Bulgakov: Life and Work

Mikhail Bulgakov (1891-1940) is best known as the author of The Master and Margarita, a novel written secretly during the worst years of Stalin's rule. When the novel was first published decades after his death, Bulgakov's fame spread rapidly, and The Master and Margarita became one of the most influential novels of the 20th century. Today this work is considered an international masterpiece, and has been translated into all major languages.Until the posthumous publication of this novel, Bulgakov was known mainly as a playwright. The post-revolutionary renaissance of the Moscow Art Theater dates from the production of his play Days of the Turbins in 1926. His most important theatrical work, however, is the play Cabal of Hypocrites (Molière), which has been produced around the world.Initially published in 1984, Bulgakov: Life and Work still stands as the most comprehensive and acclaimed study of the author and his works. It is based on published and archival sources, as well as on interviews with those who knew Bulgakov, including two of his wives.This 2021 eBook edition reproduces the original 700-page edition and includes a large number of photographs.PUBLISHED REVIEWSOne of the most impressive contributions to Russian literary scholarship of recent years. It is sensible, comprehensive and revealing.—The New York Times"A masterpiece had seemingly come out of nowhere," states Ellendea Proffer in the preface of her superb new biography of Bulgakov. But although Bulgakov's name became well known and translations of his other works followed, the man himself remained obscure. Many readers may have had a vague impression of Bulgakov as another Soviet literary martyr who died around the time of Stalin's Great Terror with his eyesight gone and his works banned, but specific information on his personality and private life was scarce…. Now Proffer has filled in much of what was missing in our knowledge of Bulgakov's life, and it cannot have been often that so much new material on a major 20th-century writer has been made available in a single book.—The Washington Post"This is a remarkable portrait of a great writer and the society he dissected. No serious student of Bulgakov can ignore this book."—Publishers Weekly"ThIs literary biography of Mikhail Bulgakov seems destined to be a standard work on the author. Proffer has carefully researched the era, Bulgakov's life, and the development and fate of his works and presented all in a well-documented and easily read volume. Despite problems of access to limited sources, her study lacks little in the way of authentication. Highlights are Proffer's interviews with a number of people who knew Bulgakov personally, including two of his three former wives. Discussion and synopsis of each work contain frank, perceptive critical evaluation….—Choice[T]he book proved not merely scholarly, informative and perceptive, but genuinely readable and entertaining, if one may use such words about a formal study nearly seven hundred pages long.... Virtually all the dramatic works, and all but a few stories among the fiction are examined in depth. Since so few of Bulgakov's works apart from The Master and Margarita qualify as great art, Proffer is continually faced with critical decisions--how much to praise at least a few good passages in mediocre works, or when to give up altogether (e.g., "[This] makes depressing reading" [409]). But in the end, with nothing that could be used against him left unremarked, Bulgakov emerges as the uniquely brilliant, fickle, tragic, bold, fatidic, sensitive, neurotic, and finally great personality that we would have been angry not to have found in these pages.—Slavic and East European Review Read more