The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov

 

The Master and Margarita, once banned by the Soviets, is now regarded as a classic of Russian Literature. Its plot, concerning what happens when Satan turns up in a 1930s Moscow that doesn’t officially believe in him, was considered to be too far a departure from socialist realism, the state approved mode of writing. Fancy that. This reissue is especially worth mentioning because it’s one of a few Bulgakov reissues that Vintage is producing. Three other volumes come out at the same time as this. A Country Doctor’s Notebook is exactly that, Bulgakov’s account of part of his medical career – it's probably for completists only. Fans of The Master and Margarita will be more inclined to read Diaboliad, a selection of Bulgakov’s surreal short stories, and his satire on early method acting, Black Snow. Already available are The White Guard, a historical novel that the author later adapted into a play that Stalin was fond of (his opinion changed later), and The Heart of a Dog, a bizarre short novel about a transplant experiment that causes a dog to become more and more human, with chaos resulting. Fans of magical realism, or simply the bizarre, should enjoy these books. [Nat Smith]