@Book@ The Shining #1) ^^PDF^^
The Shining #1)
By : by Stephen King (Goodreads Author)
ratings : 1,016,706
ratings reviews : 20,995
reviews
Original Title : The Shining
ISBN : 0450040186 (ISBN13: 9780450040184)
Edition Language : English
Series : The Shining #1
Paperback, 659 pages
Published July 1st 1980 by New English Library (Hodder & Stoughton) (first published January 28th 1977)
Characters : Wendy Torrance, Danny Torrance, Dick Halloran, Horace Derwent, Stuart Ullman...more, Albert Shockley, Delberg Grady, Watson, Bill Edmonds, Charles Grondin, Sylvia Hunter Derwent, Howard Cottrell, Larry Durkin, Jack Torrance...less
Setting : Colorado (United States)
Description : Jack Torrance's new job at the Overlook Hotel is the perfect chance for a fresh start. As the off-season caretaker at the atmospheric old hotel, he'll have plenty of time to spend reconnecting with his family and working on his writing. But as the harsh winter weather sets in, the idyllic location feels ever more remote...and more sinister. And the only one to notice the Jack Torrance's new job at the Overlook Hotel is the perfect chance for a fresh start. As the off-season caretaker at the atmospheric old hotel, he'll have plenty of time to spend reconnecting with his family and working on his writing. But as the harsh winter weather sets in, the idyllic location feels ever more remote...and more sinister. And the only one to notice the strange and terrible forces gathering around the Overlook is Danny Torrance, a uniquely gifted five-year-old.
Literary Awards : Locus Award Nominee for Best Fantasy Novel (1978), Gandalf Award Nominee (1978)
REVIEWS :This scene from Friends pretty much sums up my feelings about this book:"Rachel: Hmm. (she opens the freezer) Umm, why do you have a copy of The Shining in your freezer?Joey: Oh, I was reading it last night, and I got scared, so.Rachel: But ah, you’re safe from it if it’s in the freezer?Joey: Well, safer. Y'know, I mean I never start reading The Shining, without making sure we’ve got plenty of room in the freezer, y'know.Rachel: How often do you read it?Joey: Haven’t you ever read the same book If you have not read The Shining already do not overlook the opportunity presented by the publication of Doctor Sleep, the sequel, to revisit one of the best ghost stories of our time. The appearance of the follow up offers a perfect justification for stepping through those bat-wing doors for the first time. 1st Edition cover – Published January 28, 1977 – 447 pps It has been a lifetime since I read The Shining for the first time, over thirty years ago. I enjoyed it then for its effectiveness This was most excellent; I can 100% see why this is many readers' favorite Stephen King novel. Heck, it's my favorite novel of his to date, although I have a good number of his books to catch up on. I've found myself overly critical of his work in the past, possibly due to the fact that he's so well known, but I feel it's more been a fault on my end. Previously I've picked up one of his doorstops at a time I wasn't prepared to fully invest in the time and energy it takes to immerse oneself into i- i don't even know what to say that hasn't already been said about this but lemme give it a shot.god DAMN this is king at his best. i know, i know, "kat that is so cliche. couldn't you have picked a less popular king book to stan?"i guess not, but hear me out.1. first of all, i love a good old fashioned haunted house story and that's exactly what this is. the slow progression of madness that overtook jack and the introduction of new ghosts (or hallucinations, whatever you decide) was Is this horror? I'm genuinely asking here because I'm not a horror aficionado, so I don't know what all constitutes that genre. To a layman like myself, IT was horror because it scared the piss out of me and I couldn't sleep without the lights on for a while. The Shining is more like a Spooky Family Drama. Yeah, yeah, there at the end things got a little hairy, but it was still mostly a human trotting around getting all stabby.Now, I say mostly because good old Jack is getting some help from a “The thought rose from nowhere, naked and unadorned. The urge to tumble her out of bed, naked, bewildered, just beginning to wake up; to pounce on her, seize her neck like the green limb of a young aspen and to throttle her, thumbs on windpipe, fingers pressing against the top of her spine, jerking her head up and ramming it back down against the floorboards, again and again, whamming, whacking, smashing, crashing. Jitter and jive, baby. Shake, rattle, and roll. He would make her take her About as perfect a haunted house story as can be, King was at his best here. It's as though he built a haunted house and then filled every nook and cranny with detail. King is also at his best in regard to characterization, all well rounded and complete, we know family relationships, group dynamics, all the old hidden buried fears. King touches base with psychological elements, theological, metaphysical, spiritual, and cryptic aspects of a ghost story to wrap the reader in a blanket of horror.** Hello! Me again, with another book you should consider picking up if you haven't read this gift to the world already. The Shining is a true classic of horror literature. I have read it a few times and it gets me EVERY. DAMN. TIME. This is one of the most atmospheric books I have ever read, with The Overlook Hotel, ultimately becoming a character in its own right. There are so many chilling moments from crazed topiary animals to haunted elevators and evil playground equipment. Sounds intriguing, Quite simply put, The Shining is the best horror story I have ever read. It scared the hell out of me.Over a period of time, I have noticed certain standard "motifs" in horror stories. One of these I call "The Lost Child". Such stories will typically involve a child, who can see what the silly grownups cannot see (or, even if they do see, don't acknowledge because it goes against reason and logic): and who fights, however high the odds stacked against him/ her are. Danny Torrance is such a boy. October 2016*2.5/5* Soooo I wasn't a huge fan of this. There were a few things about it that I enjoyed, but overall I found it to be boring and overly drawn out. Also not scary AT ALL which was my biggest disappointment. October 2015I'll probably pick this up again someday, but I'm really not in the mood for this right now. Reading Harry Potter alongside this kind of ruined it for me.... Oops. Just seeing Jack Torrance slowly being driven into madness by his own guilt and struggle with alcohol and all being egged on by the overlook hotel. Glad I'm not the only one that feels this way Ok, Mr. Jack Torrence,..... ..... The man who was going to live by his wits....be a best selling author, acclaimed playwright and winner of the New York critics award, man of letters, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, .....you killed my appetite ..... I’ll never be able to look at a Triscuit cracker again without thinking of “The Shining”, .... let alone eat one. You, Sir, took the joy out of crunching those little squares. Haha!Great characters- storytelling- thriller by a master. Yep... I can see His best book is 'The Green Mile,' but since it doesn't quite fall under the Horror category, it is either 'Shining' or 'Carrie' which take top prize.There is not one single detriment to this well-known tale of the disintegration of the American family within the realm of the undead. King here is as he has never been since: metaphoric and concise. He usually adds fact upon useless fact that converts a 400 page work into something more gargantuan, and, therefore, less enthralling. King is not a.
$Book$ Great Expectations *PDF*
Great Expectations
By : by Charles Dickens, Marisa Sestino (Translator)
ratings : 603,722
ratings reviews : 14,770
reviews
Original Title : Great Expectations
ISBN : 0192833596 (ISBN13: 9780192833594)
Edition Language : English
Series : Miss Havisham, Philip "Pip" Pirrip, Joseph "Joe" Gargery, Abel Magwitch, Herbert Pocket...more, John Wemmick, Dolge Orlick, Jaggers, Estella, Compeyson...less
Paperback, Oxford World's Classics, 505 pages
Published 1998 by Oxford University Press (first published August 1861)
Characters : Audie Award for Classic (2010), Премія імені Максима Рильського (1993)
Setting :
Description : In what may be Dickens's best novel, humble, orphaned Pip is apprenticed to the dirty work of the forge but dares to dream of becoming a gentleman — and one day, under sudden and enigmatic circumstances, he finds himself in possession of "great expectations." In this gripping tale of crime and guilt, revenge and reward, the compelling characters include Magwitch, the In what may be Dickens's best novel, humble, orphaned Pip is apprenticed to the dirty work of the forge but dares to dream of becoming a gentleman — and one day, under sudden and enigmatic circumstances, he finds himself in possession of "great expectations." In this gripping tale of crime and guilt, revenge and reward, the compelling characters include Magwitch, the fearful and fearsome convict; Estella, whose beauty is excelled only by her haughtiness; and the embittered Miss Havisham, an eccentric jilted bride.
Literary Awards : Audie Award for Classic (2010), Премія імені Максима Рильського (1993)
REVIEWS :My students (and some of my friends) can't ever figure out why I love this novel so much. I explain how the characters are thoroughly original and yet timeless, how the symbolism is rich and tasty, and how the narrative itself is juicy and chock-full of complexity, but they just shake their heads at me in utter amazement and say, "What's wrong with you, dude?"What's wrong, indeed.I give them ten or fifteen years. Perhaps they'll have to read it again in college, or maybe they'll just try reading “There was a long hard time when I kept far from me the remembrance of what I had thrown away when I was quite ignorant of its worth.” I first read Great Expectations when I was thirteen years old. It was the first of Dickens' works that I'd read of my own volition, the only other being Oliver Twist, which we'd studied parts of in school. You know, I missed out on a lot when I was thirteen. By this, I mean that I didn't always understand the deeper meaning lying beneath the surface of my Love read Great review. Thank you! ”I saw that the bride within the bridal dress had withered like the dress, and like the flowers, and had no brightness left but the brightness of her sunken eyes. I saw that the dress had been put upon the rounded figure of a young woman, and that the figure upon which it now hung loose had shrunk to skin and bone.” How do you do Miss Havisham? She makes many lists of the twenty greatest characters from Dicken’s novels.I hadn’t ever met Miss Havisham officially, although I knew of her. I have "Pause you who read this, and think for a moment of the long chain of iron or gold, of thorns or flowers, that would never have bound you, but for the formation of the first link on one memorable day." That is such a quote. If there was ever a novel that shows us the dangers of false perceptions then it’s Great Expectations . Pip is such a fool; he constantly misjudges those around him, and he constantly misjudges his own worth. This has lead him down a road of misery because the person who Great Expectations…were formed...were met…and were thoroughly exceeded! The votes have been tallied, all doubts have been answered and it is official and in the books ...I am a full-fledged, foaming fanboy of Sir Dickens and sporting a massive man-crush for literature’s master story-teller*.*Quick Aside: My good friend Richard who despises “Chuckles the Dick” is no doubt having a conniption as he reads this…deep breaths, Richard, deep breaths. After love, love, loving A Tale of Two Cities, I Admittedly, I can be a bit dismissive of the classics. By which I mean that many of my reviews resemble a drive-by shooting. This annoys some people, if measured by the responses I’m still getting to my torching of Moby Dick. Even though I should expect some blowback, I still get a little defensive. I mean, no one wants to be called a “horrendous” person just because he or she didn’t like an overlong, self-indulgent, self-important “epic” about a douche-y peg leg and a stupid whale. I’m no 876. Great Expectations, Charles DickensThe novel was first published as a serial in Dickens's weekly periodical All the Year Round, from 1 December 1860 to August 1861. In October 1861, Chapman and Hall published the novel in three volumes. On Christmas Eve, around 1812, Pip, an orphan who is about seven years old, encounters an escaped convict in the village churchyard, while visiting the graves of his parents and siblings. Pip now lives with his abusive elder sister and her kind husband Joe Boring, dull, lifeless, and flat. This is so drawn out and boring I kept having to remind myself what the plot was. Best to get someone else to sum up the story rather than undergo the torture of reading it. A young, amiable boy Philip Pirrip with the unlikely nickname of Pip, lives with his older, by twenty years, brutal, ( no motherly love, that's for sure ) unbalanced married sister, Georgiana, his only relative which is very unfortunate, strangely the only friend he has is Joe, his brother-in -law . She, the sister, beats him regularly for no apparent reason, so the boy understandably likes to roam the neighborhood for relief, thinking about pleasant things, the dreams of escape...anything is “You are in every line I have ever read.”Why couldn't every line in this book be this good? I took me nearly three whole months to finish it. Not because it was bad, but because it dragged and dragged and there are far more intriguing books out there than Great Expectations.The good stuff:An exciting cast of characters, most of them very weird, extravagant and almost to completely ridiculous. By far my favourites are Joe - because he's such a goodhearted person - and Miss Havisham - because I LITERARY EXPECTATIONS It is said that Satisfaction is equal to Reality minus Expectations.I reckon then that my rating should be around Eight Stars since Reality would be Five Stars and as my Expectations were on the negative axis—with an absolute value of about three--, it has resulted in a positive eight. The Great Eight, I should anoint this book, then.How and when were my expectations formed? If I depart on search of my forgotten memories, I think it all started with those black & white Great Expectations, Charles Dickens' 1860 first person narration centers on the formation and social development of the inimical English character Pip. Set in and around London in the early 1800s, Dickens uses vivid imagery and his usual genius at characterization to build a story that has become one of English languages greatest and most recognized stories. As always in a Dickens’ novel, his brilliant cast of intriguing characters takes center stage as the reader comes to know a parade of.
$Book$ The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (The Adventures of Tom and Huck #1) [PDF]
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (The Adventures of Tom and Huck #1)
By : by Mark Twain, Guy Cardwell (Annotations), John Seelye (Introduction)
ratings : 701,447
ratings reviews : 9,011
reviews
Original Title : The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
ISBN : 0143039563 (ISBN13: 9780143039563)
Edition Language : English
Series : The Adventures of Tom and Huck #1
Paperback, 244 pages
Published February 28th 2006 by Penguin Classics (first published 1875)
Characters : Huckleberry Finn, Tom Sawyer
Setting : Hannibal, Missouri (United States)
Description : An adventure story for children, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is a fun-filled book that shows life along the Mississippi River in the 1840s. Written by Mark Twain, the book shows masterfully-done satire, racism, childhood, and the importance of loyalty and courage- no matter the cost.
Literary Awards : Lewis Carroll Shelf Award (1967)
REVIEWS :I was five and a half years old when my mother gave me The Adventures of Tom Sawyer as a New Year's gift (she is a literature teacher, and I have been reading novels since the tender age of four or so, and so it seemed appropriate).Being a diligent and serious child (neither of those qualities have stuck with me, unfortunately), I opened it to page 1 and started reading. I even took it with me to kindergarten, where other kids were learning letters and I was mercifully allowed to read hefty So, my daughter just started reading Tom Sawyer for the very first time, and I am jealous of her! First of all, she can read it in original, while I read it in translation as a child. Second, I wish I could still have that immediate, surprised response to the silly situations. About every five minutes, she comes into my room, reading out loud some funny quotes, making the scenes come alive in my memory again. The fight between the two boys threatening with their fake big brothers, followed by عن مغامرات الطفل الشقي توم سوير وأصدقاءهThe adventures of naughty little boy, Tom Sawyer and his friends.You won't believe it wrote 150 years ago,as Mark Twain's procedure is simple and fluid. He do not show off with language techniques or dictionary's vocabulary. just adventures and events, no silly metaphors an enjoyable novel that i have read at one session On starting reading "Huckleberry Finn", I knew that it was the second part of "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer", so I went back to the first The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (The Adventures of Tom and Huck #1), Mark TwainThomas "Tom" Sawyer is the title character of the Mark Twain novel "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" (1876). He appears in three other novels by Twain: "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" (1884), "Tom Sawyer Abroad" (1894), and "Tom Sawyer, Detective" (1896).Tom Sawyer, an orphan, lives with his Aunt Polly and his half-brother Sid in the fictional town of St. Petersburg, Missouri sometime in the 1840's. A fun-loving boy, Tom Update All we need now is a "lost" manuscript by Twain to be found by some lawyer with the story being about an adult Tom Sawyer and this book being the one the editor "forced" Twain to write. I know you are probably thinking that is taking Harper Lee's Go Set a Watchman to far, but what if that was just the beginning of a new initiative from publishers. It could be the latest fashion now no-one is interested in vampires any more?__________What happened to Tom after he grew up was asked in a My all-time favorite work of fiction. I usually read this every summer.As a fourth grader I read this book and took it very seriously. It was my dream to build a raft and go adventuring. Actually I did build the raft, but there was not enough water in the creek.My other great ambition was to come marching into my own funeral. I still think that would be fun. When I read about Tom taking a licking for Becky Thatcher in school and sharing his cake with her in the cave, I thought that was Although my book is intended mainly for the entertainment of boys and girls, I hope it will not be shunned by men and women on that account, for part of my plan has been to try to pleasantly remind adults of what they once were themselves, and of how they felt and thought and talked, and what queer enterprises they sometimes engaged in.Samuel Langhorne Clemens aka Mark Twain The above quote comes straight from the preface of the book and I really cannot add anything else to it; I would not dare My coworker and my boyfriend made fun of me when I was reading this because apparently it's written for children and they both read it when younger. I have nothing to say in my defense, I didn't know I don't know most things if that isn't obvious by now. On a related note I probably would have enjoyed this more when younger. It wasn't bad, it was okay but I wasn't really itching to keep reading it and didn't have that usual urge that I get when reading a really enjoyable book to give up even Despite knowing this story front-and-back, it was nice to finally read the unabridged words of one of America's finest storytellers. The scene with Tom lost in the cave is notably incredible, but Twain's folksy prose is a delight throughout. I'm not as familiar with the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Can't wait to start that one soon! Been a while since Huck Finn, & I finally got around to reading this, a certain preparation text for the Mississippi River classic. This one is considered far inferior, & it is. Although, I must admit, the opening is stronger and the adventures are more varied. There is substantially more comedy in this, more of a dabbling with the picaresque—far more enjoyable then. But Huckleberry has a more pervasive pathos than this one: overall, a stronger sense of the loneliness experienced one Book Review 4+ out of 5 stars for The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, a classic novel written in 1876 by Mark Twain. Another book where there are likely tons of reviews, each covering the plot, summary, characters, writing and themes. I'll try not to do that, but instead a few quick hits on what made me like this one so much. An author's job is difficult. You undoubtedly have hundreds of ideas and images swimming around inside your head. You may want to try to correct a wrong in society. You could How many people get to crash their funeral?Is it sort of weird that I want to do this? I mean it would be such a fun surprise for people or bad depending on what they thought of you. Imagine going to the funeral of your sworn enemy and then he bursts through the door, you’d be so disappointed or as equally amazed if you just buried your best friend and he turns up to say hi. It something to ponder at least, other than that this book is pretty shit. I mean the narrative structure is a mess, the 3.5* a good, funny story. There are few children's stories as memorable for boys as Tom Sawyer. Whether it is pre-adolescent fascination with girls, getting away with not working, or a late night adventure - Tom Sawyer has it all in spades. My kid absolutely loves this book and we go back to it every few years over and over again. It is a true reading pleasure which you should absolutely not deprive yourself of..
$Book$ The Master and Margarita [PDF]
The Master and Margarita
By : by Mikhail Bulgakov, Katherine Tiernan O'Connor (Translator), Ellendea Proffer (Annotations and Afterword), Diana Lewis Burgin (Translator)
ratings : 211,868
ratings reviews : 9,911
reviews
Original Title : Мастер и Маргарита
ISBN : 0679760806 (ISBN13: 9780679760801)
Edition Language : English
Series : Lucifer, Pontius Pilate, Caiaphas, Woland, Behemot...more, Jesus, Master, Margarita Nicolaevna, Ivan Bezdomny, Yeshua Ha-Nozri, David (King of Israel)...less
Paperback, First Vintage International Edition (US / CAN), 335 pages
Published March 1996 by Vintage International (first published 1967)
Characters : Jerusalem (Judea) (Israel) Moscow (Russian Federation) Russia
Setting :
Description : The first complete, annotated English Translation of Mikhail Bulgakov's comic masterpiece.An audacious revision of the stories of Faust and Pontius Pilate, The Master and Margarita is recognized as one of the essential classics of modern Russian literature. The novel's vision of Soviet life in the 1930s is so ferociously accurate that it could not be published during its The first complete, annotated English Translation of Mikhail Bulgakov's comic masterpiece.An audacious revision of the stories of Faust and Pontius Pilate, The Master and Margarita is recognized as one of the essential classics of modern Russian literature. The novel's vision of Soviet life in the 1930s is so ferociously accurate that it could not be published during its author's lifetime and appeared only in a censored edition in the 1960s. Its truths are so enduring that its language has become part of the common Russian speech.One hot spring, the devil arrives in Moscow, accompanied by a retinue that includes a beautiful naked witch and an immense talking black cat with a fondness for chess and vodka. The visitors quickly wreak havoc in a city that refuses to believe in either God or Satan. But they also bring peace to two unhappy Muscovites: one is the Master, a writer pilloried for daring to write a novel about Christ and Pontius Pilate; the other is Margarita, who loves the Master so deeply that she is willing literally to go to hell for him. What ensues is a novel of in exhaustible energy, humor, and philosophical depth, a work whose nuances emerge for the first time in Diana Burgin's and Katherine Tiernan O'Connor's splendid English version.(back cover)
Literary Awards :
REVIEWS :This review is dedicated to Mary, the very model of a perfect co-moderator and GR friend.Unlocking the Meaning of The Master and MargaritaMikhail BulgakovIn the decades following the publication of The Master and Margarita, myriad critics have attempted to find a key to unlock the meaning of Bulgakov’s unfinished masterwork. Some viewed the novel as a political roman à clef, laboriously substituting historical figures from Stalinist Moscow for Bulgakov’s characters. Others posited a religious The Master and Margarita, Mikhail BulgakovThe Master and Margarita is a novel by Russian writer Mikhail Bulgakov, written in the Soviet Union between 1928 and 1940 during Stalin's regime. The story concerns a visit by the devil to the officially atheistic Soviet Union. Many critics consider it to be one of the best novels of the 20th century, as well as the foremost of Soviet satires.The novel alternates between two settings. The first is 1930s Moscow, where Satan appears at the Patriarch Ponds مرشد و مروارید ... A wrote: "مرشد و مروارید ..."سپاسگزارتان هستم EXTRA! EXTRA! This review has now been immortalized in audio format. Authentic Russian accent and Russian quotes are provided free of charge :) http://soundcloud.com/nataliyac/the-m...--------------------I'm staying home from work today, sick to the extreme, and it's only in that unique feverish clarity that comes with illness that I dare to even try to write about this book.This is THE book. The one that all the other books are measured against. The one that I've read more times since I was The Chicago Tribune wrote: “The book is by turns hilarious, mysterious, contemplative and poignant, and everywhere full of rich descriptive passages.”Hilarious and contemplative my ass, CT. This book is an interminable slog.Look, here’s the deal. I get that this book satirizes 1930s Stalinist Russia, and I get that—for some—this earns The Master and Margarita a place on their “works-of-historical-importance” shelves. But for me, it earns nothing. I mean, let’s just call a spade a spade, shall Love leaped out in front of us like a murderer in an alley leaping out of nowhere, and struck us both at once. As lightning strikes, as a Finnish knife strikes! She, by the way, insisted afterwards that it wasn’t so, that we had, of course, loved each other for a long, long time, without knowing each other, never having seen each other… I experienced this magical novel as an unrivalled ode to love and reveled in its delectable burlesque and hilarious scenes. It knocked me off my feet and pointed Soviet Ghost StoriesStories, stories, all is stories: political stories, religious stories, scientific stories, even stories about stories. We live inside these stories. Like this one in The Master and Margarita. The story that we can more or less agree upon we call reality. But is it real?Story-making and telling is what we do as human beings. Through stories we create meaning out of thin air, in the same way that plants create their food from light, and usually with about the same level of «Sympathy for the Devil»His name is God. Not Lucifer,not Satan,but God!!!Satan is God in a bad mood. God in a bad mood lays our souls to waste. «As heads is tales Just call me LUCIFER cop is to criminal as God is to Lucifer». God in a good mood plays games with us. «What’s confusing you is just THE NATURE OF MY GAME»«This song has a direct tie to the book, "the Master and the Margarita", is about all the history & tragedies with points throughout time. The man he is describing is the A poet "Homeless", as he calls himself, and a magazine editor, his gruff boss, Berlioz, are having a conversation, in a quiet, nondescript Moscow park, just before the start of the Second World War. Drinking, just harmless sodas, and discussing business, ordinary right? That's the last time in this novel, it is. An apparition appears in the sky, weird and unbelievable, a frightening seven foot transparent man, is seen floating above their heads, but only Berlioz spots it, he's obviously, the Manuscripts don’t burn…Mikhail Bulgakov, who is no stranger to the pale fire of a burning manuscript, has created a masterpiece of fiction that truly cannot be burned. Having been completed, but not fully edited, by the time of Bulgakov’s demise, this novel survived Soviet censorship and the test of time to remain one of the foremost Russian novels of the 20th century, and still holds relevance in today’s world. From political intrigue and scathing social satire to religious commentary and The Master and Margarita by Soviet era writer Mikhail Bulgakov seems to inspire strong emotions though most critics and commentators have been impressed with the fantastic satire. Le Monde listed the novel number 94 on its 100 books of the century. I found it absurd, outrageous, inconsistent, but for the most part entertaining. I would probably appreciate the novel more if I better understood Bulgakov’s scathing satire on atheistic Soviet society, which he exposes as materialistic and bourgeois. This is a romp. While reading it I saw somewhere that Salman Rushdie said it was a major influence for him in the writing of The Satanic Verses. I have an inkling, unconfirmed at this point, that Gabriel García Márquez and Italo Calvino were also influenced by it. Several things about it surprise me. No doubt it's loaded with political subtext about Stalin's Russia; it was written during the years of the worst crimes of Stalin's regime. I speak here of "dekulakization," in which some 20 to 50 There once was a book praised as boffThat caused others to pan it and scoffSo who wrote this thingWhence sentiments swing?T’was a Russian they called Bulgakov. The culture was smothered by StalinHe purged those he felt failed to fall in.So how to respondSans magical wand?With satire, to show it’s appallin’.The book has been said to have layersWith multiple plotlines and players.There’s good and there’s badAnd witches unclad.Can naked truth sate the naysayers?The Devil’s own minions had power..
