Noble Novels: The Master and Margarita

Woland, Behemoth, and Korovyov

       First off, how on earth has it been so long and I haven't written a Noble Novels on this noblest of novels! Shame on me. Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita is easily one of the best novels of the 20th century. It tells the story of the devil who calls himself Professor Woland visiting Moscow in a belligerently atheistic time period along with a retinue composed of a giant, vodka swilling cat, a sly ex-choir master, a naked witch, and a red-headed gunslinger. As Moscow essentially falls to it's knees as it is enveloped by the flames of devilish chaos, a novel written by a psychotic author called "The Master" about Pontius Pilate's trial of Yeshua Ha-Notsri (Jesus the Nazarene) as Pilate recognizes a powerful and spiritual craving for this peasant Yeshua and yet later reluctantly submits and allows Yeshua's execution causing himself great personal distress. The Devil and his retinue move to break the Master out of a Muscovite insane asylum and to reunite him with his former mistress, Margarita, leaving Moscow's rigid, bureaucratic social structure practically disintegrated in their wake.

        I don't even know where to start. I absolutely loved this book. Bulgakov writes with such piercing whit as is often found in great Russian literature but Bulgakov distinguishes himself by making his writing not nearly as stern as the likes of Dostoevsky or Tolstoy. Bulgakov's writing is much lighter and more welcoming but by no means sacrifices the depth and power of the Russian masters. Furthermore, the characterization in this book is nothing short of exquisite. Each character is so dynamic and so provocative that the novel would feel horribly incomplete if any one of them were removed from the story. Behemoth, the giant cat, is indubitably my favorite fictional character in 20th century literature. I quote him and make references to him on almost a daily basis. I admit, however, that a lot of the biblical allusions in this novel went over my head and google was a great help in really catching the meaning of the work.

       Awesome book. Read it.