<div>A volume of the renowned Russian author&rsquo;s letters and diary entries: &ldquo;an evocative chronicle of [his] life, beginning with the 1917 revolution&rdquo; (The Guardian, UK). Mikhail Bulgakov was one of the most important literary voices of Soviet Russia. Yet his books were banned in his own country and his greatest novel, The Master and Margarita, was only published more than twenty years after his death. In Manuscripts Don&#39;t Burn&mdash;the title, a line from his famous novel&mdash;J.A. E. Curtis presents a gripping and intimate chronicle of Bulgakov&#39;s life, drawn from his own personal writings. Among other documents, Curtis draws on a partial copy of one of Bulgakov&rsquo;s diaries which was presumed lost until it was uncovered in the KGB&rsquo;s archives. That diary and those of the author&rsquo;s third wife record the nightmarish precariousness of life during the Stalinist purges. Also included are letters to Stalin, in which Bulgakov pleads to be allowed to emigrate; letters to his siblings; intimate notes to his second and third wives; and letters to and from other writers such as Gorky and Zamyatin. </div>

Manuscripts Don't Burn

<div>Satan comes to Soviet Moscow in this critically acclaimed translation of one of the most important and best-loved modern classics in world literature. The Master and Margarita has been captivating readers around the world ever since its first publication in 1967. Written during Stalin’s time in power but suppressed in the Soviet Union for decades, Bulgakov’s masterpiece is an ironic parable on power and its corruption, on good and evil, and on human frailty and the strength of love. In The Master and Margarita, the Devil himself pays a visit to Soviet Moscow. Accompanied by a retinue that includes the fast-talking, vodka-drinking, giant tomcat Behemoth, he sets about creating a whirlwind of chaos that soon involves the beautiful Margarita and her beloved, a distraught writer known only as the Master, and even Jesus Christ and Pontius Pilate. The Master and Margarita combines fable, fantasy, political satire, and slapstick comedy to create a wildly entertaining and unforgettable tale that is commonly considered the greatest novel to come out of the Soviet Union. It appears in this edition in a translation by Mirra Ginsburg that was judged “brilliant” by Publishers Weekly. Praise for The Master and Margarita “A wild surrealistic romp. . . . Brilliantly flamboyant and outrageous.” —Joyce Carol Oates, The Detroit News “Fine, funny, imaginative. . . . The Master and Margarita stands squarely in the great Gogolesque tradition of satiric narrative.” —Saul Maloff, Newsweek “A rich, funny, moving and bitter novel. . . . Vast and boisterous entertainment.” —The New York Times “The book is by turns hilarious, mysterious, contemplative and poignant. . . . A great work.” —Chicago Tribune “Funny, devilish, brilliant satire. . . . It’s literature of the highest order and . . . it will deliver a full measure of enjoyment and enlightenment.” —Publishers Weekly</div>

The Master and Margarita

<div>This volume of personal writings offers an intimate view of the celebrated Russian author&rsquo;s life and creative process in the face of Soviet censorship. Best known for his biting satire of Soviet society, The Master and Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov kept meticulous journals, written with keen humor and insight, about his day to day life in Moscow as well as the wider social and political life of early 20th century Russia. But his diaries stop midway through the 1920s&mdash;the Bolshevik secret police raided his apartment and confiscated his private notebooks in 1926. After that incident, Bulgakov began chronicling his thoughts in letters. Writing mostly to friends and family, he also sent letters to literary contemporaries like Maxim Gorky and Yevgeny Zamyatin, and even to Joseph Stalin. These correspondences are both bitingly funny and full of pain, mundane and sublime. This selection of Bulgakov&rsquo;s private writings provides a fascinating glimpse into a period of Russian history and literature that was alive with creative energy yet darkened by the iron grip of censorship. The Alma Classics edition of Diaries and Selected Letters is translated by Roger Cockrell with the authorization of the Bulgakov Estate. Cockrell translation reflects the clear, humorous, and profound language of the original with colloquial English idioms and phrasings.</div>

Diaries & Selected Letters

<div>A Kyiv family is caught up in the Ukrainian War of Independence in this novel by the author of The Master and Margarita, drawing from his own life. Reds, Whites, German troops, and Ukrainian nationalists battle for control of the city of Kyiv as the war becomes more tumultuous in Mikhail Bulgakov&rsquo;s debut novel, The White Guard. Drawing heavily from the author&rsquo;s own experiences in Ukraine during the period of the Russian Civil War&mdash;he witnessed ten changes of government himself&mdash;The White Guard is told from alternating points of view and takes an unusual angle in the conflict between Russian Whites (with whom the Turbin family identify) and Ukrainian nationalists. It elegantly portrays the chaos of a civil war in which there is no good or evil, only loyalty to one&rsquo;s friends, family, and convictions. First appearing in partial form in a Soviet-era literary journal, the story was turned into a play under the title The Days of the Turbins&mdash;a long-running hit that Stalin himself attended twenty times&mdash;yet was not published widely until decades after Bulgakov&rsquo;s death.</div>

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The White Guard

<div>A comic novel about the theater world in early Soviet Russia and a &ldquo;biting attack on censorship&rdquo; (The Guardian, UK). From the author of The Master and Margarita, this semi-autobiographical satirical novel paints a vibrant portrait of life behind the curtains of the Russian literary and theater arenas in the early decades of the twentieth century. Maxudov is a failed novelist who, after contemplating suicide, adapts his novel into a play that&mdash;seemingly at random&mdash;is chosen to be produced at the renowned Independent Theatre. As it so often does in theater, chaos ensues&mdash;including bloodthirsty battles between the show&rsquo;s two co-directors (modeled on Stanislavsky, the famed inventor of Method Acting, and his co-director) over control of the production; near-constant drama brewing between the actors; and the playwright&rsquo;s own growing host of misgivings and insecurities about his place in the theatrical community. With each rehearsal turning more disastrous than the last, it becomes less and less clear whether Maxudov&rsquo;s play will ever be performed at all&hellip; &ldquo;A masterpiece of black comedy.&rdquo; &mdash;The Irish Times</div>

Black Snow

<div>&ldquo;Bulgakov&rsquo;s strong point was his ability to amplify the roots of man&rsquo;s dementia, the howls of political pandemonium . . . a lively collection.&rdquo; &mdash;The Washington Post Book World Mikhail Bulgakov&rsquo;s Diaboliad and Other Stories, comprised of Diaboliad, No. 13&ndash;The Elpit Workers&rsquo; Commune, A Chinese Tale, and The Adventures of Chichikov, serves as an excellent introduction to this renowned Russian satirist and playwright&rsquo;s work. Black comedy, biting social and political commentary, and Bulgakov&rsquo;s unique narrative exuberance combine to tell the tales of labyrinthine post-Revolution bureaucracy; clashes between science, the intellectual class, and the state; and the high price to be paid for the promised utopian world of Communism in early Soviet Russia. Bulgakov&rsquo;s signature eloquent skewering of the various shortcomings of the world around and within him can be found on every page, and horror and magic interweave in a constant dance of the absurd&mdash;a dance that would reach its highest point both stylistically and thematically in Bulgakov&rsquo;s tour de force novel The Master and Margarita. &ldquo;One of the most original voices of the twentieth century.&rdquo; &mdash;The Guardian, UK</div>

Diaboliad

<div>Darkly humorous short fiction set in the early years of the Soviet Union, by the author of The Master and Margarita. A collection of comic, self-aware, and stylistically dazzling short stories touching on such familiar territory for many Russian authors as disease, famine, civil war, and political turmoil, Notes on a Cuff and Other Stories showcases the style that Mikhail Bulgakov would be known for during the literary and theatrical renaissance of 1920s Moscow and beyond. Written between 1920 and 1921 while Bulgakov was employed as a doctor in a rural hospital in the Caucasus region, Notes on a Cuff presents a series of first-person comedic sketches centered on a young writer (Bulgakov&rsquo;s semiautobiographical proxy) fighting to launch his literary career despite great personal and political odds. &ldquo;A very good place to start on Bulgakov if you haven&rsquo;t read any of his work before.&rdquo;&mdash;The Guardian</div>

Notes on a Cuff

<div>The chickens come home to roost in this &ldquo;brilliantly strange&rdquo; blend of science fiction and political satire by the author of The Master and Margarita (The Guardian, UK). As the new reality of post-Revolution Soviet life begins to settle in, a gifted but eccentric zoologist named Persikov invents a machine that revolutionizes the growth of living organisms by drastically increasing their size and reproductive rates. Meanwhile, a mysterious plague has wiped out the entire poultry population of Russia, raising concerns about the government&rsquo;s ability to feed its people. Hoping to use Persikov&rsquo;s yet-untested invention to revive the decimated chicken population, the secret service confiscates Persikov&rsquo;s machine&mdash;with disastrous results&hellip; Inspired by H. G. Wells&rsquo;s novel The Food of the Gods and How It Came to Earth, this science fiction novella delighted readers in 1925 Russia&mdash;and also disapproved of by certain critics who saw the tale as an anti-Soviet satire of the events of the Russian Revolution of 1917 and of post-war leadership.</div>

The Fatal Eggs

<div>Satan, Judas, a Soviet writer, and a talking black cat named Behemoth populate this satire, &ldquo;a classic of twentieth-century fiction&rdquo; (The New York Times). In 1930s Moscow, Satan decides to pay the good people of the Soviet Union a visit. In old Jerusalem, the fateful meeting of Pilate and Yeshua and the murder of Judas in the garden of Gethsemane unfold. At the intersection of fantasy and realism, satire and unflinching emotional truths, Mikhail Bulgakov&rsquo;s classic The Master and Margarita eloquently lampoons every aspect of Soviet life under Stalin&rsquo;s regime, from politics to art to religion, while interrogating the complexities between good and evil, innocence and guilt, and freedom and oppression. Spanning from Moscow to Biblical Jerusalem, a vibrant cast of characters&mdash;a &ldquo;magician&rdquo; who is actually the devil in disguise, a giant cat, a witch, a fanged assassin&mdash;sow mayhem and madness wherever they go, mocking artists, intellectuals, and politicians alike. In and out of the fray weaves a man known only as the Master, a writer demoralized by government censorship, and his mysterious lover, Margarita. Burned in 1928 by the author and restarted in 1930, The Master and Margarita was Bulgakov&rsquo;s last completed creative work before his death. It remained unpublished until 1966&mdash;and went on to become one of the most well-regarded works of Russian literature of the twentieth century, adapted or referenced in film, television, radio, comic strips, theater productions, music, and opera.</div>

The Master & Margarita

<div>From the author of The Master and Margarita, these semiautobiographical stories chronicle the darkly comic adventures of a physician in rural 1917 Russia. Fresh from medical school in the winter of 1917, the young Dr. Bomgard assumes the role of the only doctor in a provincial Russian hospital. Dealing with a cases ranging from the horrific to the hilarious to the surreal, Bomgard recounts his solitary time practicing medicine among the superstitious, uneducated, and deeply suspicious populace of his new town. He exhibits relentless patience and determination while fighting the daily uphill battle against the challenges of an inexperienced country doctor, including scouring ten textbooks at once hours before a complicated surgery; dealing with patients who either refuse to take their medicine or take it all at once; and handling a colleague with a dangerous morphine addiction. Somehow, despite the near-constant chaos, Bomgard continues to focus on the life-affirming moments that make his efforts worth the uncertainty, isolation, and lost sleep. A semiautobiographical collection of short stories by author, playwright, and erstwhile physician Mikhail Bulgakov, A Young Doctor&rsquo;s Notebook chronicles the author&rsquo;s experiences practicing in a small village hospital in Smolensk Governorate in revolutionary Russia between 1916 and 1918, originally published in installments in Russian medical journals, and later adapted into the British TV series starring Daniel Radcliffe and Jon Hamm.</div>

A Young Doctor's Notebook

<div>A dark, fantastical satire of Communist utopianism by the author of The Master and Margarita. Lauded Russian author and playwright Mikhail Bulgakov&rsquo;s A Dog&rsquo;s Heart (sometimes translated as The Heart of a Dog) is a zany, violent, and whimsical satire of the failures inherent in the dream of a Communist utopia, following dog-turned-human Sharik as he tries and fails utterly to live a life of goodness and virtue&mdash;but goodness and virtue as defined by whom? Both a nod to the Frankenstein myth and a vicious critique of the Soviet government&rsquo;s attempts to reshape and redefine personhood during and after the Russian Revolution, A Dog&rsquo;s Heart was rejected for publication by censors in 1925, but was circulated via samizdat&mdash;the clandestine production and distribution of literature that had been banned by the state&mdash;for years until it was translated into English in 1968. To this day, the book remains one of Bulgakov&rsquo;s most highly regarded works.</div>

Mikhail Bulgakov
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Books By Mikhail Bulgakov (11 Books)

Manuscripts Don't Burn

The Master and Margarita

Diaries & Selected Letters

The White Guard

Black Snow

Diaboliad

Notes on a Cuff

The Fatal Eggs

The Master & Margarita

A Young Doctor's Notebook

A Dog's Heart

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Mikhail BulgakovFollow this author