Diaries And Selected Letters

Description: The career of Mikhail Bulgakov, the author of Master and Margarita - now regarded as one of the masterpieces of twentieth-century literature - was characterized by a constant and largely unsuccessful struggle against state censorship. This suppression did not only apply to his art: in 1926 his personal diary was seized by the authorities. From then on he confined his thoughts to letters to his friends and family, as well as to public figures such as Stalin and his fellow Soviet writer Gorky, while also encouraging his wife Yelena to keep a diary, with many entries influenced or even dictated by him. This ample selection from the diaries and letters of the Bulgakovs, mostly translated for the first time into English, provides an insightful glimpse into a fascinating period of Russian history and literature, telling the tragic tale of the fate of an artist under a totalitarian regime.

Review: Superbly well translated in this collection by Roger Cockrell, they give a revealing insight into the writer's thoughts and feelings as he struggled to survive in the unforgiving proletarian culture of the Soviet Union.' * The Irish Times * Cockerell has overall done Bulgakov excellent service as his translator. His text reads extremely well... this is a fascinating insight into the many moods, many voices, the resilience and faint-heartedness, bravado and calculation, light and dark, great and small, that made up this marvellous writer. * TLS * This volume, covering 1921 to his death in 1940, illuminates not only the writer's Moscow years, but also the historical era. The weather, politics and even the inflation are all detailed here along with Bulgakov's own difficult literary progress. His letters to officials make particularly fascinating reading. * The Washington Post * A fine biographical addition to the new translations of Bulgakov's fiction that Alma Classics have published in recent years. * Prospect Magazine * Resolving Bulgakov's contradictions is somewhat easier when we read the letters and diaries... Cockrell's book has been beautifully produced and designed by Alma Books. * The Literary Review * Bulgakov's letters tell the story... of the young writers journey to Moscow to the publication of The Master and Margarita. -- Gabriel Josipovici * The New Statesman * The diaries and selected letters are an important insight into this funny, accomplished, always humane writer -- Philip Hensher * The Telegraph * Intriguing letters and diary entries that fill out our picture of the man... He remains one of the most original and witty writers in a great age of literature. Roger Cockrell's book helps us to know him better -- Elaine Feinstein * The Times * Bulgakov was not merely a brilliant observer of what was going on around him, but had an uncanny ability to pick out the particular manifestations of folly and discord which would set the tone of the era to follow. * The Guardian *

Author Biography: Born in Kiev in 1891 to Russian parents, Mikhail Bulgakov trained as a doctor and volunteered for the Red Cross on the outbreak of the First World War. He later enlisted as a doctor for the anti-Bolshevik White Army, before eventually giving up medicine to concentrate on literature. The Master and Margarita is his most famous work, and has been hailed as one of the greatest novels of the twentieth century.