What I am reading

This is definitely the literary groundwork for Bulgakov’s Master and Margarita in which the author tried exploring the major themes of his later masterpiece.


I remember when we had to read Master and Margarita at University and everybody in my course was crazy about how amazing, extraordinary and outstanding this novel is, whereas I was (and still am) wondering what all the fuzz is about. Needless to say, I chose to write about Dostoevskij and Turgenev at that particular final exam.
No wonder, that the novella D’javoliada is not my favourite as well. The scenes are just too bizarre and too loosely linked for my taste, they change quickly and constantly, setting and characters are switched out rapidly – all in all, it reads just like a fever dream. Although I suspect that this delirious state might very well have been Bulgakov’s intention in the first place.