The "devil take him" and "the devil with you" idiom is used all over Russian lit. It's similar to saying "go to hell", it's just used more ironcally in the novel

@anenglishteacher2259

Жыл бұрын

I just finished reading it, and was reminded of "The Devil and Tom Walker" every time someone said "the devil take him/you." They're the final words of Tom Walker before he's literally dragged to hell.

"Однажды весною, в час небывало жаркого заката, в Москве, на Патриарших прудах, появились два гражданина..."

I literally just reread this one a few weeks ago. One of those rare cases where the "You'll laugh, you'll cry, it'll change your life" descriptions is actually true. Along with "Mason & Dixon" by Thomas Pynchon, it's by far the best thing I've read all year.

@nl3064

2 жыл бұрын

I'm a fan of Pynchon, but I've tried reading Mason & Dixon (it's been on my shelf for four years now) and managed to get a little over halfway through. And even that took a lot of patience. I'm bored out of my skull by it. Why did you enjoy it so much?

@alinebaruchi1936

2 жыл бұрын

Hiiiii

@matthewjaco847

2 жыл бұрын

@@nl3064 The humor was a big seller for me. Particularly, the part where the devil is whining to the lawyer about how he’s actually reverting to working FOR God again had me in stitches. It also just hit me with more emotion than “Gravity’s Rainbow” did, overall. Just my opinion, of course

It is absolutely stunning in English but let me tell you all !! It is a freaking masterpiece in Russian 💔

@boristurovskiy351

5 ай бұрын

It's even better in the original Klingon!

@lofi-lullaby4513

5 ай бұрын

@@boristurovskiy351 need to try

@boristurovskiy351

5 ай бұрын

@@lofi-lullaby4513 To return to seriousness, in my opinion, among the very best Russian literature has to offer. I reread it once a year at least! Glad you appreciate it!

I feel like Wes Anderson could do a good Master and Margarita. Maybe sth like The Fantastic Mr. Fox

@dragonsmith9012

2 жыл бұрын

❤👍 I'm always finding material I want Wes Anderson to put his mark on. Like the latest songs from 'Beach House'.

@dragonsmith9012

2 жыл бұрын

The Coen Brothers could do a good job of 'Master and Margarita' too.

@Fraserhansen

2 жыл бұрын

Honestly the best idea I've ever heard

@danwroy

2 жыл бұрын

The last person who should be allowed to touch it

@alexanderdean8682

2 жыл бұрын

No, definitely not! I'm a fan of Wes Anderson, and also a fan of Master of Margarita, I have read it three times, I was born still in Soviet Union and my grandparents and great grandparents actually lived through Stalin Times, and it's not something like Wes Anderson would truly understand, or could understand the depth of the situations Bulgakov talks about in the book. And it should be NOTHING LIKE Fantastic Mr. Fox, which is a great film, but has nothing to do with Bulgakov's novel.

This is one of the greatest novels ever written!

This is one of my favorite books. I first read it years ago when I was diving into Russian Liturature. It hit me hard then. As a young protestant man I thought I understood the story fully but it wasn't until my conversion to Orthodoxy and a re-read a few years later that the message of Bulgakov truly hit me in a wholly different way. In my opinion the way he meant for it to hit the pubic he was writing it for at the time. I'm co hosting a book club on this book over the next couple of months so I'm glad to read it once again.

I literally just bought the most beautiful 1st American Edition of The Master and Margarita 4 days ago! This video couldn't have been dropped at a better time!

I totally get your reaction to this book. I personally really enjoyed it but I also got a kick out of it because I used to live in Russia and it admittedly is bogged down with lots of Soviet/Russian cultural references. Any way, great review as always.

@thomascrocker1264

2 жыл бұрын

Also on your comment that Soviet Russians being freaked out by things - There is a ton of superstition in Russian culture. Not necessarily fear, but superstition...

I’m so happy you covered this book, it’s of of my absolute favourites! Thanks for another great review! :)

This is so inspiring for the thing I’ve been trying to write for nearly 20 years.

What a coincindence! I've just started reading it and now your review pops up! Makes you really wonder who governs human life and, in general, the whole order of things on earth.

I’ve been waiting for this one! I read the book this summer and loved it. Edit: I’m sorry you didn’t like it though. I do somewhat agree with you that it’s confusing and kinda overly whimsical but for me that was part of the appeal.

I remember reading this when I was in my Russian-literature-reading frenzy (still am btw). After finishing it I was like, what the devil have I just read?! It came as quite a shock for me because before that, I was reading Crime and Punishment, Fathers and Sons and some Leonid Andreyev's so I thought The Master and Margarita will give me the same 'taste' but ha! was I in for a surprise 😂

@hamood8934

10 ай бұрын

Bro this is so me. I just finished crime and punishment and just starting off Russian literature in general. But this master and margarita book is weird, boring and absurd. I am thinking of quitting it halfway. Its nowhere as good as crime and punishment in the first 200 pages. Would you recommend me abandoning this book?

@shinnie489

9 ай бұрын

​@@hamood8934imo the second part with margarita was far more interesting. keep going, at least for the satisfaction of finishing the book

@CVUK

7 ай бұрын

@@hamood8934 If you liked Crime & Punishment, then you will love The Brothers Karamazov.

@hamood8934

6 ай бұрын

@@CVUK I did finish the karamazov brothers and I gotta say that it has my favourite book ever since. I absolutely loved it

@disierra-amado5596

Ай бұрын

maybe you lack imagination... which is ok. but calling this book boring i...s extreme.

WHY YOU NO LIKE TALKING CAT? DEVIL TAKE YOU!

I read it first when I was a teenager (as most Russians do because it's part of a school literature course) and at that time I was mostly amused by the talking cat and all Koroviev jokes, those were the best parts. Later when I reread it I got more interested in Jerusalem scenes (which I used to skip as a teenager). Also, when I learned more about the Russian history of that period and Bulgakov's own fate, I could understand the satire better. But I agree that it's a kind of book which "you had to be there to understand" (together with other Russian satire masterpieces of that time "The Twelve Chairs" and "The Golden Calf" by Ilf and Petrov). Anyway, thanks for reading and thanks for your opinion. It's always very interesting to see the view from the outside, how the books considered iconic in Russia are perceived by people from other countries.

It is my favourite book, making me think that our approaches to reading it differed. I see it as very relevant today as the big problem in the West is cowardice, just as it was during Stalin's reign in the USSR. Most of the evil is initiated and committed by secular government officials looking to curry favour by abandoning principles, not the Devil. I suggest that you try to figure out why so many people thought it was the most remarkable novel of the 20th century. Bulgakov did what Dostoyevsky did as he attacked the moral relativism that the USSR represented. That was what mattered, not the talking cat.

Ah an important book for me despite only reading once in my 20s....opened my eyes to alot of religious tropes found in literature....very clever satire, also just so odd. I remember I kept thinking of shadow puppet plays for some reason whilst reading it...liked his A Dogs Heart /Heart of A Dog book too. It's like an early rendition of the film The Fly..... Must read both again!....like you say it might be the memory of it that's better than the reality of reading it ....🧐 Also I just bought Faust the classic film special edition blu ray. Amazing! A must see.❤️‍🔥👍

I've been waiting for you to do this book review for years. I am pleased to say that it was worth the wait!

One of the best books i have ever read.

I read that book when I was 17 loved it read it in one seating missed school for it. I am tempted to do it again after 30 years has passed...thanks to you I won’t waist my time 😊

Master and Margarita is also one of Salman Rushdie's favorite novels, and was (quite clearly) a huge influence on The Satanic Verses.

Yo, I just did a review of this book myself like a month ago, lol! It was such a unique book! Simultaneously silly and sad and so many other things too. One of the best Russian novels to come out of the Soviet period, definitely.

@antidepressant11

2 жыл бұрын

It must have been a very dry period.

@TH3F4LC0Nx

2 жыл бұрын

@@antidepressant11 It kinda was. I guess it's hard to produce world class literature when you have censors breathing down your neck and you might get shot or sent to a gulag if you write the wrong thing.

@antidepressant11

2 жыл бұрын

@@TH3F4LC0Nx I get that part. The back story. But shouldn't we judge a book on its own merits? This book just doesn't rate alongside crime and Punishment or Anna Karenina.

@antidepressant11

2 жыл бұрын

And you will say it's a different style of book. Which can't be compared.But if people are going to rate it a great book, there have to be solid reasons besides the writer was going through a hard time with censors.

@DonXardas

2 жыл бұрын

@@antidepressant11 oh I would say it far surprasses Crime and Punishment. But yeah it is a different style, written in a totally different society. It is not an easy task to compare those.

It's actually my favorite boo, and I say this as someone who doesn't really like things that are supposed to be funny. But there's something about the way it juxtaposes to the serious and philosophical matters presented within the book that leaves me okay with it. I even laughed out loud several times while reading it and I don't think I've ever laughed while reading and almost never do watching movies. Generally I just don't like silly shit I'm very sensitive towards it but with this for some reason it just seemed okay to me.

Cliff, I recently watched your review of The Book of Disquiet, and I too practice Transcendental Meditation. I have been doing TM almost every day since June 21, 1975. It is deceptively simple. It's a deep rest, drastically lowering my metabolism. It quiets the noise. I read The Master and Margarita in university, and I enjoyed it, I recommend it, though it's been decades, I need to reread it.

I’m so glad I’m not the only person who thinks that M&M is overrated.

Your reaction to this novel reminds me a lot of how I initially reacted to the films of Fellini. I tried reading Bulgakov 10 years ago and couldn't connect with it but I feel like that was because I was reading it in the wrong time and place when I couldn't sufficiently concentrate on it. I will probably give it another try some day.

I am so happy to see this review! I loved this book and though I still love it I agree with all of your criticisms, and I feel very seen as an ex theater kid in my mid twenties haha. I think if you liked this book you may also like Murakami as well and vice versa.

I loved when I read it years ago but totally understand people just not being interested or even confused by it.

Awesome bookshelf and smashing jacket

Finally! I loved this book, I read it like, 2 years ago and still think about it

That moment when you said you didn’t like the song this book inspired either, I died laughing. 😂 I’ve been meaning to read this novel in my pursuit of reading more Russian literature. I wasn’t a big fan of Faust either, so I’m guessing this is going to be quite a ride.

@ItsTooLatetoApologize

2 жыл бұрын

@@nonsequitur8115 I agree!

@corycastleman6351

2 жыл бұрын

The song was the reason I picked up this book lol

This just made the top of my list. Thanks for the wonderful review as always man!

@KDbooks

2 жыл бұрын

Wait… you’ve NOT read this Brandon?!

@BrandonsBookshelf

2 жыл бұрын

@@KDbooks No sir, are you upping the endorsement even further?!

@KDbooks

2 жыл бұрын

@@BrandonsBookshelf It’s a phantasmagoria orgasm

@corycastleman6351

2 жыл бұрын

It's a good one. The rich imagery alone makes this one of the most interesting books

@BrandonsBookshelf

2 жыл бұрын

@@corycastleman6351 To the very top of my list. Jan read, here we go.

I personally think that margarita died, via herself after the master had been hospitalized. It would explain the letter written to her husband as well as the moment when Ivan is told of the Masters death IN room 118

Make a video about Don Quixote, please!

I preferred "The White Guard", and "The Heart of a Dog". I'd recommend reading either of those.

@DonXardas

2 жыл бұрын

Didnt read "The White Guard" yet, but I totally agree about "The Heart of a Dog". It is a great book and it has one of the best movie adaptations ever.

@evgeniya_elle

2 жыл бұрын

Totally agree, The Heart of a Dog is timeless!

That's my favorite book! Thamk you so much!

Been waiting for this one

Read this book many years but stopped mid through for some unknown reasons. I’ll get back to it ASAP!

Yeah your thought that the concept has been done or improved so many times it seems stale is pretty accurate. This is a book you have to read in the beginning of your literary journey. It’s the same like 1984, BNW et al.

i couldnt finish this book. stopped halfway and i was wondering what i was missing because it seemed like anyone who read it ended up loving it... the whole "are you entertained" thing you mention is spot on. its reassuring to hear it and that im not the only one.

I read this book while visiting my parents and my dad let me name the porch cat he's adopted 'Behemoth' :) (PS it's a really good book)

This is exactly how I felt reading the book. The beginning was interesting, then she got on a broom...ugh... oh no, no, no.... The Great Gatsby, Baz Luhrman did that film too LOL

It actually happened thank you 😭

Bulgakov was one of the handful of names mentioned by Eugene Lyons in Assignment In Utopia at the beginning, as one of the leading lights of Moscow theater. So I don't know it's true to say he struggled creatively, he was apparently doing great until the five-year plan crushed everyone.

Woah I just finished this about a month ago. Good timing!

@bearisok

2 жыл бұрын

Update: I liked it more than you. Lol

How do you feel about One Hundred Years Of Solitude? One of my favorite books of all time

3:41 he wrote in Russian but was born in Kiev, Ukraine. He considered himself a Russian and more or less hated all things Ukrainian (at least judging by some of his books), but living in Ukraine still infected him with an anarchist spirit, or at least with disgust towards (Soviet) authority. And that's why I consider this book to be way too ballsy for its time - it was in a way ridiculing the all-powerful party which though it became a substitute for god. People were shot for much less in Soviet Union. I think it was a very "punk" thing to do. But in order to understand how ballsy this novel was "you had to be there". Only a person whose family smembers shared the memories of those incredibly scary times could truly understand how provocative this book was.

@danwroy

2 жыл бұрын

You can sense it and that's clearly what guys like Bowie and Jagger were responding to. I get BTF's disinterest in the grotesquerie but they're all fingers in the same balled fist.

@Damascene749

Жыл бұрын

I think personally that he saw the Ukrainian Nationalists as another group going for a power grab, with empty promises and only a goal for separating the nation and its people.

@casperado666

Жыл бұрын

@@Damascene749 I don't know for sure about his reasoning for being anti-Ukrainian. But being from a russian-speaking region of Ukraine myself and judging by anti-ukrainian people I knew (and some older anti-ukrainian family memebers), I can assume the reason might have been the good old russian brainwashing ("russian exceptionalism" propaganda). This kind of political narrative has been an ideological axis of russian states for centuries. In short it boils down to the following statement, which is ot supported by any facts: Russians=gods (in terms of military, culture, intelligence), small nations they conquered=nationalists/potential traitors/idiots/peasants/speak primitive languages that don't deserve to exist. So you were suposed to grow up wanting to be russian, because the belonging to this culture automatically gives you a higher status in the society. But as Bulgakov was ethnically russian he could as well have been hating ukrainians due to his "racist" pro-russian mentality. I've met people like that in my hometown too.

@M.L.official

Жыл бұрын

Whats mad is people in the states who are heavily left leaning want that time to return because 'they will do it better' lol. This may sound horrible but in order to truly understand and experience evil, you need to be exposed to the communist/Nazi era. It's something the western mindset sorely lacks

From which website I can find list of each and every novel title and there review. Specially psychological novel.

I think this review finally validates my own opinion. I felt like I was reading a transcript of Yakov Smirnoff's first attempt at improv.

Greenaway reference was perfect.

After I read blood meridian I fell into a book slump, as if nothing would be that good again. Until I read master and margarita. Just finished it yesterday. Now I’m searching for where to go after this. Any suggestions ?

the part where Margarita runs off into the field with other witches is so beautifully written I legitimately gasped❤ it felt like something maybe the author’s wife added in afterward. Just speculation but I think it could have been her wistfully writing

I read this in my twenties, then revisited it a decade later in the middle of reading The Gulag Archipelago. That helped a lot with historical context.

Ooh. I just read this. It was a recommendation from English Lit. friend of mine. I'd mentioned I struggled to read any the great Russian authors. She suggested I might enjoy this given my perchant for magical realism and prior praise for Doctor Faustus - aka 'Better than Shakespeare'.

It took you so long to get this review. MASTERPIECE

About too start this one. Just watched your Franzen video on freedom. Nice channel

Would love to see some Murakami on this channel!

I love that he uses y’all.

hey Cliff! have you ever read Guimarães Rosa? he's maybe the most unique Brazilian author. just a recommendation :)

@benjaminknol5990

Жыл бұрын

There are few translations of his works into English, sadly. 😢

“Did I mention the talking cat?”😂😂😂

My favourite. ♥

OK this is interesting, I didn't like The Great Gatsby and I could not get through Master and Margarita, finally I don't feel so alone haha :D

@nicoleannecollet

2 жыл бұрын

I'll keep you company too :)

Great one as always!

The 2005 release of the tv series, “The Master and Margarita” is brilliant! There are 10 episodes. I would highly recommend this Russian production!

It also depends a lot on which translation you get. You would not believe the differences.

Can't wait to watch the movie that's coming out this year with German actor August Diehl as Volund.

I think the thing u mentioned that's missing from this book is care for the characters. The book is really a series of events some interesting some blah. A lot blah. That and descriptions. There's no internal dialogue. Just a story being told with "weird" names made weirder because everyone has more than one name or similar names.

Curious to know whether The Story of the Eye continues to be Cliff's favorite book after the years of reading and reviewing?

I used to mis-title it The Master and THE Margarita as well 😂

Been meaning to read this for many a year

Good honest review. Was searching KZread for someone who also was exhausted by this book. I feel like I enjoyed the first quarter very much, and suspended any real critique for another 200 pages. I was entertained but eventually smeared by the garish theatrics, and finally annoyed with the last chapter. I could have been quite relieved had it ended with Woland & co disappearing down the shadowy crag but was then dismayed by being pulled back into the Moscow scene of far too many characters. I appreciate the brilliance of the author and it’s era. It did fall short for me in conclusion. I don’t remember being that tired of the final pages in a book, though admittedly The Idiot also had me hanging on the ropes. 🕯🎩🧨

the main point of the book: Devil (Voland) joins past and future. He is like endless power of justice. He is everywhere. He punishes human for their vices and does it sometimes softly, sometimes absolutly hard like in a real life. Someone manages to avoid devil's hand. He is awful only for weak people. He is like people's conscience, inevitable punishment each of us. He is like universe which is looking at mass of people and estimating them. This theme (theme of forgiveness, conscience and truth) passes over novel from the start to the end.

I like The Master and Margarita, but for me Black Snow is better although it's not finished. And Morphine is my favorite by Bulgakov; it's so dark and gruesome that it made my spine tingle when I read it in the past.

Please man, pretty please, read the monkey king. It’s the most fun I’ve ever had in any book ever! Love your channel by the way! Have a nice day .

Masterpiece!

With you on G. Gatsby but I might check this one out anyway.

Just finished the book. Basically had the same take as you.

I read it last year on Easter week (even more timely with all the Jesus and Pilate stuff). Liked it a bit, but you have a point on what you didn't enjoy.

What I'm doing is listening to the KZread audiobook, while I follow along reading your book's translation. (Each sentence is worded differently.) I feel like that helps a lot with the names and the Russian context differences in each. I'd honestly need a dictionary nearby to read the book without listening to the book in the different translations at the same time. I heard about this book from Jordan Peterson. He's kind of a ...Ruskiephile?

I just finished it. Let's goooo. I gasped when i saw the video lol

I have read this book, good book

Thank you for this review. I thought it was me until you said everything I was feeling about the book. Definitely worth the read but I would have been ok if I didn't.

Is no one going to mention the blazer Clifford is wearing?

Amazing idea the "Greenaway - Nyman" adaptation.

Cinematic and operatic

Wow, you're the first person whose review resonates with my own experience reading this book a couple of years ago. Everyone reverences it. I found some parts interesting and I can see its value, but in general the book bored me.

Devil take him is a rough translation of the way that the Russians say “fuck him.” Or in the beginning of the book there’s the saying “I threw it all to the devil” which means mostly the same thing, like a “fuck it.” It must be weird to keep reading it every few pages as an English speaker, but in Eastern Europe we use these expressions all the time. Really, all the fuckin’ time. I am from Romania, and our language borrowed a lot from other Slavic languages, and we use these just the same. Same exact words, but in Romanian.

I think this novel necessitates a Russian direcror I'd say Mikhail kalatozov (though a Georgian but close enough) ,His sensibilities seem like they would handle the novels incongruities inn a way where it will nuture his technical stylization without becoming exaggerated just my 2 cents

Satan’s Ball is one of the best scenes in literature!

@loukiadams5340

2 жыл бұрын

Speak for yourself lol Have you not read WAR AND f*cking PEACE??!! Ha!

I have to put this idea somewere out there - I aways thought that the animation studio behind Coraline should do a mini-series adaption of this classic story. I don't think live action will ever do it justice

You can write an amazing story. Think simple. Family. You dont need to go far away to feel shocked. At the corner.. there is always a kind of horror in the most subtle way in routine life. Look.. just look.

To your great Gatsby comment, the director of GG with Leo DiCaprio is in to direct master and margarita. If it ever gets made lol

My next read, what a coincidence

In a Scott bradfield video he said something like great books are sometimes just ok

"Why you no entertained?" Good god, I felt that too deeply. I really enjoyed the book, but I can't argue against that assessment. The book was filled with absurdist unrelated random events, which I kinda took to be a point of some sort, though I can't exactly remember what, at this point. Also, the devilish references never got old for me, even if it was very on the nose. Maybe it depends on the translation.

For some reason Master and Margarita is one of the books which very often Russian opposition (to Russian authoritarian govt) and many people who were strongly anti communist when USSR was a thing.

Best book ever written! 💞

Master didn’t leave Margarita, he got arrested. 21:06

I am over 300 pages into the book of the 380-some. The book reminds me a lot of the early cartoons of Herriman and Disney. And that is not a criticism of Bulgakov. R. CRUMB could do it justice I think. To me it's been an extremely enjoyable book. The imagery alone is so visually stimulating. The writing style is above excellent. To compare this book to Hemingway, who seems so rudimentary and immature and amateurish compared to this writer, I don't know where such a criticism could come from, not from a reading of this book!; it must come from one's own prejudices. The Master and Margarita deserves another reading and a follow-up review.