Inna asked me to read this (it’s her favorite novel) and I’m on Chapter 3. It’s interesting, but I’m not really understanding it.
Anyone else read this? My edition is non-annotated, which might be part and parcel of my ‘confusion’, for wont of a better word.
Thanks!
I read it recently and enjoyed it a lot, while also being pretty sure there was a lot of stuff I wasn’t getting.
If you’re only on Chapter 3 I don’t want to spoil anything for you, but it might be worth thinking about what life was like in the USSR at the time it was written, and what relation that bears to the bizarre events that unfold. In Chapter 1, you have two of the intelligentsia trying to make the Party happy by playing intellectual games about the historicity of Jesus Christ and then the actual Devil turns up to contradict them! What does that tell you? (Especially considering the consequences?).
(My version wasn’t annotated either, which among other things means it’s a real bugger trying to keep track of patronymics. It’s almost worth keeping notes.)
I’ve read it. It was required in a Russian Lit class I took in my undergrad. And my edition was a straight English translation, no annotations.
Basically, it deals with what might happen if the Devil was to touch down in the athiestic Soviet Union. In the 1930s, so you can imagine how much fun the Devil has in that Stalinist society. Bits and pieces were published in the USSR, but it wasn’t published in full in the West until 1967 in Paris.
It’s hilarious! Imagine how much fun that Satan can have in the 1930s USSR, with everything ordered, Stalin as a dictator, and the economy in the hands of the central government, and Satan arrives and upsets it all. It’s been years, and I cannot remember details, but I do remember The Master and Margarita as one of my favourites from that Russian Lit class.
If you’re only on Chapter 3, stick with it. It gets better.
As for patronymics, just deal. It’s how Russians call each other. “Ivan Ivanovich” means “John, son of John.” “Elena Grigoryevna” means “Elena, daughter of Grigor.” Russians don’t have middle names; they have patronymics. And they prefer to use those instead of things like “Mr. Gorbachev,” also known as “Mikhail Sergeyevich,” which means “Michael, son of Sergey.” Heck, if I was to meet Vladimir Putin, I’d greet him with “Dobroye utro [good morning], Vladimir Vladomirivich.” Nothing about “Mr. Putin,” or “Gospardin Putin”—just his name, the way he expects it.
Yes, I have studied Russian. And you do not want to get into all the diminuitives, and what they mean. Anna, Anka, Annushka …
Although understanding patronymics are not necessary to understand The Master and Margarita, you can still get the gist from the characters’ first names enough to enjoy the story.
My bad - patronymics wasn’t quite the right term. But what Russians call each other depends on how close they are with each other, so Mr Gorbachev in one chapter might be Mikhail Sergeyevich in another, might be Mishka in a third. Which is fine! But in books written by Russians for Russians, the reader’s ease and familiarity with this is taken for granted - which is also fine! - but it can catch the unwary out. “Are these two new characters, or have two people I’ve already met turned out to be old army buddies?”
No, not your bad. Patronymics are easy to understand except where Westerners expect to have middle names, and Russians don’t. However, Russians seem to be extremely fluid with their names, nicknames, and patronymics, so much so that it’s hard to keep up. As I said, “Anna, Anka, Annushka.” Each reveals how I feel about Anna: am I referring to her, or do I like her a lot, or is she a somebody for whom I don’t have a high regard somehow?
I didn’t even add “Nikolaievna,” “Maksimova,” and “Vslevodnava.” 
Yeah. But it’s no more than a minor annoyance. Your main point:
is bang on, and I re-emphasise it to avoid discouraging @JohnT .
There’s also a fairly strong satirical element (e.g. strong enough that I could pick up on it). E.g. when
The devil does the magic show, and seems to give everyone money, fine clothes, the best food - only for it all to vanish leaving them hungry and naked and poor it doesn’t take a detailed knowledge of the early USSR to see the parallels.
I loved it. I want to re-read it.
I also have a copy with the dust jacket showing the black cat holding the pistol. Awesome dj.
I read Heart of a Dog back in college and loved it, but I subsequently failed at a couple of attempts to read Master. Maybe I should give it another try.
I haven’t read or re-read it in many years, but I enjoyed it when I did. It had a definite surrealistic humor that I didn’t think was common in Russian literature. Especially in the contrast between the folkloric elements of the Devil and demonic black cat, versus the grim bureaucracy of Stalinist Russia.
Have not read the book. Russian wife has and considers it good. Sounds to me like it might make a good movie.
Spoons pretty much nailed it with the patronymic and my wife taught me stuff I didn’t know.
If you meet Putin, you’d call him Vladimir Vladimirovich. To call him Putin in any way would be considered impolite. If you know him really well you’d likely call him Vova.
Reagan of course famously said, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall” which immediately happened five years later.
And the New York Times calls everyone, as despicable or good as they are, “Mr.” (or whatever for women)
I think I’ve read it three times. It just gets funnier. But dark funny. Russian humor is very dark because how not? I have purged my fiction collection any number of times but that’s one that is still there.
The Master and Margarita (2023) - IMDb
In Russian no less!
The lyrics to the Rolling Stones’ “Sympathy for the Devil” are supposed to either be based on or inspired by Master and Margarita. Mick Jagger must’ve gotten his hands on a very early English-language copy.
It is, likewise, Lady Rat’s favorite book and I’ve been derelict in getting to it. This is a good reminder.
I’ll follow up with some thoughts in a week or so.