For me, this is one of the greatest books I have read, and of all the Russian novels I have read, the one that resonates most with me – a timeless classic vividly set in the Stalinist era with themes that are universal.
I like to re-read classic books that have strongly affected me, and till now, The Lord of the Rings has been my favourite re-read… last count, I’ve read it 17 times. Now, having just re-read The Master and Margarita, I have placed it top of my list. I’ve read it about 4 times, with long gaps in between, and this recent re-read has captivated me even more.
If I had to choose a short quote to illustrate the universality of the story, this is it. Satan, aka Woland, sits at sunset on the stone roof of one of the most beautiful buildings in Moscow, with his sidekick and hit man, Azazello. This main story, the plot line, intersects with a rewriting of the story of Pontius Pilate and the crucifixion of Jesus, here called Yeshua Ha-Nostri. A third story that intersects with both is that of the eponymous Master and Margarita, the star-crossed lovers in Stalinist Moscow. The Master is the author of a failed novel about Pilate and Yeshua; it has been slated and rejected by Moscow’s top literary critics and publishers, and the Master suffers a breakdown which incarcerates him in a mental asylum.
In the main plot, Woland and Azazello with other helpers have spent a couple of days wreaking havoc in this city of fear, sycophantry and corruption. Having done their worst, they are preparing to leave Moscow. They are visited by one of the actors in the story of Pilate and Ha-Nostri – Mathew the Levite, who, in the Master’s story, had been the lone devotee of Yeshua at the end and had witnessed his cruel death. Woland responds to Mathew’s hostile greeting thus:
‘ You spoke your words as though you denied the very existence of the shadows or of evil. Think, now: where would your good be if there were no evil and what would the world look like without shadow? Shadows are thrown by people and things. There’s the shadow of my sword, for instance. But shadows are also cast by trees and living things. Do you want to strip the whole globe by removing every tree and every creature to satisfy your fantasy of a bare world? You’re stupid.’
Yeshua Ha-Nostri was condemned to death by Pontius Pilate. In this story, Pilate is an unwilling judge, obedient to Caesar and constrained by the priesthood of Judaea who have determined that Ha-Nostri must be executed because of his dangerous preaching against authority. Pilate, in a private conversation with Ha-Nostri, realises that this ‘foolish philosopher’ is a gifted healer and in delivering the sentence of death, he is condemning himself to lasting grief and regret.
The Master, in whose novel Pontius Pilate is the hero, is given the chance to redeem his character from eternal remorse. Woland/Satan grants him ‘the chance to complete your novel with a single sentence’. That sentence is ‘You are free! Free! He is waiting for you!’. [He being Yeshua Ha-Nostri].
‘His hero had now vanished irretrievably into the abyss: on the night of Sunday, the day of the Resurrection, pardon had been granted to the astrologer’s son, fifth Procurator of Judaea, the cruel Pontius Pilate.’
I love the inversion of the Christian myth of Resurrection here: Absolution and eternal pardon are granted, not by God, but by Satan, the fallen angel. For me, this is a profound message. Light is the left hand of darkness, good is in evil and evil in good. The two are intertwined and inseparable. The novel is a moving testament by an author who, like the Master, was censored and scapegoated in his lifetime. It wasn’t published until long after Bulgakov’s death, and then thanks to his widow, who worked tirelessly to see it give a second chance.
This is a difficult novel to write about. No brief review can do justice to its complexity, its satire, its tenderness and poetry, to the vividness of its characters, minor and major. Gripping, entertaining, moving, funny, thought-provoking. If you haven’t read it and you don’t mind magic realism, I highly recommend it.
