This is one of the great imaginative novels of the century, a fierce political satire, filled with the most dazzling surreal humour. The devil makes a personal appearance in Moscow, accompanied by two demons, a naked girl and a huge black cat. When he leaves, the asylums are full and the forces of law and order in disarray. Only the Master, a man devoted to truth, and Margarita, the woman he loves, remain undiminished. The Master and Margarita" is Bulgakov's last and most celebrated novel, completed in 1938 at the height of Stalin's purges and published for the first time in Russia in 1966. "