Book Review
Master and Margarita by Mikhail Afanasevich Bulgakov
This book is incredible. It is a bit of a tough read, being full of references both obvious and obscure to literature, Russian history, apocryphal texts and Bulgakov's own life. The style is disjointed, on the level of the paragraphs as well as in the overall text. This is due both to Bulgakov's style (I think) and to the fact that he never fully revised it. I never was absorbed by the book, which I think is an intentional effect by Bulgakov, the fantastical nature of the events and the questions about the physical world and other worlds require that the reader be held at a bit of a distance at times. Despite these difficulties, I have reached the end of the book and am astounded. The philosophical underpinnings of this book manifest themselves powerfully through the events and narration of the novel. When reading the afterword I was struck by the fact that all the literary analyses was something that I had indeed experienced in reading the book without actually knowing what I'd absorbed.
I am considering working with this book for my thesis in my Russian and/or English thesis. To do the latter, I'd need to have a fairly good idea of what angle I want to take with the book. So my next project is to go to academic search premier and read some essays on the book and Bulgakov.
Twin: what was the name of that book of short stories by Milosz Borges?
This book is incredible. It is a bit of a tough read, being full of references both obvious and obscure to literature, Russian history, apocryphal texts and Bulgakov's own life. The style is disjointed, on the level of the paragraphs as well as in the overall text. This is due both to Bulgakov's style (I think) and to the fact that he never fully revised it. I never was absorbed by the book, which I think is an intentional effect by Bulgakov, the fantastical nature of the events and the questions about the physical world and other worlds require that the reader be held at a bit of a distance at times. Despite these difficulties, I have reached the end of the book and am astounded. The philosophical underpinnings of this book manifest themselves powerfully through the events and narration of the novel. When reading the afterword I was struck by the fact that all the literary analyses was something that I had indeed experienced in reading the book without actually knowing what I'd absorbed.
I am considering working with this book for my thesis in my Russian and/or English thesis. To do the latter, I'd need to have a fairly good idea of what angle I want to take with the book. So my next project is to go to academic search premier and read some essays on the book and Bulgakov.
Twin: what was the name of that book of short stories by Milosz Borges?