Before the arrival of the devil, a “Master” wrote a novel about Pontius Pilate (this serene novel within the novel is entirely integrated in the story), which was dismissed by the regime, therefore sending the Master into a mental asylum. It tells the story of the devil and his cronies who descend on the Russian capital, putting the entire city on edge with their diabolical humour and magic tricks, while the authorities look on, entirely powerless. Fusing fantasy with magical surrealism and political satire, The Master and the Margarita is a pacy read set in 1930s Moscow. Like many people, I’m often wary of my literary abilities before beginning a Russian classic, but much like Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment – which I raced through – I was hooked from the get go with The Master and Margarita.Ī unique tale unlike anything I’ve read before, Mikhail Bulgakov’s much-loved book is considered by many critics as one of the best novels of the twentieth century, as well as the foremost of Soviet satires.
I was then recently recommended it by someone I met at a party, and so I swiftly bought a copy from Gertrude and Alice, before settling in for a night of reading. It’s not a book I had heard of until I launched my Desert Island Books series, but after editor Sam Baker and Bookstagrammer Bookish Bronte both chose it as one of their desert island reads it was firmly on my radar. and often considered working my way through the additional hundred books that made the BBC’s Top 200 Books, particularly after finishing one of my most recent reads, The Mater and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov.
And while it was something of a relief when I finished the hundredth book just a matter of minutes before I turned thirty, in the months that have since passed I’ve missed having a list to choose from. When I decided to read the BBC’s Top 100 Books, my main reason for doing so was to expand my reading repertoire.
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