Were it a kinder world, this edition of Mikhail Bulgakov’s beautiful, strange, tender, scarifying, and incandescent novel The Master and Margarita would be commemorating its seventy-fifth rather than fiftieth anniversary…

About the book

The Master and Margarita is a unique book. In fact, I’m surprised it’s called “a book”, just like many other texts between covers. This creation is unlike anything else I’ve ever seen in literature. As this edition beautifully says:

Nothing in the whole of literature compares with The Master and Margarita. One spring afternoon, the Devil, trailing fire and chaos in his wake, weaves himself out of the shadows and into Moscow. Mikhail Bulgakov’s fantastical, funny, and devastating satire of Soviet life combines two distinct yet interwoven parts, one set in contemporary Moscow, the other in ancient Jerusalem, each brimming with historical, imaginary, frightful, and wonderful characters. Written during the darkest days of Stalin’s reign, and finally published in 1966 and 1967, The Master and Margarita became a literary phenomenon, signaling artistic and spiritual freedom for Russians everywhere.

I’ve never read this book in English, but I’ve read it in Russian many times. I know some parts by heart. I compared those parts to the English translation and I can say that the translation is absolutely amazing! Even the melody and the rhythm of the phrases are the same. Here’s an extract for you to enjoy the sound.

In a white cloak with blood-red lining, with the shuffling gait of a cavalryman, early in the morning of the fourteenth day of the spring month of Nisan, there came out to the covered colonnade between the two wings of the palace of Herod the Great the procurator of Judea, Pontius Pilate.

About this edition

The edition is a work of art.

The cover

The front cover and the back cover are stunning!

There are quotes in Russian on the inner sides of the cover.

Deckle edge

A deckle edge is a type of edge that looks “feathered”. In the past, printing machines couldn’t cut the edges neatly, so all edges of old books looked this way. Nowadays this effect is achieved on purpose, by putting the book through a special machine after the edges were already nicely cut.

Extra information

There is a lot of information about the times the book was written in, and about its author. All terms and names are explained in the notes at the end of the book.

This is an absolutely stunning edition, the one that this book really deserves.

]]> /2018/12/07/the-master-and-margarita/feed/ 15 644 /2018/10/28/mermaid-and-mrs-hancock/ /2018/10/28/mermaid-and-mrs-hancock/#comments Sun, 28 Oct 2018 16:59:49 +0000 /?p=490 Genre: historical fiction. Stars from Goodreads: 3.77 Stars from me: 5.

General information about The Mermaid and Mrs. Hancock

The Mermaid and Mrs. Hancock is not a fantasy book. There’s an element of magical realism but it is not the focus of the plot. The Mermaid and Mrs. Hancock is first of all about people, their fates and their lives. It’s about emotions, relationships, personalities and society. Although the novel is set in the 18th century England, its topics are not at all foreign to current days. In fact, if you peel away the surface layer of a very entertaining story, you will see that the setting serves as a lush frame for a modern picture.

The book is as beautiful and intricate as its cover. That’s actually how I discovered the book. I was looking for books that would be beautiful both inside and out. The Mermaid and Mrs. Hancock is exactly what I was looking for.

I loved the book so much I was initially at a loss for words, which is a challenging situation for a reviewer. I took the book for a photo shoot, collected my thoughts and did eventually write the review. So here it is, together with the photos.

How good is The Mermaid and Mrs. Hancock?

Do you remember the time when you were just entering the world of books, when every plot was an unpredictable story and characters were so real you imagined them to be your actual friends? The Mermaid and Mrs. Hancock is that good. If you thought some magic of the books has been forever lost to you because you grew up, read The Mermaid and Mrs. Hancock and rediscover the feeling. This doesn’t mean, though, that it’s a kid book. Even though there’s a mermaid in the title, the protagonist is a courtesan so it’s definitely not a bedtime fairy tale for kids.

Reading The Mermaid and Mrs. Hancock feels like watching underwater life through a snorkelling mask. You dive deep where you can no longer breathe so you have to hold your breath in exchange for the chance to see the beautiful world below. Sooner or later the real life will pull you back in but for the meantime you will be completely immersed into another reality.

The writing in The Mermaid and Mrs. Hancock

The writing is an undebatable treasure of this book. It’s hard to really illustrate how beautiful it is as it’s a part of a solid construction. It’s almost impossible to pull out a single feather in order to demonstrate it to you. You have to see the whole creation to really appreciate these details. Still, I managed to find some examples. Here they are:

In the landau, amongst a clutch of young ladies in white muslin, rides Mrs Chappell herself, the abbess of King’s Place. She is built like an armchair, more upholstered than clothed, her bolster of bosom heaving beneath cream taffeta and gold frogging.

All social gatherings have a riptide moving through them – some revellers joining the party as others melt away, some retiring to a quiet room, others emerging refreshed – and it is this unseen, unsought tide that nudges Angelica and the lieutenant closer and closer together without their even trying.

A loss is a presence all its own; a loss takes up space; a loss is born just as any other thing that lives.

Bawds are not, after all, the only mothers to profit by their daughters.

The characters in The Mermaid and Mrs. Hancock

First of all, the characters outgrow their sole form of mere characters. They are completely real. They change, grow and develop together with the story. It’s mesmerising to watch them, and to imagine what is going through their minds, what makes them take their decisions and how they react to the situations they find themselves in. On a few occasions I expected them to act differently, exactly because I was expecting them to act like characters in a book, but they had their own plans. They rarely act according to your expectations.

The plot in The Mermaid and Mrs. Hancock

The plot is another beautiful construction of the book. Where one part ends, another one starts. There are several storylines. Even if you don’t want to be distracted from one, you are given another one to follow. This way you are never bored and always have something to look forward to. The story is completely unpredictable. As soon as you think you know where it’s going, it takes another turn, which you didn’t imagine existed.

The Mermaid and Mrs. Hancock will haunt me

The decisions that characters take will stay with me for some time. They are so human and believable even though their situations are so dramatic and often impossible.

I will not forget one of the final scenes. It shows what happens to one of the characters. It’s deep and horrible even though it doesn’t give you any horrid details. It’s the highest level of skills when an author is able to achieve such an effect without rubbing graphic details into a reader’s face.

I will also keep thinking about one character. It’s perfectly clear what happens to her but I wish I could stay with her longer. I hope she will find her warm milk for breakfast, one day. Even though I know she is trapped within the covers of the book, I keep imagining her getting out of her situation, somewhere else in another dimension.

Would I recommend The Mermaid and Mrs. Hancock?

Of course, definitely. I would only warn those who hunt for fantasy plots. This is not a fantasy book. In any other case, I’m sure you will like The Mermaid and Mrs. Hancock.