The Master and Margarita — Mikhail Bulgakov | Coleman’s Notes Reader’s Companion | CN-065

Enter Bulgakov’s extraordinary world of satire, supernatural chaos, forbidden writing and enduring love.

When the mysterious Woland arrives in Moscow accompanied by an outrageous supernatural entourage, the apparently rational world of Soviet society begins to unravel.

Among Woland’s companions is the unforgettable Behemoth, an enormous, mischievous black cat whose exploits contribute to some of the novel’s most memorable comic scenes.

Running alongside the Moscow narrative is another story: Pontius Pilate’s encounter with Yeshua Ha-Notsri in ancient Jerusalem. Connecting these worlds are the Master, a persecuted writer, and Margarita, whose extraordinary determination to save the man she loves leads her into Woland’s supernatural realm.

Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita combines political and social satire, fantasy, philosophy, romance, comedy and religious narrative in one of the twentieth century’s most distinctive novels.

This comprehensive Coleman’s Notes® Reader’s Companion provides a structured route through its characters, interlocking narratives, historical background, symbolism and major interpretations.

Inside the guide

✓ The Master and Margarita
✓ Woland and his supernatural entourage
✓ Behemoth, Koroviev and Azazello
✓ Pontius Pilate and Yeshua Ha-Notsri
✓ Ivan Bezdomny and Berlioz
✓ The Moscow and Jerusalem narratives
✓ Soviet society and literary bureaucracy
✓ Censorship and artistic freedom
✓ Love, loyalty and sacrifice
✓ Good, evil and moral responsibility
✓ Truth, cowardice and courage
✓ Reality, fantasy and the supernatural
✓ Religion and philosophical inquiry
✓ Satire, comedy and the grotesque
✓ The writer and the state
✓ Bulgakov’s own historical circumstances
✓ Symbols and recurring motifs
✓ Manuscripts, memory and artistic survival
✓ The novel’s complex ending
✓ Critical interpretations and discussion

Satire, fantasy — or a novel about artistic freedom?

One of the remarkable qualities of The Master and Margarita is its refusal to belong comfortably to any single genre.

Woland’s arrival allows Bulgakov to expose the greed, vanity, dishonesty and absurd bureaucracy of Moscow society through increasingly fantastic events.

Yet beneath the comedy lies a serious examination of the relationship between the artist and political power.

The Master’s experiences as a writer inevitably invite comparison with Bulgakov’s own struggles with censorship. The novel itself was written over many years and was not published in Bulgakov’s lifetime.

The result is both wildly entertaining and profoundly concerned with whether truth, imagination and art can survive attempts to suppress them.

Ideal for students, teachers, reading groups, book clubs and independent readers exploring Bulgakov, Russian literature and twentieth-century fiction.

CN-065 | Digital Reader’s Companion | £7.95

Also available in Russian Literature Collection 2 — six complete Coleman’s Notes® Reader’s Companions for £42.95.

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