The Master and Margarita

The Master and Margarita ({{lang-ru|?????? ? ?????????}}) is a novel by Mikhail Bulgakov. Many people consider the book as one of the greatest Russian novels of the 20th century - and also the most humorous.

English translations

There are four published English translations of The Master and Margarita:

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

• Mirra Ginsburg (Grove Press, 1967)
• Michael Glenny (Harper & Row, 1967)
• Diana Burgin and Katherine Tiernan O'Connor (Ardis, 1995)
• Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky (Penguin, 1997)

Ginsburg's translation was from a censored Soviet text and is therefore incomplete.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

While opinions vary over the literary merits of the different translations and none of them can be considered perfect, the latter two are generally viewed as being more faithful to the nuances of the original.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Glenny's translation runs more smoothly than that of Pevear and Volokhonsky, but is very cavalier with the text, whereas Pevear and Volokhonsky pay for their attempted closeness by losing idiomatic flow. A close examination of almost any paragraph of the novel in these two versions in comparison with the original reveals shortcomings and glaring discrepancies, however.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~