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| The Master and Margarita (Vintage Classics) | 
 enlarge | Author: Mikhail Bulgakov
Creator: Michael Glenny
Publisher: Vintage
Category: Book
List Price: £7.99
Buy New: £5.94
You Save: £2.05 (26%)
New (10) from £4.27
Avg. Customer Rating:  74 reviews
Sales Rank: 2316
Media: Paperback
Edition: New edition
Pages: 448
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 7.7 x 5 x 1.2
ISBN: 0099448696
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780099448693
ASIN: 0099448696
Publication Date: April 1, 2004
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
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| Customer Reviews: Read 69 more reviews...
 Different! November 10, 2008
I am reading modern Russian authors at the moment and if this is anything to go buy then I am in for a big treat! What a strange tale. I can see why it was banned in Russia during Stalin's time although it could hardly be heralded as subversive - much too subtle.
 Surreal soviet-era fantasy October 30, 2008
Very strange book. I ought to have hated it more - the politics, in so far as there are any, are unpleasant - the book begins with a confrontation between Satan and soviet apparatchik, with the former admonishing the latter for not believing in either him or Jesus as a historical figure, and the apparatchik then meeting a horrible death exactly as foretold by the Devil. Nasty stupid stuff.
And yet the writing is really very good, and the touch light, and narrative flow intriguing. I ended up finishing this despite myself, and despite having something else that I wanted to get on to.
Stalin liked Bulgakov's work and protected him, despite the writer's anti-soviet attitudes and philosophy. After reading this, I can understand why, thought I never thought of JV as having much of a sense of humour.
An afterthought: after reading the book have a look at the pictures of Bulgakov on the Wikipedia page about him -- at various times in life he rather resembles some of the characters in the novel, I think.
I can't wait to read it again! October 10, 2008
Until my late teens I didn't much care for novels - school, frankly, could have offered better, plus there was just too much interesting non-fiction out there.
The novel that changed all that was Heller's Catch 22. Years later no other novel had gotten close, and it was safely occupying its unique position as my "greatest novel of all time".
That is until Mr Bulgakhov was brought to my attention! A Russian friend would just not stop going on about it.
I can't claim to have been wowed by every literary flourish here (I'm not a mature enough reader to see them!), and I certainly didn't spot the most subtle digs at the communist Russia Bulgakhov inhabited, but I certianly was gripped from beggining to end.
This is a very funny, very clever, well constructed and well written book that I can't wait to read again soon.
I would strongly urge........... June 26, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
........potential readers to avoid and ignore the review below entitled 'What is so great about this book really?' and instead read the review 'Caution: Hypnotists in Moscow!' by A. L. Stannard. This book is quite simply a masterpiece!
 What is so great about this book really? April 20, 2008
2 out of 8 found this review helpful
Oh dear - everyone else seems to rave about this book, but I found it very difficult to read and have just decided to give up on it two thirds of the way through. Yes, there are some funny and disturbing scenes that kept me reading through those bits, but the beginning of the second part has killed off my waning interest. There are far better satires about Soviet life and it shouldn't need devils and witches to bring it off.
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