The Master and Margarita
Filed under: Fandom, Distribution
For obvious reasons, Russia doesn't tend to turn out vast amounts of great literature. For the past...ever,
they have really been too busy trying to eat and survive to really take time aside for culture and the arts. However,
when they do foray into the realm of literature, they tend to turn out pure gold (Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Turgenev, and
Solzenitzen are great examples of what Russia can do when given the chance).
Possibly the most popular cult author in Russia is a man named Mikhail Bulgakov, who died some sixty five years ago. His work The Master and Margarita went unpublished for more than two decades after his death, and only after the Khrushchev era thaw did it find its way into the hands of the Russian people. The fantastically supernatural book tells the intricately interlaced tale of the Devil, an evangelist named Matthew attempting to uncover the truth of Christ's crucifixtion, and a desperate woman named Magarita who desired to be reunited with her insane asylum confined lover "the Master." His work strongly satarizes Soviet life, much in the style of a Russian Twain or Swift.
The much beloved novel is now in the hands of director and screenwriter Vladimir Bortko, who has adapted it
into a nearly 9 hour movie which will air (mini-series style) on the State television channel. You may insert your
"In Soviet Russia" jokes here, if you like. I, for one, am extremely excited about this project, and can only
wait and hope that it meets with strong success and somehow finds its subtitled way to the states.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
1-07-2006 @ 3:00PM
anya said...
Russia doesn't turn out vast amounts of great literature? And then in the same breath you go on to list Turgenev, Dostoyevskii, Tolstoi and Bulgakov? You are a man or woman at ease with contradictions. Either way, I recommend becoming more familiar with Russia's cultural output over the centuries. Just because you don't know about it does not mean it doesn't exist, oh ignorant Anglophone writer. The pronouncement that "For the past...ever, they have really been too busy trying to eat and survive to really take time aside for culture and the arts" is something only a severely under-educated person would say.
And Bulgakov is not a cult author. He is a mainstream classic author. Big difference.
Barbarically yours,
Anya
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