How long will it take to read the book "The Master and Margarita"? Why is everyone crazy about The Master and Margarita? Shameful questions about Bulgakov’s most famous novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, by Erich Maria Remarque.

How many hours of reading can you expect from Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita? and got the best answer

Answer from Alina kkkkkkkk[guru]
It depends on your silent reading speed. Count how many words per minute you read silently, and then divide the number of words in the book by the number of words per minute and you will get the time it takes you to read. But when you choose this time is up to you.

Answer from BarSik[guru]
I read it in 12 (with breaks.)

Answer from Vita[guru]
You can read it in a week... I read it in a month - I thought about everything I didn’t understand for a very long time... that is, the meaning of what was written sometimes seems stupid - in the end I drew conclusions. but still I didn’t understand a lot - I think I’ll re-read it later)

Answer from Eleenkova Valeria[guru]
10 o'clock

Answer from Nina Morozova[guru]
The night was enough for me)

Answer from Levitation[expert]
I read it for the first time when I was in school, I liked it very much, it was easy to read, in one sitting. I remember that everyone in the class read The Master and Margarita, even those who had never held a book in their hands. I re-read it periodically (every 5 years, probably), and every time I discover something new for myself. Bulgakov is certainly a genius, there is so much irony and deep meaning in his literature. It turns all human vices inside out. The important thing is not how many hours it takes to read, it is important to get pleasure from reading such a brilliant book (or even two books, there are two in one). Have a nice time.)))

Answer from Marut[guru]
well it depends only on you. a day was enough for me

Answer from onna Yunna[guru]
Personally, I read very quickly, so a few hours was enough for me. Besides, I really liked it, so I couldn’t put it down!
Now, of course, it is not always possible to immediately finish reading even what you like and is easy to read... Affairs, children, work...

How many hours of reading can you expect from Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita? and got the best answer

Answer from BarSik[guru]
I read it in 12 (with breaks.)

Answer from Eleenkova Valeria[guru]
10 o'clock

Answer from Nina Morozova[guru]
The night was enough for me)

Answer from Marut[guru]
well it depends only on you. a day was enough for me

The novel “The Master and Margarita” by Bulgakov (1928-1940) is a book within a book. The story about Satan’s visit to Moscow at the beginning of the twentieth century includes a short story based on the New Testament, which was allegedly written by one of Bulgakov’s characters, the master. At the end, the two works are united: the master meets his main character - the procurator of Judea Pontius Pilate - and mercifully decides his fate.

Death prevented Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov from completing work on the novel. The first magazine publications of “The Master and Margarita” date back to 1966-1967; in 1969, the book with a large number of abbreviations was published in Germany, and in the writer’s homeland, the full text of the novel was published only in 1973. You can get acquainted with its plot and main ideas by reading online a summary of “The Master and Margarita” chapter by chapter.

Main characters

Master- anonymous writer, author of a novel about Pontius Pilate. Unable to bear the persecution from Soviet criticism, he goes crazy.

Margarita- his beloved. Having lost the master, she yearns for him and, in the hope of seeing him again, agrees to become queen at the annual Satan's ball.

Woland- a mysterious black magician who ultimately turns into Satan himself.

Azazello- a member of Woland’s retinue, a short, red-haired, fanged subject.

Koroviev- Woland’s companion, a tall, thin guy in a checkered jacket and pince-nez with one broken glass.

Hippopotamus- Woland’s jester, transforming from a huge talking black cat into a short fat man “with a cat’s face” and back.

Pontius Pilate- the fifth procurator of Judea, in which human feelings struggle with official duty.

Yeshua Ha-Nozri- a wandering philosopher, condemned to crucifixion for his ideas.

Other characters

Mikhail Berlioz- Chairman of MASSOLIT, the trade union of writers. He believes that a person determines his own destiny, but dies as a result of an accident.

Ivan Bezdomny- poet, member of MASSOLIT, after meeting Woland and the tragic death of Berlioz, he goes crazy.

Gella– Woland’s maid, an attractive red-haired vampire.

Styopa Likhodeev- director of the Variety Theater, Berlioz's neighbor. Mysteriously moves from Moscow to Yalta to free up an apartment for Woland and his retinue.

Ivan Varenukha- administrator of Variety. As an edification for his impoliteness and addiction to lies, Woland's retinue turns him into a vampire.

Grigory Rimsky- financial director of Variety, who almost fell victim to an attack by the vampire Varenukha and Gella.

Andrey Sokov- Variety bartender.

Vasily Lastochkin- accountant at Variety.

Natasha– Margarita’s housekeeper, a young attractive girl, follows her mistress and turns into a witch.

Nikanor Ivanovich Bosoy- Chairman of the housing association in the building where the “damned apartment” No. 50 is located, bribe-taker.

Aloisy Mogarych- a traitor to the master, pretending to be a friend.

Levi Matvey- Yershalaim tax collector, who is so captivated by the speeches of Yeshua that he becomes his follower.

Judah of Kiriath- a young man who betrayed Yeshua Ha-Nozri, who trusted him, being flattered by the reward. He was stabbed to death as punishment for this.

High Priest Caiaphas- an ideological opponent of Pilate, destroying the last hope for the salvation of the condemned Yeshua: in exchange for him, the robber Bar-Rabban will be released.

Afranius- Head of the Procurator's Secret Service.

Part one

Chapter 1. Never talk to strangers

At the Patriarch's Ponds in Moscow, the chairman of the MASSOLIT writers' trade union, Mikhail Berlioz, and the poet Ivan Bezdomny are talking about Jesus Christ. Berlioz reproaches Ivan for creating a negative image of this character in his poem instead of refuting the very fact of his existence, and gives many arguments to prove the non-existence of Christ.

A stranger who looks like a foreigner intervenes in the conversation of the writers. He asks the question, who, since there is no God, controls human life. Disputing the answer that “man himself controls,” he predicts Berlioz’s death: his head will be cut off by a “Russian woman, a Komsomol member” - and very soon, because a certain Annushka has already spilled sunflower oil.

Berlioz and Bezdomny suspect the stranger to be a spy, but he shows them documents and says that he has been invited to Moscow as a specialist consultant on black magic, after which he declares that Jesus did exist. Berlioz demands evidence, and the foreigner begins to talk about Pontius Pilate.

Chapter 2. Pontius Pilate

A beaten and poorly dressed man of about twenty-seven is brought to the trial of the procurator Pontius Pilate. Migraine-stricken Pilate must approve the death sentence pronounced by the Holy Sanhedrin: the accused Yeshua Ha-Nozri allegedly called for the destruction of the temple. However, after a conversation with Yeshua, Pilate begins to sympathize with the intelligent and educated prisoner, who, as if by magic, saved him from a headache and considers all people to be kind. The procurator is trying to get Yeshua to renounce the words that are attributed to him. But he, as if not sensing danger, easily confirms the information contained in the denunciation of a certain Judas from Kiriath - that he opposed all authority, and therefore the authority of the great Caesar. After this, Pilate is obliged to confirm the verdict.
But he makes another attempt to save Yeshua. In a private conversation with the high priest Caiaphas, he petitions that of the two prisoners under the authority of the Sanhedrin, Yeshua should be pardoned. However, Kaifa refuses, preferring to give life to the rebel and murderer Bar-Rabban.

Chapter 3. Seventh proof

Berlioz tells the consultant that it is impossible to prove the reality of his story. The foreigner claims that he was personally present at these events. The head of MASSOLIT suspects that this is a madman, especially since the consultant intends to live in Berlioz’s apartment. Having entrusted the strange subject to Bezdomny, Berlioz goes to a pay phone to call the foreigners' bureau. The consultant then asks him to at least believe in the devil and promises some reliable proof.

Berlioz is about to cross the tram tracks, but slips on spilled sunflower oil and falls onto the tracks. Berlioz's head is cut off by a tram wheel driven by a female tram driver wearing a Komsomol red scarf.

Chapter 4. The Chase

The poet, struck by the tragedy, hears that the oil on which Berlioz slipped was spilled by a certain Annushka and Sadovaya. Ivan compares these words with those spoken by the mysterious foreigner and decides to call him to account. However, the consultant, who previously spoke excellent Russian, pretends that he does not understand the poet. A cheeky guy in a checkered jacket comes to his defense, and a little later Ivan sees the two of them in the distance and, moreover, accompanied by a huge black cat. Despite all the poet’s efforts to catch up with them, they are hiding.

Ivan's further actions look strange. He invades an unfamiliar apartment, being sure that the evil professor is hiding there. Having stolen an icon and a candle from there, Bezdomny continues the chase and moves to the Moscow River. There he decides to take a swim, after which he discovers that his clothes have been stolen. Having dressed in what he has - a torn sweatshirt and long johns - Ivan decides to look for a foreigner “at Griboedov’s” - in the MASSOLIT restaurant.

Chapter 5. There was an affair in Griboedov

"Griboyedov's House" - MASSOLIT building. Being a writer - a member of a trade union is very profitable: you can apply for housing in Moscow and dachas in a prestigious village, go on sabbaticals, eat tasty and cheap food in a luxurious restaurant “for your own people”.

12 writers who gathered for the MASSOLIT meeting are waiting for Chairman Berlioz, and without waiting, they go down to the restaurant. Having learned about the tragic death of Berlioz, they mourn, but not for long: “Yes, he died, he died... But we are alive!” - and continue to eat.

Ivan Bezdomny appears in the restaurant - barefoot, in long johns, with an icon and a candle - and begins to look under the tables for the consultant whom he accuses of Berlioz's death. Colleagues try to calm him down, but Ivan becomes furious, starts a fight, the waiters tie him up with towels, and the poet is taken to a psychiatric hospital.

Chapter 6. Schizophrenia, as was said

The doctor is talking to Ivan Bezdomny. The poet is very glad that they are finally ready to listen to him, and tells him his fantastic story about a consultant who is familiar with evil spirits, “placed” Berlioz under a tram and is personally acquainted with Pontius Pilate.

In the middle of the story, Bezdomny remembers that he needs to call the police, but they won’t listen to the poet from the insane asylum. Ivan tries to escape from the hospital by breaking out a window, but the special glass holds out, and Bezdomny is placed in a ward with a diagnosis of schizophrenia.

Chapter 7. Bad apartment

The director of the Moscow Variety Theater Styopa Likhodeev wakes up with a hangover in his apartment, which he shares with the late Berlioz. The apartment has a bad reputation - there are rumors that its previous residents disappeared without a trace and evil spirits are allegedly involved in this.

Styopa sees a stranger in black, who claims that Likhodeev has made an appointment with him. He calls himself professor of black magic Woland and wants to clarify the details of the concluded and already paid contract for performances at the Variety Show, about which Styopa remembers nothing. Having called the theater and confirmed the guest’s words, Likhodeev finds him no longer alone, but with a checkered guy in a pince-nez and a huge talking black cat who drinks vodka. Woland announces to Styopa that he is unnecessary in the apartment, and a short, red-haired, fanged individual named Azazello, who emerges from the mirror, offers to “throw him the hell out of Moscow.”

Styopa finds himself on the seashore in an unfamiliar city and learns from a passerby that this is Yalta.

Chapter 8. The duel between the professor and the poet

Doctors led by Dr. Stravinsky come to see Ivan Bezdomny in the hospital. He asks Ivan to repeat his story again and wonders what he will do if he is released from the hospital now. The homeless man replies that he will go straight to the police to report about the damned consultant. Stravinsky convinces the poet that he is too upset by the death of Berlioz to behave adequately, and therefore they will not believe him and will immediately return him to the hospital. The doctor suggests that Ivan rest in a comfortable room and formulate a statement to the police in writing. The poet agrees.

Chapter 9. Koroviev's things

Nikanor Ivanovich Bosogo, chairman of the housing association in the house on Sadovaya where Berlioz lived, is besieged by applicants for the deceased’s vacated space. Barefoot, he visits the apartment himself. In Berlioz’s sealed office sits a subject who introduces himself as Koroviev, the translator of the foreign artist Woland, who lives with Likhodeev with the permission of his owner, who has left for Yalta. He invites Bosom to rent out Berlioz’s apartment to the artist and immediately hands him the rent and a bribe.

Nikanor Ivanovich leaves, and Woland expresses his wish that he should not appear again. Koroviev calls on the phone and reports that the chairman of the housing association illegally keeps currency at home. They come to Bosom with a search and instead of the rubles that Koroviev gave him, they find dollars. Barefoot is arrested.

Chapter 10. News from Yalta

In the office of the financial director of Variety Rimsky, he and the administrator Varenukha are sitting. They wonder where Likhodeev disappeared to. At this time, an urgent telegram from Yalta arrives in the name of Varenukha - someone has appeared at the local criminal investigation department claiming to be Stepan Likhodeev, and confirmation of his identity is needed. The administrator and financial director decide that this is a joke: Likhodeev called four hours ago from his apartment, promising to come to the theater soon, and since then he has not been able to move from Moscow to Crimea.

Varenukha calls Styopa's apartment, where he is informed that he has gone out of town for a ride in a car. New version: “Yalta” is a cheburek house where Likhodeev got drunk with a local telegraph operator and amuses himself by sending telegrams to work.

Rimsky tells Varenukha to take the telegrams to the police. An unfamiliar nasal voice on the phone orders the administrator not to carry the telegrams anywhere, but he still goes to the department. Along the way, he is attacked by a fat man who looks like a cat and a short fanged individual. They deliver their victim to Likhodeev's apartment. The last thing Varenukha sees is a naked red-haired girl with burning eyes who is approaching him.

Chapter 11. Ivan's split

Ivan Bezdomny is in the hospital trying to make a statement to the police, but he can’t clearly explain what happened. In addition to this, he is worried about the thunderstorm outside the window. After a calming injection, the poet lies and talks “in his mind” to himself. One of the internal “interlocutors” continues to worry about the tragedy with Berlioz, the other is sure that instead of panic and pursuit, it was necessary to politely ask the consultant more about Pilate and find out the continuation of the story.

Suddenly, a stranger appears on the balcony outside the window of Homeless’s room.

Chapter 12. Black magic and its exposure

The financial director of Variety Rimsky wonders where Varenukha disappeared to. He wants to call the police about this, but all the phones in the theater are broken. Woland arrives at Variety, accompanied by Koroviev and a cat.

Entertainer Bengalsky introduces Woland to the public, declaring that, of course, no black magic exists, and the artist is only a virtuoso magician. Woland begins the “exposure session” with a philosophical conversation with Koroviev, whom he calls Fagot, about how Moscow and its inhabitants have changed a lot externally, but the more important question is whether they have become different internally. Bengalsky explains to the audience that the foreign artist admires Moscow and Muscovites, but the artists immediately object that they didn’t say anything like that.

Koroviev-Fagot performs a trick with a deck of cards, which is found in the wallet of one of the spectators. The skeptic, who decides that this spectator is in cahoots with the magician, finds a wad of money in his own pocket. After this, chervonets begin to fall from the ceiling, and people catch them. The entertainer calls what is happening “mass hypnosis” and assures the audience that the pieces of paper are not real, but the artists again deny his words. Fagot declares that he is tired of Bengalsky and asks the audience what to do with this liar. A proposal can be heard from the audience: “Tear off his head!” – and the cat tears off Bengal’s head. The audience feels sorry for the entertainer, Woland argues out loud that people, in general, remain the same, “the housing issue has only spoiled them,” and orders him to put his head back. Bengalsky leaves the stage and is taken away by ambulance.

“Tapericha, when this annoying thing is sold out, let’s open a ladies’ store!” - says Koroviev. Showcases, mirrors and rows of clothes appear on the stage, and the exchange of old dresses of spectators for new ones begins. As the store disappears, a voice from the audience demands the promised revelation. In response, Fagot exposes its owner - that yesterday he was not at work at all, but with his mistress. The session ends with a scandal.

Chapter 13. The appearance of a hero

A stranger from the balcony enters Ivan's room. This is also a patient. He has with him a bunch of keys stolen from a paramedic, but when asked why he won’t run away from the hospital with them, the guest replies that he has nowhere to run away. He informs Bezdomny about a new patient who keeps talking about currency in the ventilation, and asks the poet how he himself got here. Having learned that “because of Pontius Pilate,” he demands details and tells Ivan that he met with Satan at the Patriarch’s Ponds.

Pontius Pilate also brought the stranger to the hospital - Ivan’s guest wrote a novel about him. He introduces himself to Bezdomny as a “master” and, as proof, presents a hat with the letter M, which a certain “she” sewed for him. Next, the master tells the poet his story - how he once won a hundred thousand rubles, quit his job at the museum, rented an apartment in the basement and began writing a novel, and soon met his beloved: “Love jumped out in front of us, like a killer jumps out of the ground in an alley, and amazed us both at once! That’s how lightning strikes, that’s how a Finnish knife strikes!” . Just like the master himself, his secret wife fell in love with his novel, saying that her whole life was in it. However, the book was not accepted for publication, and when the excerpt was published, the reviews in the newspapers turned out to be disastrous - critics called the novel “Pilatchina”, and the author was branded a “Bogomaz” and a “militant Old Believer”. Particularly zealous was a certain Latunsky, whom the master’s beloved promised to kill. Soon after this, the master became friends with a literature fan named Aloysius Mogarych, who his beloved did not like very much. Meanwhile, reviews continued to come out, and the master began to go crazy. He burned his novel in the oven - the woman who entered managed to save only a few burnt sheets - and that same night he was evicted and ended up in a hospital. The master has not seen his beloved since then.
A patient is placed in the next ward and complains of his head being allegedly torn off. When the noise subsides, Ivan asks his interlocutor why he did not let his beloved know about himself, and he replies that he does not want to make her unhappy: “Poor woman. However, I have hope that she has forgotten me!” .

Chapter 14. Glory to the Rooster!

From the window, the financial director of Variety Rimsky sees several ladies whose clothes suddenly disappeared in the middle of the street - these are the unlucky clients of the Fagot store. He has to make some calls about today's scandals, but is prevented from doing so by a "lewd female voice" on the phone.

By midnight, Rimsky is left alone in the theater, and then Varenukha appears with a story about Likhodeev. According to him, Styopa really got drunk in the Yalta cheburek with a telegraph operator and staged a prank with telegrams, and also committed many outrageous pranks, eventually ending up in a sobering-up station. Rimsky begins to notice that the administrator is behaving suspiciously - he is covering himself from the lamp with a newspaper, has acquired the habit of smacking his lips, has turned strangely pale, and has a scarf around his neck, despite the heat. And finally the findirector sees that Varenukha is not casting a shadow.

The unmasked vampire closes the office door from the inside, and a red-haired naked girl comes through the window. However, these two do not have time to deal with Rimsky - a rooster crows. The financial director, who miraculously escaped and turned gray overnight, hastily leaves for Leningrad.

Chapter 15. Nikanor Ivanovich's dream

Nikanor Ivanovich Bosoy, in response to all questions from law enforcement officers about currency, repeats about evil spirits, a scoundrel translator and his complete innocence to the dollars found in his ventilation system. He admits: “I took it, but I took it with our Soviets!” . He is transferred to psychiatrists. A squad is sent to apartment No. 50 to check Bosy’s words about the translator, but finds it empty and the seals on the doors intact.

In the hospital, Nikanor Ivanovich has a dream - he is again interrogated about dollars, but this happens in the premises of some strange theater, in which, in parallel with the concert program, the audience is required to hand over currency. He screams in his sleep, the paramedic calms him down.

Bosogo's screams woke up his neighbors in the hospital. When Ivan Bezdomny falls asleep again, he begins to dream about the continuation of the story about Pilate.

Chapter 16. Execution

Those sentenced to death, including Yeshua, are taken to Bald Mountain. The place of the crucifixion is cordoned off: the procurator fears that they will try to recapture the convicts from the servants of the law.

Soon after the crucifixion, the spectators leave the mountain, unable to withstand the heat. The soldiers stay behind and suffer from the heat. But there was one more person lurking on the mountain - this is Yeshua’s disciple, the former Yershalaim tax collector Levi Matvey. When the death row prisoners were being taken to the place of execution, he wanted to get to Ga-Notsri and stab him with a knife stolen from a bread shop, saving him from a painful death, but he failed. He blames himself for what happened to Yeshua - he left the teacher alone, he fell ill at the wrong time - and asks the Lord to grant Ga-Nozri death. However, the Almighty is in no hurry to fulfill the request, and then Matthew Levi begins to grumble and curse him. As if in response to the blasphemy, a thunderstorm gathers, the soldiers leave the hill, and the commander of the cohort in a crimson mantle rises up the mountain to meet them. By his order, the sufferers on the pillars are killed with a spear thrust into the heart, ordering them to praise the magnanimous procurator.

A thunderstorm begins and the hill becomes empty. Levi Matthew approaches the pillars and removes all three corpses from them, after which he steals the body of Yeshua.

Chapter 17. Restless day

Variety accountant Lastochkin, who remained in charge of the theater, has no idea how to react to the rumors that are filling Moscow, and what to do with the incessant phone calls and investigators with a dog who came to look for the missing Rimsky. The dog, by the way, behaves strangely - at the same time it is angry, afraid and howls as if at an evil spirit - and does not bring any benefit to the search. It turns out that all the documents about Woland in Variety have disappeared - not even the posters remain.

Lastochkin goes with a report to the commission of spectacles and entertainment. There he discovers that in the chairman's office, instead of a man, an empty suit is sitting and signing papers. According to the tearful secretary, her boss visited a fat man who looked like a cat. The accountant decides to visit the branch of the commission - but there a certain checkered guy in a broken pince-nez organized a choral singing circle, disappeared, and the singers still can’t shut up.

Finally, Lastochkin arrives at the financial entertainment sector, wanting to donate the proceeds from yesterday's performance. However, instead of rubles, his portfolio turns out to be foreign currency. The accountant is arrested.

Chapter 18. Unlucky Visitors

The uncle of the late Berlioz, Maxim Poplavsky, arrives in Moscow from Kyiv. He received a strange telegram about the death of a relative, signed with the name of Berlioz himself. Poplavsky wants to claim his inheritance - housing in the capital.

In his nephew’s apartment, Poplavsky meets with Koroviev, who sobs and describes in vivid colors the death of Berlioz. The cat speaks to Poplavsky, says that it was he who gave the telegram, and demands the guest’s passport, and then informs him that his presence at the funeral is cancelled. Azazello throws Poplavsky out, telling him not to dream of an apartment in Moscow.

Immediately after Poplavsky, the barman Variety Sokov comes to the “bad” apartment. Woland voices to him a number of complaints about his work - green cheese, sturgeon is “second freshest,” tea “looks like slop.” Sokov, in turn, complains that the chervonets at the cash register have turned into cut paper. Woland and his retinue sympathize with him and, at the same time, predict death from liver cancer in nine months, and when Sokov wants to show them the former money, the paper again turns out to be in chervonets.

The barman rushes to the doctor and begs him to cure the disease. He pays for the visit with the same chervonets, and after he leaves they turn into wine labels.

Part two

Chapter 19. Margarita

The master’s beloved, Margarita Nikolaevna, has not forgotten him at all, and the wealthy life in her husband’s mansion is not pleasant to her. On the day of strange events with the barman and Poplavsky, she wakes up with the feeling that something will happen. For the first time during their separation, she dreamed of the master, and she goes to sort through the relics associated with him - this is his photograph, dried rose petals, a passbook with the remains of his winnings and the burnt pages of a novel.

Walking around Moscow, Margarita sees Berlioz's funeral. A small, red-haired citizen with a protruding fang sits down next to her and tells her about the head of a dead man stolen by someone, after which, calling her by name, he invites her to visit “a very noble foreigner.” Margarita wants to leave, but Azazello quotes lines from the master’s novel after her and hints that by agreeing, she can find out about her lover. The woman agrees, and Azazello hands her a certain magic cream and gives instructions.

Chapter 20. Azazello cream

After smearing herself with cream, Margarita becomes younger, prettier and gains the ability to fly. “Forgive me and forget me as soon as possible. I'm leaving you forever. Don't look for me, it's useless. I became a witch because of the grief and disasters that struck me. I have to go. Goodbye,” she writes to her husband. Her maid Natasha comes in, sees her and finds out about the magic cream. Azazello calls Margarita and says that it’s time to fly out - and a revived floor brush bursts into the room. Having saddled her, Margarita flies out the window in front of Natasha and her downstairs neighbor Nikolai Ivanovich.

Chapter 21. Flight

Margarita becomes invisible and, flying through Moscow at night, entertains herself with petty pranks, scaring people. But then she sees a luxurious house in which writers live, and among them is the critic Latunsky, who killed the master. Margarita enters his apartment through the window and causes a pogrom there.

As she continues her flight, Natasha, riding a hog, catches up with her. It turns out that the housekeeper rubbed herself with the remains of the magic cream and smeared it on her neighbor Nikolai Ivanovich, as a result of which she became a witch, and he became a boar. After swimming in the night river, Margarita sets off back to Moscow in the flying car given to her.

Chapter 22. By candlelight

In Moscow, Koroviev accompanies Margarita to a “bad” apartment and talks about Satan’s annual ball, where she will be queen, mentioning that Margarita herself has royal blood flowing through her. Inexplicably, ballrooms are placed inside the apartment, and Koroviev explains this by using the fifth dimension.

Woland lies in the bedroom, playing chess with the cat Behemoth, and Gella rubs ointment on his sore knee. Margarita replaces Gella, Woland asks the guest if she too is suffering from something: “Perhaps you have some kind of sadness that poisons your soul, melancholy?” , but Margarita answers negatively. There is not much left until midnight, and she is taken away to prepare for the ball.

Chapter 23. Satan's Great Ball

Margarita is bathed in blood and rose oil, they put on the queen's regalia and lead her to the stairs to meet the guests - long dead, but for the sake of the ball, criminals resurrected for one night: poisoners, pimps, counterfeiters, murderers, traitors. Among them is a young woman named Frida, whose story Koroviev tells Margarita: “When she was working in a cafe, the owner once called her into the pantry, and nine months later she gave birth to a boy, took him into the forest and put a handkerchief in his mouth, and then buried the boy in the ground. At the trial, she said that she had nothing to feed her child.” Since then, for 30 years, Frida has been brought that same scarf every morning.

The reception ends, and Margarita must fly around the halls and pay attention to the guests. Woland comes out and Azazello brings Berlioz's head to him on a platter. Woland releases Berlioz into oblivion, and his skull turns into a cup. This vessel is filled with the blood of Baron Meigel, a Moscow official who was shot by Azazello, the only living guest at the ball, in which Woland identified a spy. The cup is brought to Margarita, and she drinks. The ball ends, everything disappears, and in the place of the huge hall there appears a modest living room and the slightly open door to Woland’s bedroom.

Chapter 24. Extracting the Master

Margarita has more and more fears that there will be no reward for Satan’s presence at the ball, but the woman herself does not want to remind about it out of pride, and even to Woland’s direct question she answers that she does not need anything. “Never ask for anything! Never and nothing, and especially among those who are stronger than you. They will offer and give everything themselves!” - says Woland, pleased with her, and offers to fulfill any wish of Margarita. However, instead of solving her problem, she demands that Frida stop giving the handkerchief. Woland says that the queen can do such a small thing herself, and his offer remains in force - and then Margarita finally wants her “her lover, the master, to be returned to her this very second.”

The master appears in front of her. Woland, having heard about the novel about Pilate, becomes interested in it. The manuscript that the master burned turns out to be completely intact in Woland’s hands - “manuscripts don’t burn.”
Margarita asks to return her and her lover to his basement, and for everything to return as it was. The master is skeptical: others have been living in his apartment for a long time, he has no documents, they will look for him for escaping from a hospital. Woland solves all these problems, and it turns out that the master’s living space was occupied by his “friend” Mogarych, who wrote a denunciation against him that the master kept illegal literature.

Natasha, at the request of her and Margarita, is left as a witch. Neighbor Nikolai Ivanovich, who has been restored to his appearance, demands a certificate for the police and his wife that he spent the night at Satan’s ball, and the cat immediately composes one for him. Administrator Varenukha appears and begs to be released from the vampires because he is not bloodthirsty.

In parting, Woland promises the master that his work will still bring him surprises. The lovers are taken to their basement apartment. There the master falls asleep, and happy Margarita rereads his novel.

Chapter 25. How the procurator tried to save Judas

A thunderstorm is raging over Yershalaim. The head of the secret service, Afranius, comes to the procurator and reports that the execution has been completed, there are no riots in the city and the mood is generally quite satisfactory. In addition, he talks about the last hours of Yeshua’s life, citing the words of Ha-Nozri that “among human vices, he considers cowardice to be one of the most important.”

Pilate orders Afranius to urgently and secretly bury the bodies of all three executed and take care of the safety of Judas from Kiriath, whom, as he allegedly heard, the “secret friends of Ha-Nozri” were to be slaughtered that night. In fact, the procurator himself is right now allegorically ordering this murder to the head of the secret guard.

Chapter 26. Burial

The procurator understands that he missed something very important today and no orders will bring it back. He finds some consolation only in communication with his beloved dog Bunga.

Afranius, meanwhile, visits a young woman named Nisa. Soon she meets in the city with Judas from Kiriath, who is in love with her, who has just received payment from Caiaphas for betraying Yeshua. She makes an appointment for the young man in a garden near Yershalaim. Instead of the girl, Judas is met there by three men, who kill him with a knife and take away his wallet with thirty pieces of silver. One of these three - Afranius - returns to the city, where the procurator, waiting for the report, fell asleep. In his dreams, Yeshua is alive and walks next to him along the lunar road, both of them happily argue about necessary and important things, and the procurator understands that, indeed, there is no vice worse than cowardice - and it was precisely cowardice that he showed by being afraid to justify the freethinking philosopher to the detriment of your career.

Afranius says that Judas is dead, and a package with silver and a note “I am returning the damned money” was planted on the high priest Caiaphas. Pilate tells Afranius to spread the rumor that Judas committed suicide. Further, the head of the secret service reports that Yeshua’s body was found not far from the place of execution from a certain Levi Matthew, who did not want to give it up, but upon learning that Ha-Nozri would be buried, he resigned himself.

Levi Matthew is brought to the procurator, who asks him to show a parchment with the words of Yeshua. Levi reproaches Pilate for the death of Ha-Nozri, to which he notes that Yeshua himself did not blame anyone. The former tax collector warns that he is going to kill Judas, but the procurator informs him that the traitor is already dead and it was he, Pilate, who did it.

Chapter 27. The end of apartment No. 50

In Moscow, the investigation into Woland’s case continues, and the police once again go to the “bad” apartment, where all ends lead. A talking cat with a primus stove is found there. He provokes a shootout, which, however, leaves no casualties. The voices of Woland, Koroviev and Azazello are heard, saying that it is time to leave Moscow - and the cat, apologizing, disappears, spilling burning gasoline from the primus stove. The apartment is on fire, and four silhouettes fly out of its window - three men and one woman.

A man in a checkered jacket and a fat man with a primus in his hands, looking like a cat, come to a store selling foreign currency. The fat man eats tangerines, herring and chocolate from the window, and Koroviev calls on the people to protest against the fact that scarce goods are sold to foreigners for foreign currency, and not to their own - for rubles. When the police appear, the partners hide, having first started a fire, and move to Griboyedov’s restaurant. Soon it will light up too.

Chapter 29. The fate of the master and Margarita is determined

Woland and Azazello are talking on the terrace of one of the Moscow buildings, looking at the city. Levi Matvey appears to them and conveys that “he” - meaning Yeshua - has read the master’s novel and asks Woland to give the author and his beloved the well-deserved peace. Woland tells Azazello to “go to them and arrange everything.”

Chapter 30. It's time! It's time!

Azazello visits the master and Margarita in their basement. Before this, they are talking about the events of last night - the master is still trying to comprehend them and convince Margarita to leave him and not ruin herself with him, she absolutely believes Woland.

Azazello sets the apartment on fire, and all three, riding black horses, fly off into the sky.

Along the way, the master says goodbye to Homeless, whom he calls a student, and bequeaths him to write a continuation of the story about Pilate.

Chapter 31. On the Sparrow Hills

Azazello, the master and Margarita are reunited with Woland, Koroviev and Behemoth. The master says goodbye to the city. “In the first moments, a painful sadness crept into my heart, but very quickly it was replaced by a sweetish anxiety, a wandering gypsy excitement. […] His excitement turned, as it seemed to him, into a feeling of bitter resentment. But she was unstable, disappeared and for some reason was replaced by proud indifference, and this was replaced by a premonition of constant peace.”

Chapter 32. Farewell and eternal shelter

Night comes, and in the light of the moon the horsemen flying across the sky change their appearance. Koroviev turns into a gloomy knight in purple armor, Azazello into a desert demon killer, Behemoth into a slender young page, “the best jester that has ever existed in the world.” Margarita does not see her transformation, but before her eyes the master acquires a gray braid and spurs. Woland explains that today is the night when all scores are settled. In addition, he informs the master that Yeshua read his novel and noted that, unfortunately, it is not finished.

A man sitting in a chair and a dog next to him appear before the eyes of the riders. Pontius Pilate has been seeing the same dream for two thousand years - a lunar road that he cannot follow. “Free! Free! He is waiting for you!" - the master shouts, releasing his hero and completing the novel, and Pilate finally leaves with his dog along the lunar road to where Yeshua is waiting for him.

Peace awaits the master himself and his beloved, as promised. “Don’t you really want to walk with your girlfriend during the day under the cherry trees that are beginning to bloom, and in the evening listen to Schubert’s music? Wouldn't it be nice for you to write by candlelight with a quill pen? Don't you really want to, like Faust, sit over the retort in the hope that you will be able to fashion a new homunculus? There, there. There is already a house and an old servant waiting for you, the candles are already burning, and soon they will go out, because you will immediately meet the dawn,” is how Woland describes him. “Look, there ahead is your eternal home, which was given to you as a reward. I can already see the Venetian window and the climbing grapes, it rises to the very roof. I know that in the evening those whom you love, whom you are interested in and who will not alarm you will come to you. They will play for you, they will sing to you, you will see the light in the room when the candles are burning. You will fall asleep, putting on your greasy and eternal cap, you will fall asleep with a smile on your lips. Sleep will strengthen you, you will begin to reason wisely. And you won’t be able to drive me away. I will take care of your sleep,” Margarita picks up. The master himself feels that someone is setting him free, just as he himself had just set Pilate free.

Epilogue

The investigation into Woland's case reached a dead end, and as a result, all the oddities in Moscow were explained by the machinations of a gang of hypnotists. Varenukha stopped lying and being rude, Bengalsky gave up the entertainer, preferring to live on savings, Rimsky refused the post of financial director of the Variety Show, and his place was taken by the enterprising Aloisy Mogarych. Ivan Bezdomny left the hospital and became a professor of philosophy, and only on full moons is he bothered by dreams about Pilate and Yeshua, the master and Margarita.

Conclusion

Bulgakov originally conceived the novel “The Master and Margarita” as a satire about the devil called “The Black Magician” or “The Great Chancellor.” But after six editions, one of which Bulgakov burned with his own hand, the book turned out to be not so much satirical as philosophical, in which the devil in the form of the mysterious black magician Woland became only one of the characters. The motives of eternal love, mercy, the search for truth and the triumph of justice came to the fore.

A brief retelling of “The Master and Margarita” chapter by chapter is enough only for a rough understanding of the plot and main ideas of the work - we recommend that you read the full text of the novel.

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94. A large six-story house, quietly located on Sadovaya Street. This is not an easy sentence to translate due to one simple Russian word - peace. In Bulgakov’s original, the house in which Styopa lived is described as “a large six-story house, quietly located on Sadovaya Street.” I tried - and I must admit that it required more than just the help of a dictionary - to translate this as “a five-story house quietly located on Sadovaya Street.” But the English translators Richard Pivia and his wife Larisa Volokhonskaya had a different point of view. They did not translate the word “peace” (which is a declension of the word “peace”) as calmly (peacefully). They apparently read somewhere that the house was horseshoe-shaped, and so they translated: “...a big, six-storeyed, U-shaped building on Sadovaya Street” or “a large six-story horseshoe-shaped house on Sadovaya Street.” But according to my dictionary, the English word u-shaped is translated into Russian as “horseshoe-shaped”. I decided to see how it was translated into other languages. And guess what! Nobody used the word peace. Mark Fondse and Ai Prins, the Dutch translators, also translated it as “a five-story horseshoe-shaped building.” And this is most likely connected with this word “peace”.
It seems that “peace” has a meaning other than tranquility. Until the 1990s, Russians used Slavic church names to indicate letters of the Russian alphabet (Cyrillic alphabet). The Slavic ecclesiastical name for the letter known as Pe and written as P was...peace. Thus, the Russian text could be translated as "six-story U-shaped house on Sadovaya Street." But due to the fact that the letter “P” is not in the Latin alphabet, Pivia and Volokhonskaya, as well as Fondse and Prince, simply turned this letter over, making it a “U”. The French translator, like the English translator Michael Gleny, solved this problem very pragmatically. They both simply did not translate the word “peace”, as if this word was not in the original Russian text. Most likely the translators have never seen the house on Sadovaya Street. If they had seen, they would have known that the house was rectangular, not horseshoe-shaped, and surrounded on all sides by patios. This was also the case during Bulgakov’s time. But unlike today, in his time it was a very quiet area. In front of the house, as in many places on the Garden Ring, there was a very wide pedestrian area... thus a lot of peace...
Another observation: the attentive reader may also notice that in the Dutch translation the house is five stories high, while in the English translation it is six stories high. In Bulgakov's original text it is written in a six-story building. Translators into English and French translated it verbatim and described the house as six stories high. Some confusion arises due to the numbering of floors, due to the fact that in Russia floors are counted starting from the lowest floor (including the ground floor). In other countries, the ground floor is often considered “zero”, i.e. the building has 6 floors: the zero (or ground) floor and the next 5 floors.

“Here, as is quite understandable, there was silence under the linden trees.
“Excuse me,” Berlioz spoke after a pause, looking at the foreigner chattering nonsense, “what does sunflower oil have to do with it... and who is Annushka?”
“That’s what sunflower oil has to do with it,” Bezdomny suddenly spoke up, apparently deciding to declare war on his uninvited interlocutor, “have you, citizen, ever been to a mental hospital?”
“Ivan!..” Mikhail Alexandrovich quietly exclaimed.
But the foreigner was not at all offended and laughed joyfully.
- I’ve been there, I’ve been there more than once! - he cried, laughing, but without taking his unlaughing eyes off the poet, - where have I been! It’s just a pity that I didn’t bother to ask the professor what schizophrenia is. So you can find out this yourself from him, Ivan Nikolaevich!”

2. "1984", George Orwell

“But in general,” he thought, rearranging the arithmetic of the Ministry of Plenty, this is not even a forgery. Just replacing one nonsense with another. For the most part, your material has no relation at all to the real world - even the kind that contains outright lies. Statistics in their original form are just as much a fantasy as they are in their corrected form. Most often it requires you to suck it out of your finger.”

3. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee

“If someone dies, your neighbors bring you food, if someone is sick, they bring flowers, and sometimes they just give you something. The scarecrow was our neighbor. He gave us two soap dolls, a broken watch with a chain, two pennies for good luck - and he also gave us life. But to your neighbors you reciprocate a gift with a gift. But we only took from the hollow and never put anything there, we didn’t give him anything, and it’s very sad.”

4. “All Quiet on the Western Front”, Erich Maria Remarque

“I am young - I am twenty years old, but all I have seen in life is despair, death, fear and the interweaving of the most absurd thoughtless vegetation with immeasurable torment. I see that someone is setting one nation against another, and people are killing each other, in insane blindness, submitting to someone else’s will, not knowing what they are doing, not knowing their guilt.

I see that the best minds of mankind are inventing weapons to prolong this nightmare, and finding words to justify it even more subtly. And together with me, all people of my age see this, here and here, all over the world, our entire generation is experiencing this.

What will our fathers say if we ever rise from our graves and stand before them and demand an account? What can they expect from us if we live to see the day when there is no war? For many years we were engaged in killing. This was our calling, the first calling in our lives.”

5. “Humiliated and Insulted”, Fyodor Dostoevsky

“In the morning I felt unwell, and by sunset I even felt very unwell: something like a fever began. Besides, I had been on my feet all day and was tired. In the evening, just before dusk, I walked along Voznesensky Prospekt. I love the March sun in St. Petersburg, especially the sunset, of course, on a clear, frosty evening. The whole street will suddenly flash, bathed in bright light. All the houses seem to suddenly sparkle. Their gray, yellow and dirty green colors will lose all their gloom for a moment; as if your soul would clear up, as if you would shudder or someone would nudge you with their elbow. A new look, new thoughts... It’s amazing what one ray of sun can do to a person’s soul!”

6. Lord of the Flies, William Golding

“Meetings. We love them very much. Every day. At least twice a day. We're all chatting. Now I’ll blow the horn, and you’ll see - they’ll come running like little darlings. And with all honor, someone will say - let's build an airplane, or a submarine, or a TV. And after the meeting they will work for five minutes and run away or go hunting.”

7. “Twelve Chairs”, Ilya Ilf, Evgeny Petrov

"Door opened. Ostap walked into a room that could only be furnished by a creature with the imagination of a woodpecker. Movie postcards, dolls and Tambov tapestries hung on the walls. Against this colorful background, which dazzled the eyes, it was difficult to notice the little owner of the room. She was wearing a robe, converted from Ernest Pavlovich's sweatshirt and trimmed with mysterious fur.
Ostap immediately understood how to behave in secular society. He closed his eyes and took a step back."

8. Flowers for Algernon, Daniel Keyes

“Doc Strauss said that I should write down everything I think and remember and everything that happened to me today. I don’t know why, but he says it’s important so they can see what I’m doing to them. I hope I love them because Miss Kinnian said they can make me smart. I want to be smart. My name is Charlie Gordon, I work at Donner’s Pickery where Mr. Donner pays me 11 dollars a week and gives me bread or a cake whenever I want. I’m 32 years old and my birthday is in a month.”

9. “The Plague”, Albert Camus

“When Rieux reached his old patient, darkness had already completely swallowed up the sky. A distant hum of liberation could be heard in the room, and the old man, still the same as always, continued to transfer his peas from pan to pan.
- And they are right to have fun. “It’s still diversity,” said the old man.”

10. “The Three Musketeers”, Alexandre Dumas

“D’Artagnan said nothing to Porthos either about his wound or about the prosecutor. Despite his youth, our Gascon was a very cautious young man. He pretended to believe everything that the boastful musketeer told him, since he was convinced that no friendship could withstand the revelation of a secret, especially if this secret hurt pride; besides, we always have a certain moral superiority over those whose lives we know.”