“Who art thou, then?”
“Part of that Power which eternally wills
Evil and eternally works good.”
Goethe – Faust
Pleased to meet you
Hope you guess my name,
But what’s puzzling you
Is the nature of my game.
Mick Jagger & Keith Richards – Sympathy for the Devil
Holy Week might seem a strange time to introduce a book that reportedly inspired Sympathy for the Devil. But as Satan explains in Bulgakov’s masterpiece, darkness not only is an inevitable but a necessary part of the world. A world without shadow must also be without light. And as both Bulgakov and Jagger understand, mankind is capable of plenty of evil on his own without any outside help.
Bulgakov was a doctor and a writer and playwright in the Soviet Union. Born in Kiev, he eventually moved to Moscow. Much of his writing was satirical with an element of the fantastic. Despite his initial success and Stalin’s support, much of his later work could not be published or produced. The Master and Margarita, about the suffering of a persecuted writer, is a reflection of his bitterness. He worked on it from 1928 until his death in 1940.
His widow, Elena, helped to put the manuscript into shape, but because of its biting criticism of conditions in the Soviet Union the book would not be published for nearly 30 years. It was serialized in Russia in 1966 and 1967 and was first published in the United States in 1967.
The nature of his game
There are two story lines to The Master and Margarita. In the first, Satan comes to contemporary Moscow to hold his Spring Ball. His retinue includes Koroviev, a ragged ex-choirmaster; Behemoth, a large tomcat with a penchant for firearms and arson; and an assortment of demons/enforcers. The troop cuts a swath through the city, violating official policy, puncturing pretentious hypocrites, and punishing dishonest schemers. The suicidal Margarita is tapped to be Satan’s hostess for the ball.
Margarita is distraught over the disappearance of her lover, an author whom she calls the Master. He disappears after his book about Pontius Pilot is condemned by the literary community. With nothing left to lose, she accepts Satan’s offer.
The Master’s story of Pilate and Jesus provides the second story line. It is a non-traditional tale of the Passion. Pilate is portrayed as victim who is manipulated into ordering the crucifixion despite his wish to save Jesus. For this he is cursed with eternal unrest. Jesus, called Yeshua in this tale, is a wandering philosopher whose teaching that all men are good angers the people. There is nothing particularly divine about him. He is more of a hippy than a messiah, which no doubt contributed to the book’s immediate popularity in the United States when it appeared in the late 1960s. His disciple, Levi Matvei, is a madman—a former tax collector who writes down everything Yeshua says but gets it all wrong.
This tale is a tragedy for Pilate, Yeshua and Levi.
Manuscripts don’t burn
As Goethe observed, the devil does as much good as evil. In the end suffering and sacrifice are rewarded and there is peace, if not paradise, for those who deserve it. The Master’s masterpiece survives persecution because, as Bulgakov says, “manuscripts don’t burn.”
This is proved by the continuing popularity of Bulgakov’s book nearly 80 years after his death. The Master and Margarita has been recognized as one of the great novels of the 20th Century. It can be enjoyed on several levels—as a hilarious farce, a biting satire of a morally bankrupt socio-political system, and a commentary on the human condition. Although written about 1930s Moscow, the conditions it lampoons appear to be universal and eternal.
There are half-a-dozen English translations of The Master and Margarita available. The Weekly Standard recently cited the 1995 translation by Diana Burgin and Katherine Tiernan O’Connor as probably the best. My personal favorite still is the original 1967 translation by Mirra Ginsburg, who has also translated other works by Bulgakov, including The Fatal Eggs and Heart of a Dog. It has the disadvantage of being translated from the censored Soviet text. But compared with unexpurgated versions, Ginsburg’s doesn’t suffer much from these cuts and her language suites the story beautifully.
But read it for yourself and decide what you prefer. Check your local library or bookstore and enjoy an Easter treat.