arts Theatre, from the author of The Master and Margarita.

Bulgakov, the first magical realist-is regarded as the Soviet writer who made the strongest impact on twentieth-century Western fiction

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY TERRY GILLIAM 
 
When Maxudov's bid to take his own life fails, he dramatises the novel whose failure provoked the suicide attempt. To the resentment of literary Moscow, his play is accepted by the legendary Independent Theatre and Maxudov plunges into a vortex of inflated egos. With each rehearsal more sparks fly and the chances of the play being ready to perform recede. Black Snow is the ultimate back-stage novel and a brilliant satire by the author of The Master and Margarita on his ten-year love-hate relationship with Stanislavsky, Method-acting and the Moscow Arts Theatre.

The White Guard

'The tumultuous atmospher of the Ukranian revolution and civil war is brilliantly evoked' Daily Telegraph

Discover Mikhail Bugakov's classic literary love letter to the city of Kyiv. 
 
Drawing closely on Bulgakov's personal experiences of the horrors of civil war as a young doctor, The White Guard takes place in Kyiv, 1918, a time of turmoil and suffocating uncertainty as the Bolsheviks, Socialists and Germans fight for control of the city. It tells the story of the Turbins, a once-wealthy Russian family, as they are forced to come to terms with revolution and a new regime. 
 
Bulgakov's first novel, The White Guard is one of the greatest works of twentieth century Russian literature. As epic a chronicle of life and death in the Russian Empire as War and Peace. 
 
'The tumultuous atmosphere of the Ukrainian revolution and civil war is brilliantly evoked' Daily Telegraph

A powerful reverie...the city is so vivid to the eye that it is the real hero of the book.

One of those few emancipated Soviet writers who firmly believe-and still believe-that to create is to choose

The White Guard captures the tumult, madness and confusion of revolution

Drawing closely on Bulgakov's personal experiences of the horrors of civil war as a young doctor, The White Guard takes place in Kiev, 1918, a time of turmoil and suffocating uncertainty as the Bolsheviks, Socialists and Germans fight for control of the city. It tells the story of the Turbins, a once-wealthy Russian family, as they are forced to come to terms with revolution and a new regime.

Diaboliad

An explosive collection of short stories which display all of Bulgakov's surreal inventiveness and biting satirical humour

One of the greatest modern Russian writers, perhaps the greatest

Bulgakov is a wild, mobile, crafty devotee of ideas

The five, irreverant, satirical and imaginative stories contained in Diaboliad caused an uproar upon the book's first publication in 1925. Full of invention, they display Bulgakov's breathtaking stylistic range, moving at dizzying speed from grotesque satire to science fiction, from the plainest realism to the most madcap fantasy. Diaboliad is a wonderful introduction to literature's most uncategorisable and subversive genius.

A Country Doctor's Notebook

Brilliant stories which show the growth of a novelist's mind, and the raw material which fed the wild surrealism of Bulgakov's later fiction

Stories as keen and bright as a scalpel... Courage shines from every angle of this profoundly human collection by the greatest of modern Russian writers

The oil lamps of his little provincial hospital seemed to him a lonely beacon which symbolised the battle between light and darkness... These straighforward yet extraordinary sketches gain their strength from also being the account of a young man's growth. One begins to see that he became a novelist not because he had material but because he was storing up passion and temperament

Blizzards blow, wolves run loose in the forests, the doctor duels with Death, who is never satisfied

TRANSLATED BY MICHAEL GLENNY 
 
With the ink still wet on his diploma, the twenty-five-year-old Dr Mikhail Bulgakov was flung into the depths of rural Russia which, in 1916-17, was still largely unaffected by such novelties as the motor car, the telephone or electric light. How his alter-ego copes (or fails to cope) with the new and often appalling responsibilities of a lone doctor in a vast country practice - on the eve of Revolution - is described in Bulgakov's delightful blend of candid realism and imaginative exuberance.

The Heart Of A Dog

A superb comic masterpiece and fierce parable of the Russian Revolution by the author of The Master and Margarita.

As high-spirited as it is pointed. Unlike so much satire, it has a splendid sense of fun

Bulgakov here assaults the dour utilitarian lives of Soviet citizens with a defiant, boisterous display of nonsense

Mikhail Bulgakov (1891-1940) was born and educated in Kiev where he graduated as a doctor in 1916. He rapidly abandoned medicine to write some of the greatest Russian literature of this century. After a lifetime at odds with the stultifying Soviet regime, he died impoverished and blind in 1940, shortly after completing his masterpiece, The Master and Margarita. None of his major fiction was published during his lifetime.

WITH A NEW INTRODUCTION BY ANDREY KURKOV 
 
A rich, successful Moscow professor befriends a stray dog and attempts a scientific first by transplanting into it the testicles and pituitary gland of a recently deceased man. A distinctly worryingly human animal is now on the loose, and the professor's hitherto respectable life becomes a nightmare beyond endurance. An absurd and superbly comic story, this classic novel can also be read as a fierce parable of the Russian Revolution.

A Dead Man's Memoir (A Theatrical Novel)

A new translation of one of the most popular satires on the Russian Revolution and on Soviet society - first time in Penguin Classics

Mikhail Bulgakov (Author) Mikhail Bulgakov was born in Kiev in May 1891. His sympathetic portrayal of White characters in his stories, in the plays The Days of the Turbins (The White Guard), which enjoyed great success at the Moscow Arts Theatre in 1926, and Flight (1927), and his satirical treatment of the officials of the New Economic Plan, led to growing criticism, which became violent after the play The Purple Island. He also wrote a brilliant biography of his literary hero, Jean-Baptiste Molière, but The Master and Margarita is generally considered his masterpiece. Fame, at home and abroad, was not to come until a quarter of a century after his death at Moscow in 1940. Keith Gessen (Introducer) Keith Gessen is a Russian-born American author, journalist and co-editor of n+1, a cultural and political magazine. Gessen has written articles on Russia for The New Yorker, The London Review of Books and the New York Review of Books. His first novel, All the Sad Young Literary Men, was published in 2008.

This is Bulgakov's semi-autobiographical story of a writer who fails to sell his novel and fails to commit suicide. When his play is taken up by the theatre, literary success beckons, but he has reckoned without the grotesquely inflated egos of the actors, directors and theatre managers.

Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita - a fiercely satirical fantasy.

"My favorite novel -it's just the greatest explosion of imagination, craziness, satire, humor, and heart." Daniel Radcliffe. 
 
The devil with his retinue, a poet incarcerated in a mental institution for speaking the truth, and a startling re-creation of the story of Pontius Pilate, constitute the elements out of which Mikhail Bulgakov wove The Master and Margarita, the unofficial masterpiece of twentieth-century Soviet fiction. Long suppressed in its native land, this account of strange doings in Moscow in the 1930s provides us with the essence of the sceptical, trenchant, unadulterated voice of dissent

The Fatal Eggs

Mikhail Bulgakov (1891 - 1940) was born and educated in Kiev where he graduated as a doctor in 1916, but gave up the practice of medicine in 1920 to devote himself to literature. In 1925 he completed the satirical novella The Heart of a Dog, which remained unpublished in the Soviet Union until 1987. This was one of the many defeats he was to suffer at the hands of his censors. By 1930 Bulgakov had become so frustrated by the political atmosphere and the suppression of his works that he wrote to Stalin begging to be allowed to emigrate if he was not to be given the opportunity to make his living as a writer in the USSR. Stalin telephoned him personally and offered to arrange a job for him at the Moscow Arts Theatre instead. In 1938, a year before contracting a fatal illness, he completed his prose masterpiece, The Master and Margarita. He died in 1940. In 1966-7, thanks to the persistance of his widow, the novel made a first, incomplete, appearance in Moskva, and in 1973 appeared in full.

Mikhail Bulgakov

James Meek

What would happen if a doctor implanted the pituitary gland and testicles of a man into the body of a stray dog? In Mikhail Bulgakov’s topsy-turvy world, the dog starts to walk on two legs, drink, smoke, thieve, chase women and recite every swear word in Russian. The perfect candidate for a government official, in other words. This rude, riotous send-up of the Soviet Union, banned immediately on publication, is satire red in tooth and claw.

Mikhail Bulgakov

Books by Mikhail Bulgakov

Series by Mikhail Bulgakov

Brief Encounters

Articles featuring Mikhail Bulgakov

100 must-read classics, as chosen by our readers

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