A censored version (12% of the text removed and still more changed) of the book was first published in Moscow magazine (no. 11, 1966 and no. 1, 1967).[2] The text of all the omitted and changed parts, with indications of the places of modification, was published on a samizdat basis. In 1967 the publisher Posev (Frankfurt) printed a version produced with the aid of these inserts.

In Russia, the first complete version, prepared by Anna Saakyants, was published by Khudozhestvennaya Literatura in 1973, based on the version of the beginning of 1940 proofread by the publisher. This version remained the canonical edition until 1989, when the last version was prepared by literature expert Lidiya Yanovskaya based on all available manuscripts.

The Mikhail Bulgakov Museum in Moscow was vandalized on December 22, 2006, allegedly by a religious fanatic who denounced the Master and Margarita as being satanic propaganda.[3]

02-Plot summary
The novel alternates between three settings.

The first is 1930s Moscow, which is visited by Satan in the guise of Woland or Voland (Воланд), a mysterious gentleman "magician" of uncertain origin, who arrives with a retinue that includes the grotesquely dressed "ex-choirmaster" valet Koroviev (Fagotto) (Фагот, the name means "bassoon" in Russian and some other languages), a mischievous, gun-happy, fast-talking black cat Behemoth (Бегемот, a subversive Puss in Boots, the name referring to the Biblical monster and straight away denoting the Russian word for Hippopotamus), the fanged hitman Azazello (Азазелло, hinting of Azazel), the pale-faced Abadonna (Абадонна, a reference to Abbadon) with a death-inflicting stare, and the witch Hella (Гелла). The havoc wreaked by this group targets the literary elite, along with its trade union, MASSOLIT (a Soviet-style abbreviation for "Moscow Society of Literature", but possibly interpretable as "Literature for the Masses"; one edition of the book also mentions that this could be a play on words in Russian, which could be translated into English as something like "LOTTALIT"), its privileged HQ-cum-restaurant Griboyedov's House, corrupt social-climbers and their women (wives and mistresses alike) – bureaucrats and profiteers – and, more generally, skeptical unbelievers in the human spirit.

The opening sequence of the book presents a direct confrontation between the unbelieving head of the literary bureaucracy, Berlioz (Берлиоз), and an urbane foreign gentleman who defends belief and reveals his prophetic powers (Woland). This is witnessed by a young and enthusiastically modern poet, Ivan Bezdomniy (Иван Бездомный - the name means "Homeless"). His futile attempt to chase and capture the "gang" and warn of their evil and mysterious nature lands Ivan in a lunatic asylum. Here we are introduced to The Master, an embittered author, the petty-minded rejection of whose historical novel about Pontius Pilate and Christ has led him to such despair that he burns his manuscript and turns his back on the "real" world, including his devoted lover, Margarita (Маргарита). Major episodes in the first part of the novel include Satan's magic show at the Variety Theatre, satirizing the vanity, greed and gullibility of the new rich; and the capture and occupation of Berlioz's apartment by Woland and his gang.

In Part 2, we meet Margarita, the Master's mistress, who refuses to despair of her lover or his work. She is made an offer by Satan (Woland), and accepts it, becoming a witch with supernatural powers on the night of his Midnight Ball, or Walpurgis Night, which coincides with the night of Good Friday, linking all three elements of the book together, since the Master's novel also deals with this same spring full moon when Christ's fate is sealed by Pontius Pilate and he is crucified in Jerusalem.

The second setting is the Jerusalem of Pontius Pilate, described by Woland talking to Berlioz and echoed in the pages of the Master's rejected novel, which concerns Pontius Pilate's meeting with Yeshua Ha-Nozri (Иешуа га-Ноцри, Jesus the Nazarene), his recognition of an affinity with and spiritual need for him, and his reluctant but resigned and passive handing over of him to those who wanted to kill him.

The third setting is the one to which Margarita provides a bridge. Learning to fly and control her unleashed passions (not without exacting violent retribution on the literary bureaucrats who condemned her beloved to despair), and taking her enthusiastic maid Natasha with her, she enters naked into the world of the night, flies over the deep forests and rivers of Mother Russia; bathes, and, cleansed, returns to Moscow as the anointed hostess for Satan's great Spring Ball. Standing by his side, she welcomes the dark celebrities of human history as they pour up from the opened maw of Hell.

She survives this ordeal without breaking, and for her pains and her integrity she is rewarded: Satan offers to grant Margarita her deepest wish. She chooses to liberate the Master and live in poverty and love with him. However, neither Woland nor Yeshua thinks this is a kind of life for good people, and the couple leaves Moscow with the Devil, as its cupolas and windows burn in the setting sun of Easter Saturday. The Master and Margarita leave and as a reward for not having lost their faith they are granted "peace" but are denied "salvation".

03-Major Characters in The Master and Margarita

03-1 Contemporary Russians
The Master
A novelist who has written a novel about the meeting of Pontius Pilate and Yeshua Ha-Nozri. Put away in a psikhushka, where Bezdomny meets him.
Margarita
The Master's lover. Trapped in a passionless marriage; devoted herself to The Master, who she believes dead. Does not appear until second half of the novel, where she serves as the hostess of Satan's Grand Ball on Walpurgis Night. (She is named after Faust's Gretchen – whose real name is Margarita – as well as Marguerite de Valois. Marguerite was the star of an opera, Les Huguenots by Giacomo Meyerbeer which Bulgakov particularly enjoyed, and a novel by Alexandre Dumas, père, La Reine Margot. In these accounts the queen is portrayed as daring and passionate. The character was also inspired by Bulgakov's last two wives, the first of which loved action and was physically daring, while the last was devoted to his work in the same way as Margarita is to the Master.)
Mikhail Alexandrovich Berlioz
Head of the literary bureaucracy MASSOLIT, sentenced by Woland to death for his atheistic sentiment.
Ivan Nikolayevich Ponyrov (Bezdomny - Homeless)
A young, aspiring poet. Initially a willing tool of the MASSOLIT apparatus, he is transformed by the events of the novel. Witnesses Berlioz's death.
Stephan Bogdanovich (aka Styopa) Likhodeyev
Director of the Variety Theatre and Berlioz's roommate.
Grigory Danilovich Rimsky
Treasurer of the Variety Theatre. At one point, Rimsky meets the ghost of Varenukha. He barely escapes the encounter and he is forced to flee to the train station to get away. The night of Woland's performance is the same night that Rimsky and the ghost meet.
Ivan Savelyevich Varenukha
House-manager of the Variety Theatre.
Natasha
Margarita's maid, later turned into a witch.
Nikanor Ivanovich Bosoy
Chairman of the House Committee at 302B Sadovaya Street-former residence of Berlioz.

03-2 Woland and his retinue
Woland
A "foreign professor" who is "in Moscow to present a performance of "black magic" and then expose its machinations". The exposure (as one could guess) never occurs, instead Woland exposes the greed and bourgeois behaviour of the spectators themselves. Satan in disguise.
Behemoth
An enormous (said to be as large as a hog) black cat, capable of standing on two legs and talking. He has a penchant for chess and vodka. In Russian, "Begemot". The word itself means hippopotamus in Russian as well as the Biblical creature.
Koroviev/Fagotto
An "ex-choirmaster". Woland's assistant.
Azazello
A menacing, fanged and wall-eyed member of Woland's retinue.
Hella
Beautiful, redheaded witch. Serves as maid to Woland and his retinue. Remarked as being "perfect, were it not for a purple scar on her neck" -- the scar suggesting that she is also a vampiress.
Abadonna
The pale-faced, black-goggled angel of death.

03-3 Characters from The Master's novel
Pontius Pilate
The Roman Procurator of Judaea.
Yeshua Ha-Nozri
Wanderer who became Jesus of Nazareth.
Matthew Levi
A Levite and former tax collector. Follower of Yeshua.
Judas of Karioth
Testified against Yeshua thus causing him to be sentenced to death; later killed on Pilate's orders.

04- Themes and imagery
Ultimately, the novel deals with the interplay of good and evil, innocence and guilt, courage and cowardice, exploring such issues as the responsibility towards truth when authority would deny it, and the freedom of the spirit in an unfree world. Love and sensuality are also dominant themes in the novel. Margarita's devotional love for the Master leads her to leave her husband, but she emerges victorious. Her spiritual union with the Master is also a sexual one. The novel is a riot of sensual impressions, but the emptiness of sensual gratification without love is emphatically illustrated in the satirical passages. However, the stupidity of rejecting sensuality for the sake of empty respectability is also pilloried in the figure of the neighbour who becomes Natasha's hog-broomstick.

The interplay of fire, water, destruction and other natural forces provides a constant accompaniment to the events of the novel, as do light and darkness, noise and silence, sun and moon, storms and tranquility, and other powerful polarities. There is a complex relationship between Jerusalem and Moscow throughout the novel, sometimes polyphony, sometimes counterpoint.

The novel is heavily influenced by Goethe's Faust, and its themes of cowardice, trust, treachery, intellectual openness and curiosity, and redemption are prominent. Part of its literary brilliance lies in the different levels on which it can be read, as hilarious slapstick, deep philosophical allegory, and biting socio-political satire critical of not just the Soviet system but also the superficiality and vanity of modern life in general – jazz is a favourite target, ambivalent like so much else in the book in the fascination and revulsion with which it is presented. But the novel is also full of modern amenities like the model asylum, radio, street and shopping lights, cars, lorries, trams, and air travel. There is little evident nostalgia for any "good old days" – in fact, the only figure in the book to even mention Tsarist Russia is Satan himself. In another of its facets, perhaps showing a different aspect of Goethe's influence, the book is a Bildungsroman with Ivan as its focus. Furthermore, there are strong elements of Magical Realism in the novel.

A memorable and much-quoted line in The Master and Margarita is: "manuscripts don't burn" (Russian: рукописи не горят). The Master is a writer who is plagued by both his own mental problems and the oppression of Stalin's regime in 1930s Moscow. He burns his treasured manuscript in an effort to hide it from the Soviet authorities and cleanse his own mind from the troubles the work has brought him. There is an autobiographical element reflected in the Master's character here, as Bulgakov in fact burned an early copy of The Master and Margarita for much the same reasons.

05- Major thematic issues relating to Art and Women in the novel
The ironies of the relationship between social power and Art are essential to the dramatic tension in the book. Shelley remarks in the Defence of Poetry that "poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world", and as a poet/writer, the Master is so unacknowledged that he feels more at home in a lunatic asylum than in society, where he is subject to the whims of the actual legislators of the world, such as the bureaucrats of Massolit and their political masters. But the whole novel is directed at demonstrating to what it depicts as the corrupt philistines in power that they are less in control than they might wish. Above all they have no control over death or the spirit. They might mobilize the forces of darkness themselves, but fall short in a face-to-face contest with the Prince of Darkness -- and contests of this kind provide the content of most of the Moscow chapters of the first part of the novel. It is notable that Bulgakov attacks no actual political leaders. His targets are all minions of one kind or another, albeit comfortably placed minions, like Berlioz, the head of Massolit, the literary bureaucracy. Despite the grand gestures of universality – darkness and light, the world and the stars, historical and geographical range – the novel is to a great extent a psycho-drama playing itself out in the literary world. The protagonists are the Academy and Bohemia. Even Pilate and Christ clash on these terms of authority vs authenticity. Bulgakov induces a "willing suspension of disbelief" almost as effective as the tricks pulled off in the Variety by Woland, Fagotto the valet and Behemoth the cat. Georg Lukacs's remarks on naturalism and modernism in the references given below are relevant to this novel, too – focus on either the close-up surface texture of society, or the distant mystery of the stars at night. Treating the doings of a narrow circle as affairs of universal significance, and so on. The portrayal of women shares this "cosmic" contrast in perspectives, too (exploited to great dramatic effect). Natasha seeks her freedom in witchdom, and Margarita flees respectability (submission to authority) to devote herself to the service of her lover (authenticity). She saves him, as Gretchen saves Faust in Goethe's plays, but likewise only because of the heroic challenge he has mounted to the "peace of the graveyard". "Das ewig Weibliche zieht uns hinan", Goethe wrote at the end of Faust – "the eternal feminine draws us onward" – and the feeling is the same in The Master and Margarita. Most of the other female characters in the book are wives or mistresses of males in positions with some social clout. Or unattractive biddies.

A courtly idealism with regard to women and relationships (and the ethos of the Middle Ages forms a clear motif in the book, especially in the internal relations of Satan's team as revealed in the final chapters) is nothing new in Russian or European literature. It is perhaps surprising that such a traditional portrayal of a woman's role is so skilfully presented that the novel achieved cult status among women.

06- Allusions/references to other works
The novel is heavily influenced by the Faust legend, particularly the first part of the Goethe interpretation and the opera by Charles Gounod. Also the work of Nikolai Gogol is a heavy influence, as is the case with many of Bulgakov's novels. The novel references Tolstoy's Anna Karenina in the luckless visitors chapter "everything became jumbled in the Oblonsky household". The theme of the Devil exposing society as an apartment block, as it could be seen if the entire facade would be removed, has some precedents in The crippled devil (1641) by the Spanish Luis Vélez de Guevara (famously adapted to 18th century France by Lesage's Diable boiteux).

07- Textual note
The final chapters are late drafts that Bulgakov pasted to the back of his manuscript; he died before he could incorporate these chapters into a completed fourth draft.

08- English translations
There are quite a few published English translations of The Master and Margarita, including but not limited to the following:

Mirra Ginsburg, New York: Grove Press, 1967.
Michael Glenny, New York: Harper & Row, 1967; London: Harvill, 1967; with introduction by Simon Franklin, New York: Knopf, 1992; London: Everyman's Library, 1992.
Diana Burgin and Katherine Tiernan O'Connor, annotations and afterword by Ellendea Proffer, Ann Arbor: Ardis, 1993, 1995.
Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, London: Penguin, 1997.
Michael Karpelson, Lulu Press, 2006.
Ginsburg's translation was from a censored Soviet text and is therefore incomplete.

The early translation by Glenny runs more smoothly than that of the modern translations; some Russian-speaking readers consider it to be the only one creating the desired effect, though it may be somewhat at liberty with the text.[4] The modern translators pay for their attempted closeness by losing idiomatic flow.

However, according to Kevin Moss, who has at least two published papers on the book in literary journals, the early translations by Ginsburg and Glenny are quite hurried and lack much critical depth.[5] As an example, he claims that the more idiomatic translations miss Bulgakov's "crucial" reference to the devil in Berlioz's thought:

"I ought to drop everything and run down to Kislovodsk." (Glenny)
"It's time to throw everything to the Devil and go to Kislovodsk." (Burgin, Tiernan O'Connor)
"It's time to send it all to the devil and go to Kislovodsk." (Pevear, Volokhonsky)
Several literary critics have hailed the Burgin/Tiernan O’Connor translation as the most accurate and complete English translation, particularly when read in tandem with the matching annotations by Bulgakov’s biographer, Ellendea Proffer.[6] Note that these judgements predate the translation by Pevear and Volokhonsky.

Limited information is available, at the time of this writing, regarding the 2006 Karpelson translation.

09- Allusions/references from other works
Various authors and musicians have credited The Master and Margarita as inspiration for certain works.

Salman Rushdie's novel The Satanic Verses, was influenced by Bulgakov's masterwork.
It is claimed that Mick Jagger was inspired by the novel in writing the song "Sympathy for the Devil". [1], [2]
The grunge band Pearl Jam were influenced by the novel's confrontation between Yeshua Ha-Nozri and Pontius Pilate for the song, "Pilate" on their 1998 album "Yield".
The Lawrence Arms based their album The Greatest Story Ever Told on the book and several of its themes.
The Franz Ferdinand song "Love and Destroy" was based on a scene where Margarita flies over Moscow on her way to the Walpurgis Night Ball.
The Canadian group The Tea Party also were inspired by this book when they wrote their song "The Master and Margarita."
Arlie Carstens sings the line "Bulgakov to Woland's crowd," on the Juno song "The French Letter" from their album A Future lived in Past Tense.
Elefant, a New York City-based group, released The Black Magic Show in April 2006. The title and first track reference Satan's magic show.
Brakes's song "Margarita" from the album The Beatific Visions was inspired by the novel.
The German composer York H?ller's opera Der Meister und Margarita was premiered in 1989 at the Paris Opéra and released on CD in 2000.
Jolie Holland has said that the song "Amen" from her album Escondida was inspired by the book (Margarita's flight), and that she would devote an album to it in the future.
The 1975 cult classic Rocky Horror Picture Show is sometimes noted for its similarities to the book. There is a complete overlap of personality between the redheaded witch/maid Gella and the East European accented Magenta, the maid of Dr. Frank N Furter - who, like Woland, aims to cause chaos and break taboos (sexual taboos, in the movie). Frank N. Furter's servant Riff Raff echoes Behemoth and Azazello, while the character Janet echoes Margarita - she gets her "tensions relieved" by adultery, just like this "saves" Margarita from a cold marriage. It may also be argued that the anarchic, absurd "mood" of the movie is the same as the mood of "Master and Margarita". While it is quite possible there has been an inspiration, this has never been confirmed by the movie's creators.
Surrealist artist H. R. Giger named a 1976 painting of his after the novel. The painting was later featured on the cover of Danzig's 1992 album Danzig III: How the Gods Kill.

010- Film, TV or theatrical adaptations
1971: Polish director Andrzej Wajda makes a movie Pilate and Others, based on biblical part of the book ('The Master's manuscript').[7]

1972: Joint Italian-Yugoslavian production of Aleksandar Petrovic's "The Master and Margaret" (Italian: "Il Maestro e Margherita", Serbo-croatian: "Majstor i Margarita") is released. Based loosely on the book, the main discrepancy is that Master in the movie has an actual name of Nikolaj Afanasijevic Maksudov, while in the original book Master is persistently anonymous. [8]

1989: Another Polish director Maciej Wojtyszko makes a mini-TV series of four episodes (Polish: "Mistrz i Malgorzata"). This series have been aired on Russian Television at least once. [9]

1992: In an adaptation called "Incident in Judea" by Paul Bryers, only the Yeshua story is told. The film includes a prologue which mentiones Bulgakov and the other story-lines. The cast includes John Woodvine, Mark Rylance, Lee Montague and Jim Carter. The film was distributed by Brook Productions and Channel 4.

1994: A Russian movie of the same name is made by Yuri Kara. Although the cast included big names and talented actors (Anastasiya Vertinskaya as Margarita, Mikhail Ulyanov as Pilate, Nikolai Burlyayev as Yeshua, Valentin Gaft as Woland, Aleksandr Filippenko as Korovyev-Fagot) and its score was by the noted Russian composer Alfred Schnittke, the movie was never actually released on any media. The grandson of Bulgakov's third wife Elena Sergeevna Shilovskaya claims, as a self-assigned heir, the rights on Bulgakov's literary inheritance and refuses the release. Since the beginning of 2006, however, copies of the movie exist on dvd. Some excerpts of it can be viewed on the Master and Margarita website[10]

According to rumours,[attribution needed] at different times Elem Klimov, Vladimir Naumov and Roman Polanski have also thought about making "Master and Margarita" adaptations.

2004: A Lavish Stage production is put on by the National Youth Theatre at the Lyric Hammersmith London, directed by John Hoggarth. The adaptation is by David Rudkin. It featured a cast of 35, most notably Matt Smith as Basoon, Tom Allen as Woland, Luke Rabbito as Matthew Levi, Shane Zaza as Yeshua Ha Nozri, John Hollingworth as The Master, Shakira Brooking as Margarita. It ran for a month between August/September.

2005: The Master and Margarita miniseries - Russian director Vladimir Bortko, famous for his TV adaptation of Bulgakov's "Heart of a Dog" and Dostoyevsky's "The Idiot", makes a "Master and Margarita" TV miniseries of ten episodes. The miniseries was first released on December 19, 2005. It starred Aleksandr Galibin as The Master, Anna Kovalchuk as Margarita, Oleg Basilashvili as Woland, Kirill Lavrov as Pontius Pilate and Valentin Gaft as Kaifa. The project was widely successful, and is considered by some to be closest to the book.

A German language stage adaptation of the novel, "Der Meister und Margarita", directed by Frank Castorf premiered in the summer of 2002 at the Wiener Festwochen, Vienna, Austria and is discussed in the August/September 2002 or 08|09 02 issue of the German language theater magazine, Theater heute. (Use the Archive link on the left at the above site to access information for 2002 issues.)

An adaptation of the novel was staged in 2004 at the Chichester Festival Theatre, UK. [3]

On August 25 2006, Andrew Lloyd Webber announced that he aims to turn the novel into "a stage musical or, more probably, an opera".[11]

In October 2006 it was staged by Grinnell College, directed by Veniamin Smekhov.

In 2006 almost 5 hour long adaptation was staged by Georgian director Avtandil Varsimashvili.

2007 National Academy of Theatre, Ballet and Opera of Ukraine premiered The Master and Margarita a ballet-phantasmagoria in two acts with music by Shostakovich, Berlioz, Bach et al.Choreography and Staging by David Avdysh (Russia), Set Design by Simon Pastukh (USA) and Costume Design by Galina Solovyova (USA).

011- References and footnotes
G. Lukacs, Studies in European Realism, (Merlin, 1973)
G. Lukacs, The Meaning of Contemporary Realism, (Merlin, 1974)
^ Spaso House U.S. Embassy Moscow website
^ Master: Russian Editions. Retrieved on 2007-01-23.
^ Yahoo! News. "Russian writer's museum sacked by critic of 'Satanic' work", 2006-12-25. Retrieved on 2007-01-23.
^ Sarvas, Mark. The Elegant Variation: A Literary Weblog. Retrieved on 2006-10-25.
^ Moss, Kevin. Published English Translations. Retrieved on 2006-10-25.
^ Weeks, Laura D. (1996). Master and Margarita: A Critical Companion. Northwestern University Press, 244. ISBN 0-8101-1212-4.
^ IMDb. Pilatus und andere - Ein Film für Karfreitag. Retrieved on 2007-01-23.
^ The Master and Margarita at the Internet Movie Database
^ The Master and Margarita at the Internet Movie Database
^ IMDB entry for the 1994 version. Retrieved on 2006-08-10.
^ Andrew Lloyd Webber (2006-08-25). Revealed: My next project!. Retrieved on 2007-01-23.

012- External links
(English) (French) (Dutch) (Russian) Master and Margarita Amateur but very high-quality site, devoted solely to Bulgakov's Master and Margarita (in Dutch, French, English and Russian)
(French) A French website about The Master and Margarita
Bulgakov and The Master and Margarita: Useful introduction with lots of illustrative material.
The Master and Margarita: Excerpts in three languages
Complete online texts: The full text in Russian, and in two English versions, Glenny and Pevear & Volokhonsky
Full text in Russian: At Alexei Komarov's Internet Library
Russians Await a Cult Novel's Film Debut With Eagerness and Skepticism: at The New York Times
Master and Margarita at the Internet Movie Database
Master and Margarita TV adaptation articles and comments (in English)
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