vintage bulgakov the master and margarita

The stranger seems to explain the events of the previous day, stating that Styopa had agreed to put on Woland’s black magic show at the theater, even producing a contract with Styopa’s signature on it as proof. He has a terrible headache and is surprised to see a strange man in his room-Woland. The next day, Styopa Likhodeev, the director of the Variety theater, wakes up in his apartment on Sadovaya street. His hysterical manner and the fantastical nature of his story, however, land him in Dr. Through a comedy of errors, he ends up at Griboedev’s, the building housing Massolit, and tries to tell his fellow writers what’s happened. Ivan tries to chase after Woland and his accomplices- Koroviev and the big black cat, Behemoth-but loses them. Pilate is intrigued by Yeshua’s radical compassion for all of mankind and deep down is resistant to condemning him to death but is forced to do so in order to avoid the repercussions that would come with sparing him.īack in Moscow, Woland’s prediction comes true as Berlioz slips on sunflower oil and falls beneath a tram, losing his head. In Yershalaim, Pontius Pilate, the Roman authority in the city, is presented with Yeshua Ha-Nozri, who is accused of inciting public unrest and wanting to overthrow the Emperor. Woland then narrates the first part of the Pilate story.

Even more mysteriously, the strange professor casually informs Berlioz that he will be decapitated that day. This foreigner insists that Jesus did exist, and that he was there when Pontius Pilate approved his crucifixion. Berlioz explains why Jesus never existed but is interrupted by the arrival of a “strange professor,” who the reader later learns is Woland (Satan). Berlioz, who is the chairman of the writers’ union Massolit, criticizes Ivan for making Jesus seem too real in his writing. The book opens with the first of these, as two writers, Mikhail Alexandrovich Berlioz and Ivan “Homeless” Ponyrev, discuss a poem written by the latter. The Master and Margarita has two main settings: 1930s Moscow and Yershalaim (Jerusalem) around the time of Yeshua’s (the Aramaic name for Jesus) execution.

Vintage bulgakov the master and margarita