Recensies

Review: The Master and Margarita

Redactionele recensie - Kirkus Reviews

The battle of competing translations, a new publishing phenomenon which began with One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, now offers two rival American editions of Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita. Mirra Ginsburg's (Grove Press) version is pointedly grotesque: she delights in the sharp, spinning, impressionistic phrase. Her Bulgakov reminds one of the virtuoso effects encountered in Zamyatin and Babel, as yell as the early Pasternak's bizarre tale of Heine in Italy. Translator Michael Glenny, on the other hand, almost suggests Tolstoy. His (Harper & Row) version is simpler, softer, and more humane. The Bulgakov fantasy is less striking here, but less strident, too. Glenny: ""There was an oddness about that terrible day...It was the hour of the day when people feel too exhausted to breathe, when Moscow glows in a dry haze..."" Ginsburg: ""Oh, yes, we must take note of the first strange thing...At that hour, when it no longer seemed possible to breathe, when the sun was tumbling in a dry haze..."" In any case, The Master and Margarita, a product of intense labor from 1928 till Bulgakov's death in 1940, is a distinctive and fascinating work, undoubtedly a stylistic landmark in Soviet literature, both for its aesthetic subversion of ""socialist realism"" (like Zamyatin, Bulgakov apparently believed that true literature is created by visionaries and skeptics and madmen), and for the purity of its imagination. Essentially the anti-scientific, vaguely anti-Stalinist tale presents a resurrected Christ figure, a demonic, tricksy foreign professor, and a Party poet, the bewildered Ivan Homeless, plus a bevy of odd or romantic types, all engaged in socio-political exposures, historical debates, and supernatural turnabouts. A humorous, astonishing parable on power, duplicity, freedom, and love.

Gebruikersrecensies

Review: The Master and Margarita

Gebruikersrecensie - Susan Klemetti - Goodreads

Satan is a reasonable, If eccentric, fellow. Follow him and his surreal companions as they allow Moscow citizens to uncover their own corruption, pettiness and occasional goodness. There is a love ... Volledige recensie lezen

Review: The Master and Margarita

Gebruikersrecensie - Nylem21 - Goodreads

Although it's impossible to understand the exact implications, as I did not live in Soviet Russia, the book is still amazing a century later. Excellent prose, interesting characters, insane humor! Although it got dense with the procurator scenes, all in all it's a must read. Volledige recensie lezen

Review: The Master and Margarita

Gebruikersrecensie - Mark Sk - Goodreads

By far my favorite book, i had to read it 5 times before i could wrap my head around the whole plot, it was quite a nice twist the way bulgakov paint the devil. i can't say much more without giving to much away, but just everthing, i love this book! Volledige recensie lezen

Review: The Master and Margarita

Gebruikersrecensie - Lawrence Coates - Goodreads

The over the top satire in this book reminded me of Nathanael West's "A Cool Million." I understood West better, since his frame of reference is American, but Bulgakov's view of the writers, the ... Volledige recensie lezen

Review: The Master and Margarita

Gebruikersrecensie - Maria Ushakova - Goodreads

the best book ever! Volledige recensie lezen

Review: The Master and Margarita

Gebruikersrecensie - Jonathon - Goodreads

Short chapters, always a plus The Professors black magic play is a play on temptation and the sins of man (like greed and other awesome things)... Quite the story teller... Volledige recensie lezen

Review: The Master and Margarita

Gebruikersrecensie - Kenny McGinnis - Goodreads

I calculated a true Bayesian estimate - statistical weighted average - of the few thousand books in my library, and this is one of the very highest rated that I've yet to read... I was excited to read ... Volledige recensie lezen

Review: The Master and Margarita

Gebruikersrecensie - Andrea Hoffmann - Goodreads

one of my absolute favorites, read it again and again in the past 20 years, found something new every time. The devil creating hell in beauraucratic Stalinist Moscow, the trial and crucifiction of ... Volledige recensie lezen

Review: The Master and Margarita

Gebruikersrecensie - Dziewanna - Goodreads

I'm evidently missing something about this book, I find it perplexing and not at all entertaining. Perhaps I need to read Faust first? Volledige recensie lezen

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