Mikhail Bulgakov
Mikhail Afanasievich Bulgakov (or Bulhakov, Михаил Афанасьевич Булгаков; May 15, 1891 – March 10, 1940) was a Soviet novelist and playwright of the first half of the twentieth century. Although a native of Kiev, he wrote in Russian. Like his Ukrainian predecessor, Nikolai Gogol, he was a humorist and satirist of the first order. The object of his sharp wit was the Soviet regime and particularly the "homo Sovieticus," or new Soviet man that the regime was seeking to create. Bulgakov exposed the futility of this attempt to re-engineer human souls in his novellas, like Fatal Eggs and Heart of a Dog, and in his greatest work by far, and one of the greatest novels written in the Soviet period, The Master and Margarita.
(From New World Encyclopedia)
“One of the truly great Russian novels of [the twentieth] century.” —New York Times Book Review
“The book is by turns hilarious, mysterious, contemplative, and poignant . . . A great work.” —Chicago Tribune
“Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita is a soaring, dazzling novel; an extraordinary fusion of wildly disparate elements. It is a concerto played simultaneously on the organ, the bagpipes, and a pennywhistle, while someone sets off fireworks between the players’ feet.” —New York Times
