The Master and the Devil: a study of Mikhail Bulgakov

Abstract

Andrzej Drawicz. Master and the Devil: A Study of Mikhail Bulgakov. Studies in Slavic Language and Literature, Volume 18. trans. Kevin Windle. Lewiston, Queenston, Lampeter: Edwin Mellen Press, 2001. xxiii, 352 pp. Glossary. Bibliography. Index. £74.95, cloth.Although it has been years since Mikhail Bulgakov wrote his very last novel, his work continues to generate great interest among scholars of Russian and Soviet literature. latest study comes from a Polish writer, Andrzej Drawicz, whose Master and the Devil: A Study of Mikhail Bulgakov is certainly one of the most informative books on the subject of Bulgakov to be published in the last two decades. Drawicz (1932-1997), a leading expert in Russian literature and culture, was the author of numerous books and articles on Russian writers of the twentieth century as well as, an accomplished translator of Bulgakov, Akhmatova and others. He devoted many years to studying Bulgakov's works and in 1987 he published the first edition of Mistrz i Diabel (The Master and the Devil). He revised and completed his study in 1990. Mistrz i Diabel was translated from the Polish into English by Australian translator Kevin Windle in 2001.This book examines all Bulgakov's known prose and dramatic works, and is divided into ten chapters that outline Bulgakov's life in a somewhat chronological order. Drawicz begins with Bulgakov's family, first place of residence, and includes vivid descriptions of places, objects and people that would later influence his works. In the first chapter, Bulgakov is presented as a child with an extraordinary imagination who would often write scripts for family theatricals and entertain peers with humorous improvisations. And although signs of Bulgakov's literary talent surfaced very early on, his path from adolescence to adulthood, and eventually to his literary calling, took him, first through medical school and a short-lived employment as a country doctor. Chapters two and three continue with Bulgakov's time spent working obscure jobs and learning to survive hardships and a housing shortage in Moscow. These early years would inspire the creation of several works including Notes of a Young Doctor, Notes on Shirt-Cuffs and Diaboliad. Subsequent chapters serve as a background for what is to come in the last one. Drawicz argues that everything Bulgakov ever wrote ultimately paved the way and led to his greatest work Master and Margarita. Moreover, he claims that Bulgakov needed to write White Guard and The Fatal Eggs in order to grow as a writer and to prepare for the culmination of his ideas, thoughts and passions that were expressed in Master and Margarita. …