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ITEM#: B-31212

TITLE: THE MASTER AND MARGARITA

TYPE: M. BULGAKOV

PRICE: $11.99

USA: "Penguin Books", 1997, 411p., paperback. In English.

Surely no stranger work exists in the annals of protest literature than "The Master and Margarita". Written during the darkest days of the Soviet crackdown in the 1930s, when Mikhail Bulgakov's works were effectively banned, it wraps its anti-Stalinist message in a complex allegory of good and evil -- or would that be the other way around? Unsurprisingly -- in view of its frequent, scarcely disguised references to interrogation and terror -- Bulgakov's masterpiece was not published until 1967, almost three decades after his death, when it became a literary phenomenon, signaling artistic and spiritual freedom for Russians everywhere. One spring afternoon the Devil, trailing fire and chaos in his wake, weaves himself out of the shadows and into Moscow. Bulgakov`s fantastical, funny, and devastating satire of Soviet life combines two parts, one set in contemporary Moscow, the other in ancient Jerusalem, each brimming with historical, imaginary, frightful, and wonderful characters. This translation, by the award-winning team of Pevear and Volokhonsky, is made from the complete and unabridged Russian text. The New York Times Book Review calls this "one of the truly great Russian novels of this century".