The Master and Margarita

This novel is one of the best I have even read. It is sharp, satirical, ironic, and fun, and with its many allusions to Faust, apparently Bulgakov’s favorite characters, and other literary works makes reading enjoyable. Bulgalkov places the reader in Stalin’s Russia before World War II. It begins with a discussion about the existence of God and the devil between a literary critic, a poet, and the devil. The conversation is extremely ironic as Soviet Russia is an atheist country, and the fact that the conversation involves the devil proves the existence of both to the unwitting critic and poet. During the conversation the devil tells the critic that he will die a very unusual death, and so the critic does sending the poet into distress. The devil and his minions then begin reeking havoc and terror throughout Moscow. Bulgakov uses the spirits in a satirical way depicting the social quarks of Soviet Russia. The adventure of these spirits is interwoven with a history of Pontius Pilate and a love story between the Master and Margarita. Working together in a very ingenious way these three aspects of the novel focus on faith, redemption, honesty and loyalty. The only real problem with the novel was trying to account for the numerous characters especially the several characters named Ivan. Overall though I found the work to be unique and interesting and should be read by anyone with an interest in Literature.