i don't get this book
>>8193272
What part, the crystal clear English translation, the well crafted, structured plot, or the amusing and unique characters?
>>8193272
Reading isnt for you, my man
Then don't read it ever again. Just stop reading in general. Bulgakov is a Fucking legend you, on the other hand, are a pleb.
Do you have the version (Penguin?) with footnotes?
That helps with stuff you might not get like MASSOLIT
>>8193272
I don't get why Behemoth is featured on every cover. He wasn't even that important. I kept waiting for him to do something grand.
I recently read it and it's a very good and important book. I didn't get some of the references related to Goethe's Faust and some of the allusions. I knew about the history of Russia during the time, so I had no problem in understanding it. What problems, you are having OP?
>>8193605
cause he's adorable
>>8193605
behemoth embodies the tone of the book
it's faust
is the P&V translation worthwhile? I only have access to that or glenny...
>>8193927
The Glenny translation is supposed to be missing some parts but I'd take him any day over the PV meme.
>>8193944
you're retarded
in any case burgin/o'connor is the ideal translation, but preferring glenny over PV is laughably meme. try not to let memes on a laotian fish scaling imageboard dictate your decisions too much
>>8194045
Sorry big dog but I can't sanction PV's buffoonery.
They should have been laughed off the face of the earth when they revealed their 'method'.
>>8193272
>2016
>not reading for the plot
>>8194102
Lmeo
>>8194623
>he thinks 'getingt' a book means understanding plot
>>8194752
>this projection
>>8194752
Oh you miserable pleb, I do pity you.
That is not it, at all,
That is not what I meant, at all.
I read this a long time ago, and I remember thinking, 'What about Margarita's husband?' He gets nothing but a Dear John note as Margarita runs off with Woland and eventually shacks up with the Master, etc.
I wanted to write a fanfic where the spurned husband tries to figure out what the hell is going on, but I don't know enough about 1930s Soviet craziness to make it work (unless I wanted to do an absurdist work, like make the husband remember his past life as Max Stirner or something).
>At the sunset hour of one warm spring day two men were to be seen at
Patriarch's Ponds. The first of them--aged about forty, dressed in a greyish
summer suit--was short, dark-haired, well-fed and bald. He carried his
decorous pork-pie hat by the brim and his neatly shaven face was embellished
by black hornrimmed spectacles of preternatural dimensions. The other, a
broad-shouldered young man with curly reddish hair and a check cap pushed
back to the nape of his neck, was wearing a tartan shirt, chewed white
trousers and black sneakers.
lol how boring is this?
Like get to the point already
>>8194056
So before they revealed their method the translations were ok though?
>>8193661
What should I know about Russia's background before I read the book?
>>8195157
I cant imagine reading this book without having a pretty clear understanding of entire history of the USSR
>>8195166
That's some bad imagination anon.
>>8195166
You can do it, but more important than that is theology/theosophy imo
>>8194887
>an absurdist work, like make the husband remember his past life as Max Stirner or something
I'd read it.
>>8194056
you sound pseud af. you don't even speak russian
How's the hugh alpin translation?
>>8193272
10/10 book - I'm not sure what is not to get though. Maybe some of the Christian Orthodox themes or something, but altogether it was a solid and straightforward book.
>>8193272
A funny fact: in Russia Master and Margarita is in what is russian equivalent to reddit-tier literature: books usually mentioned by those who want to show that they read books but haven't read many. Reasons they like M&M are usually being "Behemot and Korovin are so funny" and "their (titular characters') love is so romantic"
A great book nevertheless. Need to read it again.
>>8193927
I've only read the P+V version but it was really, really bad.
>>8196360
...by which I mean, I could tell there was a good book under there and it was somewhat enjoyable when I got used to it, but on a sentence-by-sentence level it was generally awfully written.
>>8193272
There isn't much to get. This book is boring af tbqh. It could have been my translation but this book was an absolute chore.
You should read some Goethe first.
I read it in Danish, so I dont know if I just lucked out with a superb translation, but one of the parts about Pilate (the last one maybe, around judas' death I think) describing The weather over jershalaim/Jerusalem, Was one of The Best written chapters Ive ever read. :)
>>8194056
Dude, you are reading a translation anyway, you cannot be an elititst. All the nuances and subtleties are lost with whatever translation you read. Learn and read russian, than you can act all pompous.
>>8195166
Than you are a retard. Do you really think everyone who has read the book knew "the entire history of the USSR"? Just imagining you really believeing you need to know all that is hilarious. I assure you, the vast majority of people whonhave read the book understood it pretty well with just cursory knowledge about the USSR. Fuck off.
I don't get why this book is as popular as it is. It is an unfinished Russian Christian allegory with a tone that jumps from high comedy to stone cold seriousness. I've also NEVER heard it mentioned IRL and I'm doing my graduate studies in English.
Yet somehow on Goodreads (pleb city) more people have read it than The Divine Comedy, than many of Shakespeares plays, than any of Joyce's works, than Plato's Republic - what the heck???
>>8193328
>"Crystal clear English language"
>Russian Novel
Implying you know the translation he read was good.
Don't be a faggot. I'm a native Russian speaker and there's no way a non-Russian speaker will get all the idioms Bulgakov uses as well as the subtle cultural and political criticisms. It's understandable to not come away with a positive feeling after finishing it.
>>8197869
WEW
E
W
>>8196356
But it's like that here too, the only russian books people read are those on the best seller lists or memed around everywhere, dostoy for example, tolstoy (not really though just one book talking about how le big it is) you'll probably notice hardly anyone even on here talks about tolstoys short stories.
And that about sums up the extent of russian reading for plebtricians.
>>8197468
Tbqh I don't get Shakespeare. I've read me some R&J and Macdank, but what's the point?
Romeo shoulda killed himself when he found Julia dead, then Julia wakes up and also kilt. Troo trajedy my friends. Instead he cucks my mirror-neurons and I don't get the real-deal ASMR experience from knowing a lover's anguish.
Not to mention Macbeth. I feel like Shaky S has a good (not Dostoyevsky good, but decent) understanding of human psyche and raisons for their actions and the story-telling is also above standard for short-stories, but what else is there? Is it the prose? Is this art-form too refined for a troglodyte naive???
