THE MASTER AND MARGARITA by MIKHAIL BULGAKOV

"How sad, ye Gods, how sad the world is at evening, how mysterious the mists over the swamps! You will know it when you have wandered astray in those mists, when you have suffered greatly before dying, when you have walked through the world carrying an unbearable burden. You know it too when you are weary and ready to leave this earth without regret; its mists; its swamps and its rivers; ready to give yourself into the arms of death with a light heart, knowing that death alone can comfort you."

Personal rating: 10/10 (because I rarely enjoy any novel to the fullest)

Imagine, one afternoon, you are sitting on a bench in a park, discussing about the existence of God with your friend and suddenly a passerby overhears the conversation and asks if he could join.

Now that stranger, named Woland jokes about everything and reassures them that, yes God exists because he was there when Pontius Pilate gave his decision over Yeshua. And more than that, the stranger says he just had breakfast with Immanuel Kant.

The other two, Berlioz and Ivan The Homeless, pay no heed and take him for a madman, but when he prophesies that Berlioz will die with his head severed which actually comes true, Ivan, the friend knows with grim remorse that the stranger was no one else but The Devil himself in flesh and blood.

No matter how much I say, it'll be less. The novel, no, this black satire is filled with horrendous murders to miracles, carnivalesque ball of Satan to picturesque description of a talking Cat, Behemoth, holding a glass of vodka in one way and a fork in other with salted mushroom in it; from dramatic scenes to infatuous love, from a beautiful lady turning into a witch and causing havoc all over the city to naked ball filled with naked dead people... It has everything, everything a dreamer, a reader, an author can ever imagine.

But most of all, what makes it beautiful is its juicy plot and humorous remarks.

The plot basically revolves around a well renowned, beautiful lady of high status, Margarita, falling in love with an author,a crazy lunatic living in asylum, whom we know as the Master, and how they struggle to be together and how Woland plays the key character in helping their evermore reunion.

It almost felt as if one can literally picture the characters and the scene out of the book, it felt like a hilariously plotted, beautiful play.

Bulgakov himself burned most of the manuscript of this novel due to certain political reasons, but then after being reassured he said that the manuscript was in his memory.

"Manuscripts do not burn" as Woland would say.

I have never in my life enjoyed something to such an extent. The beauty of this book will make the author feel aesthetically in awe with his fluidous narration.

One can only desire so much.

Thank you for reading.