The Elegant Variation: IF ONLY WE COULD READ RUSSIAN

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May 08, 2007

IF ONLY WE COULD READ RUSSIAN

We've said here numerous times before that one of the all-time great books ever (period) is Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita. Now, according to a report from Russia-IC, "the Russian publishing house Vagrius has published a complete set of editions of the legendary novel Master and Margarita."

The set of works includes all the preserved of the important editions of the novel under the titles “The Black Magus”, “Hoof of an Engineer”, “Evening of the Frightful Saturday”, “The Great Chancellor”, and “The Golden Spear”. Among these titles Bulgakov had tried to choose a proper name for his masterpiece till he arrived at the final version “Master and Margarita”.

We've linked to it before but it's always worth revisiting Middlebury's wonderful M&M site. It includes a bibiography, timelines, and other awfully cool stuff. And, in what is surely a violation of some kind of copyright law, the complete text can be read online here. Here's one of the most memorable and oft-quoted sections:

"Tell me, why does Margarita call you the master?" enquired Woland.

The man laughed and said : "An understandable weakness of hers. She has too high an opinion of a novel that I've written."

"Which novel?"

'"A novel about Pontius Pilate.'"

Again the candle flames flickered and jumped and the crockery rattled on the table as Woland gave a laugh like a clap of thunder. Yet no one was frightened or shocked by the laughter; Behemoth even applauded.

"About what? About whom?" said Woland, ceasing to laugh. "But that's extraordinary! In this day and age? Couldn't you have chosen another subject? Let me have a look." Woland stretched out his hand palm uppermost.

"Unfortunately I cannot show it to you," replied the master, "because I burned it in my stove"

"I'm sorry but I don't believe you," said Woland. "You can't have done. Manuscripts don't burn." He turned to Behemoth and said : "Come on. Behemoth, give me the novel."

The cat jumped down from its chair and where he had been sitting was a pile of manuscripts. With a bow the cat handed the top copy to Woland. Margarita shuddered and cried out, moved to tears :

"There's the manuscript! There it is!"

Manuscripts don't burn. Consider what that meant to a Russian writer of the 1930s. Words we love, to this day. If you don't know this novel, your best bet is to stop whatever you're doing right now, locate a copy, and start reading.

Posted at 12:01 AM in Worthy Titles | Permalink

Comments

Yes - a teacher's favourtie phrase, 'Class, stop what you're doing and listen' or in this case, read, and add one more recommended novels to your notch.

Posted by: Coll B. Lue | May 08, 2007 at 01:35 AM

Ah, I LOVE 'The Master and Margarita.' It is my all-time favorite book. This set sounds fascinating and now I wish I could read Russian. Sigh. :D Thanks for the post!

Posted by: Chana | May 08, 2007 at 08:36 AM

Cheers! One of my very favorite novels....and one of my very favorite trivia bits: "Did you know the Rolling Stones' 'Sympathy for the Devil' is based on the first chapter of The Master and Margarita?"

Posted by: Anna Clark | May 08, 2007 at 01:47 PM

I read the other translation but bought Pevear/Volokhonsky. Imaginary feat, mind fun.

The Hood Company

Posted by: Brian Hadd | May 08, 2007 at 03:16 PM

Wonderful post. Time to reread, I think!But only in English, alas.

Posted by: Ms Baroque | May 10, 2007 at 11:27 AM

The comments to this entry are closed.

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The Elegant Variation is "Fowler’s (1926, 1965) term for the inept writer’s overstrained efforts at freshness or vividness of expression. Prose guilty of elegant variation calls attention to itself and doesn’t permit its ideas to seem naturally clear. It typically seeks fancy new words for familiar things, and it scrambles for synonyms in order to avoid at all costs repeating a word, even though repetition might be the natural, normal thing to do: The audience had a certain bovine placidity, instead of The audience was as placid as cows. Elegant variation is often the rock, and a stereotype, a cliché, or a tired metaphor the hard place between which inexperienced or foolish writers come to grief. The familiar middle ground in treating these homely topics is almost always the safest. In untrained or unrestrained hands, a thesaurus can be dangerous."

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*Now in Paperback*

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The Elegant Variation

A Literary Weblog.
A Guardian Top 10 Literary Blog * A Forbes "Best of the Web" Pick * A Los Angeles Magazine Top Los Angeles Blog
"Really brave ... or really stupid" - NPR

May 08, 2007

IF ONLY WE COULD READ RUSSIAN

Comments

MY NOVEL

WORTHY READINGS

TEV DEFINED

RECOMMENDED

THIS GUN FOR HIRE:
Reviews & Criticism

SECOND LOOK

Categories

The Elegant Variation

A Literary Weblog. A Guardian Top 10 Literary Blog * A Forbes "Best of the Web" Pick * A Los Angeles Magazine Top Los Angeles Blog "Really brave ... or really stupid" - NPR

May 08, 2007

IF ONLY WE COULD READ RUSSIAN

Comments

MY NOVEL

WORTHY READINGS

TEV DEFINED

RECOMMENDED

THIS GUN FOR HIRE: Reviews & Criticism

SECOND LOOK

Categories

A Literary Weblog.
A Guardian Top 10 Literary Blog * A Forbes "Best of the Web" Pick * A Los Angeles Magazine Top Los Angeles Blog
"Really brave ... or really stupid" - NPR

THIS GUN FOR HIRE:
Reviews & Criticism