Notes

Before strating i'd like to say that this is just my opinion. It’s of a bad quality since I’m not instructed in literature. Also, I’m not used to this type of novels, it’s something completely new to me. It’s as you said remarkable, as long as it contains different themes such as God, Satan, literature, love, history… Also, I believe one must have a good knowledge of the era Bulgakov lived in, the thing that I, unfortunately, don’t have.
Once more, thanks a lot for the recommendation ^^
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At first, before starting reading it, I thought I’d encounter the two characters “The Master” and “Margarita” in the beginning of the story, but of course that was wrong. I, actually, encountered two other characters Ivan and Berlioz, with this latter criticizing the poem and giving his idea of the nonexistence of Jesus.
Later, the apparition of the foreign gentleman who the nationality had been mistaken made me think that he might be the promising master. Once again I was wrong.
After he joined the two men and the three started to have this whole conversation about God and life control. Honestly, that was beyond my expectations, I also guessed it’s going to be some kind of a religious/anti-religious story.
This conversation was so interesting and then turned to be so creepy and scary, especially when he mentioned the way Berlioz is going to die and the sunflower oil spilled by Annouchka. I wondered who Annouchka might be, and started to re-read some previous lines, maybe I missed this name.
The death of Berlioz was literally scary. Seriously, the way how he lost his head was described gave me chills.
Of course I loved other scenes besides this one:
for instance, when Stepan was transferred to Yalta. I was surprised then: “what? Yalta? Can’t get any scarier”. But no, it got actually terrifying. When Rimski was frightened by Varenukha, and got suddenly the white hair. This whole idea of the Marie-Antoinette syndrome was, in a word, BRILLIANT. I consider it, so far the scariest, part ever in the book.
The Satan’s Bal was also creepy. My favorite parts were: Woland talking to Berlioz head and the death of Baron Meigel.
As for characters, my favorite were:
-The Master, of course. He’s my top, I was so happy when he appeared. And I loved him so much. He seemed so calm, caring and wise. His own experience with literature was so touching, wasn’t it? Also that part when he returned back to Ivan before dying, was so so so kind.
As for Margarita, I didn’t like her, sorry. I don’t know why, maybe I couldn’t understand her well or I didn’t understand her at all. She seemed so indecisive and clumsy with all her satanic adventure. However, I liked her at the beginning when her name was not yet mentioned.
-Woland: it was surprisingly surprising when the Master declared that Woland was actually Satan, so brilliant. Does that explain why he asked Berlioz to, AT LEAST, believe in the devil before going? His character was so dark and tense, no wonder he’s Satan after all.
Poor Moscow, it surely had some tough days.
- And from the group of Woland, I liked Behemoth the most. The way he is treated made me laugh so hard, even Margarita had her own chance. Behemoth was there to lighten the events and give some humor. Koroviev was also funny at times.
Well, now I’d like to give a brief opinion of my favorite part of the book, “the pseudo-Gospel’ as you called it. I won’t be exaggerating if I say that I somehow lived in those events. As you already know, I’m so attracted to historical stuffs, and was once interested in Religions so I can safely say it made a great impact on me. The different parts of the story coming from the different characters was interesting. First, with the talk between Ponce Pilate and Yeshua. Then, the whole trauma Matthew Levi went through, to the point he was so angry with God. So unexpected from the disciple of Yeshua. His re-appearance once more at the end was unforeseen, especially that he came talking to the devil.
And finally, the death of Yehuda. I somehow sympathized with him, the way he was murdered was so clever, wicked and also sad.
Finally, I must say that I was satisfied with the end, because we got to know what happened to the characters, and also the true form of the Satan’s group.