Full edition of "The Master and Margarita" published

A complete edition of “The Master and Margarita”, the famous novel by prominent Russian writer Mikhail Bulgakov, has been published in Moscow. The new book promises to be a must-have for lovers of the 20th-century Russian literature.

The edition includes previously non-published versions of “The Master and Margarita”. In fact, there are several of them, as Bulgakov continuously worked on the novel for many years.

The book “The Master and Margarita” was first published in 1966, 26 years after the writer's death.  The satirical novel granted Mikhail Bulgakov immortal recognition in the world of literature.

Earlier in the Soviet Union the book had been available only underground, but later it became very popular, and is believed by many to be the best Russian novel of the 20th century.  His work has been translated into about 150 languages, and much research on the novel's manuscripts is still going on. One of the latest results of this voluminous work is the book titled “My poor, poor Master”.

“Reading these manuscripts one after another is amazingly interesting. It seems like you're going upstairs – from the very first ideas to what has become one of the greatest phenomena of Russian 20th century literature!” editor Vladimir Kochetov says.

The book was presented to the public at the Bulgakov Museum, which for the past decades has become a gathering spot for the writer's admirers.

Like the book itself, this place is full of history, philosophy, and mystery. This new edition features even some fragments of the very first version of “The Master and Margarita”, which the author burnt. But, as Bulgakov himself wrote, “Manuscripts don't burn”.