The Master and Margarita
by Mikhail Bulgakov
Summary
The devil arrives in officially atheist Moscow accompanied by a talking black cat and a retinue of demons, wreaking havoc on the city's literary elite while, in a parallel narrative, Pontius Pilate wrestles with his conscience over the fate of a wandering philosopher named Yeshua. Bulgakov wrote the novel in secret during the height of Stalinist repression, blending savage satire of Soviet bureaucracy with a tender, mystical love story between the writer called the Master and his devoted Margarita. The novel was published only decades after Bulgakov's death and has since become one of the most beloved works of Russian literature.
Historical Context & Significance
No Soviet prize could have honored a manuscript its author burned in fear and then secretly rewrote, and the novel did not appear in print, heavily censored, until 1966 and 1967, more than a quarter century after Bulgakov's death. Its uncensored text was not published in full until 1973.