SOURCE: Glenny, Michael. “Existential Thought in Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita.” Canadian-American Slavic Studies 15, nos. 2-3 (summer-fall 1981): 238-49.

In this essay, Glenny explores possible neo-Platonist influences on The Master and Margarita.

Reading Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita superficially, and leaving aside for the moment any attempt to answer the many riddles posed by the novel, its structural divisions are reasonably clear. It is as if two (perhaps three) distinct yet related narratives, differing in length and genre, have been stitched together within one set of covers. The shorter one is an original, fictive version of the trial and crucifixion of Christ, based partly on St. Matthew's gospel¹ but with a number of striking changes, additions and substractions; for convenience this narrative will be referred to as “Jerusalem.”

The other main narrative, longer and more complex, is set in the Moscow of Bulgakov's own time, but with his characteristically...