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.]] ''The Master and Margarita'' () is a novel by Mikhail Bulgakov , woven about the premise of a visit by the Devil to the fervently Atheistic Soviet Union . Many critics consider the book to be one of the greatest Russian novels of the 20th century – and one of the most humorous. HISTORY Bulgakov started writing the novel in 1928 . The first version of the novel was destroyed (according to Bulgakov, burned in a stove) in March 1930 when he was notified that his piece ''Cabal of Sanctimonious Hypocrites'' (Кабала святош) was banned. The work was restarted in 1931 and the second draft was completed in 1936 by which point all the major plot lines of the final version were in place. The third draft was finished in 1937 . Bulgakov continued to polish the work with the aid of his wife, but was forced to stop work on the fourth version four weeks before his death in 1940 . The work was completed by his wife during 1940-1941. A censored version (12% of the text removed and still more changed) of the book was first published in '' Moscow '' magazine (no. 11, 1966 and no. 1, 1967 ). The text of all the omitted and changed parts, with indications of the places of modification, was published on a Samizdat basis. In 1967 the publisher '' Posev '' ( Frankfurt ) printed a version produced with the aid of these inserts. In Russia, the first complete version, prepared by Anna Saakyants, was published by '' Khudozhestvennaya Literatura '' in 1973 , based on the version of the beginning of 1940 proofread by the publisher. This version remained the canonical edition until 1989, when the last version was prepared by literature expert Lidiya Yanovskaya based on all available manuscripts. PLOT The novel alternates between three settings. The first is 1930s Moscow , which is visited by Satan in the guise of Woland (Воланд), a mysterious gentleman "magician" of uncertain origin, who arrives with a retinue that includes the grotesquely dressed "ex-choirmaster" valet Fagotto (Фагот, the name means " Bassoon " in Russian and some other languages), the mischievous, gun-happy, fast-talking black cat Behemoth (Бегемот, a subversive Puss In Boots ), the fanged hitman Azazello (Азазелло, a hint to Azazel ), the pale-faced Abadonna (Абадонна, a hint to Abbadon ) with death-inflicting stare, and the witch Hella (Гелла). The havoc wreaked by this group targets the literary elite, along with its trade union, ''MASSOLIT'', its privileged HQ-cum-restaurant '' Griboyedov 's House'', corrupt social-climbers and their women (wives and mistresses alike) – bureaucrats and profiteers – and, more generally, skeptical unbelievers in the human spirit. The opening sequence of the book presents a direct confrontation between the unbelieving head of the literary bureaucracy, Berlioz (Берлиоз), and an urbane foreign gentleman who defends belief and reveals his prophetic powers ( Woland ). This is witnessed by a young and enthusiastically modern poet, Ivan Bezdomny (Иван Бездомный, the name means "Homeless"). His futile attempt to chase and capture the "gang" and warn of their evil and mysterious nature lands Ivan in a lunatic asylum. Here we are introduced to The Master, an embittered author, the petty-minded rejection of whose historical novel about Pontius Pilate and Christ has led him to such despair that he burns his manuscript and turns his back on the "real" world, including his devoted lover, Margarita (Маргарита). Major episodes in the first part of the novel include Satan's magic show at the Variety Theatre, satirizing the vanity, greed and gullibility of the new rich, and the capture and occupation of Berlioz's flat by Woland and his gang. In Part 2, we meet Margarita, the Master's mistress, who refuses to despair of her lover or his work. She is made an offer by Satan, and accepts it, becoming a witch with supernatural powers on the night of his Midnight Ball, or '' Walpurgis Night '', which coincides with the night of Good Friday , linking all three elements of the book together, since the Master's novel also deals with this same spring full moon when Christ's fate is sealed by Pontius Pilate and he is crucified in Jerusalem. The second setting is the Jerusalem of Pontius Pilate , described by Woland talking to Berlioz and echoed in the pages of the Master's rejected novel, which concerns Pontius Pilate's meeting with Yeshua Ha-Notsri ( Jesus ), his recognition of an affinity with and spiritual need for him, and his reluctant but resigned and passive handing over of him to those who want to kill him. The third setting is the one to which Margarita provides a bridge. Learning to fly and control her unleashed passions (not without exacting violent retribution on the literary bureaucrats who condemned her beloved to despair), and taking her enthusiastic maid Natasha with her, she enters naked into the world of the night, flies over the deep forests and rivers of Mother Russia, bathes, and, cleansed, returns to Moscow as the anointed hostess for Satan's great Spring Ball. Standing by his side, she welcomes the dark celebrities of human history as they pour up from the opened maw of Hell. She survives this ordeal without breaking, and for her pains and her integrity she is rewarded: Satan offers to grant Margarita her deepest wish. She chooses to liberate the Master and live in poverty and love with him. However, neither Satan nor God think this is any kind of life for good people, and the couple leave Moscow with the Devil, as its cupolas and windows burn in the setting sun of Easter Saturday. TEXTUAL INTERPRETATIONS AND INFLUENCES The interplay of fire, water, destruction and other natural forces provides a constant accompaniment to the events of the novel, as do light and darkness, noise and silence, sun and moon, storms and tranquility, and other powerful polarities. There is a complex relationship between Jerusalem and Moscow throughout the novel, sometimes polyphony, sometimes counterpoint. The novel is heavily influenced by Goethe 's '' Faust '', and the themes of cowardice, trust, treachery, intellectual openness and curiosity, and redemption are prominent. The book may be read from a number of different perspectives, such as Slapstick humor, Philosophical allegory, or socio-political Satire critical not just of the Soviet system but also of the superficiality and vanity of modern life in general. In another of its facets, the book is a Bildungsroman with Ivan as its focus. Bulgakov employs entirely different writing styles in the alternating sections. The Moscow chapters, ostensibly involving the more "real and immediate" world, are written in a fast-paced, almost farcical tone, while the Jerusalem chapters – the words of the Master's fiction – are written in a hyper-realistic style. (See Mikhail Bulgakov for the impact of the novel on other writers.) The tone of the narrative swings freely from Soviet bureaucratic jargon to cinematic imagery, from sarcastic to deadpan to lyrical, as the scenes dictate. The final chapters are late drafts that Bulgakov pasted to the back of his manuscript; he died before he could incorporate these chapters into a completed fourth draft. ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS There are four published English translations of ''The Master and Margarita'':
Ginsburg's translation was from a censored Soviet text and is therefore incomplete. While opinions vary over the literary merits of the different translations and none of them can be considered perfect, the latter two are generally viewed as being more faithful to the nuances of the original. Glenny's translation runs more smoothly than that of Pevear and Volokhonsky, but is very cavalier with the text, whereas Pevear and Volokhonsky pay for their attempted closeness by losing idiomatic flow. A close examination of almost any paragraph of the novel in these two versions in comparison with the original reveals shortcomings and glaring discrepancies, however. EFFECTS ON RUSSIAN CULTURE Bulgakov's old flat, in which parts of the novel are set, since the 1980s has become a gathering spot for Bulgakov's fans, as well as Moscow-based Satanist groups, and had various kinds of Graffiti scrawled on the walls. The numerous paintings, quips, and drawings were completely whitewashed in 2003. Previously the best drawings were kept as the walls were repainted, so that several layers of different colored paints could be seen around the best drawings. The building's residents, in an attempt to deter loitering, are currently attempting to turn the flat into a museum of Bulgakov's life and works. To date, they have had trouble contacting the flat's anonymous owner. INFLUENCE Various authors and musicians have credited ''The Master and Margarita'' as inspiration for certain works. Salman Rushdie 's novel '' The Satanic Verses '', for example, clearly was influenced by Bulgakov's masterwork. The Rolling Stones have said the novel was key in their song " Sympathy For The Devil ". The Grunge band Pearl Jam were influenced by the novel's confrontation between Yeshua Ha-Notsri , that is, Jesus, and Pontius Pilate for their 1998 " Yield " album song, "Pilate". The Lawrence Arms based their album The Greatest Story Ever Told on the book and several of its themes. The Franz Ferdinand song "Love and Destroy" was based on a scene where Margarita flies over Moscow on her way to the Walpurgis Night Ball. The Canadian group The Tea Party also were inspired by this book when they wrote their song "The Master and Margarita." Arlie Carstens sings the line "Bulgakov to Woland's crowd," on the Juno song "''The French Letter''" from their album ''A Future lived in Past Tense''. Elefant , a New York City-based group, released ''The Black Magic Show'' in April 2006. The title and first track reference Satan's magic show. The German composer York Höller 's opera ''Der Meister und Margarita'' was premiered in 1989 at the Paris Opéra and released on CD in 2000 . TV AND FILM ADAPTATIONS makes a movie " Pilate And Others ", based on biblical part of the book (Master's manuscript). {Link without Title} : "Majstor i Margarita") is released. Based loosely on the book, the main discrepancy is that Master in the movie has an actual name of Nikolaj Afanasijevic Maksudov, while in the original book Master is persistently anonymous. {Link without Title} makes mini-TV series of seven episodes ( Polish : "Mistrz i Malgorzata"). These series have been aired on Russian Television at least once. {Link without Title} . . Although the cast included big names and talented actors ( Anastasiya Vertinskaya as Margarita, Mikhail Ulyanov as Pilate , Nikolai Burlyayev as Jesus Christ , Valentin Gaft as Woland , Aleksandr Filippenko as Korovyev-Fagot) and its score was by the noted Russian composer Alfred Schnittke , the movie was never actually released on any media. {Link without Title} As rumored by the media, at different times also thought about making "Master and Margarita" adaptations. , famous for his TV adaptation of Bulgakov 's " Heart Of A Dog " and Dostoyevsky 's " The Idiot ", makes "Master and Margarita " TV miniseries of ten episodes. The miniseries was first released on December 19 , 2005 . It starred Aleksandr Galibin as The Master, Anna Kovalchuk as Margarita, Oleg Basilashvili as Woland , Kirill Lavrov as Pontius Pilate and Valentin Gaft as Kaifa . The project is widely successful on Russian Television, and is considered to be closest to the book. More details about these series can be found in the . EXTERNAL LINKS
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