Mikhail Bulgakov - Collected Works, incl. The Master and Margarita (39 books)

* Mikhail Bulgakov - Collected Works, incl. The Master and Margarita (39 books)

MIKHAIL BULGAKOV (1891–1940) was a Russian novelist, playwright, and physician whose satirical and fantastical works stand among the most original achievements of twentieth-century literature. Trained as a doctor at Kyiv University, he practiced medicine during World War I and the Russian Civil War before turning fully to writing. Much of his career unfolded under the tightening censorship of the Soviet regime, and many of his major works were banned or heavily restricted during his lifetime. This fraught relationship with authority—particularly under Joseph Stalin—deeply shaped his themes: the absurdities of bureaucracy, the moral compromises of artists, and the collision between private conscience and public ideology.

Bulgakov first gained attention with prose drawn from his medical background, especially A COUNTRY DOCTOR'S NOTEBOOK (1925–1926), a cycle of stories portraying a young doctor’s often grim and darkly comic experiences in a rural hospital. He followed this with THE WHITE GUARD (1925), a semi-autobiographical novel set in Kyiv during the chaos of the Civil War. Though controversial for its sympathetic depiction of anti-Bolshevik officers, it established Bulgakov’s reputation for psychological depth and historical immediacy. He later adapted it into the play DAYS OF THE TURBINS (1926), which, despite criticism, was reportedly admired by Stalin himself.

Satire became Bulgakov’s most potent literary weapon in HEART OF A DOG (written 1925, first published abroad in 1968). This biting novella tells the story of a stray dog transformed into a crude, disruptive human through an experimental surgery—a darkly comic allegory of social engineering in the early Soviet state. Similarly, THE FATAL EGGS (1925) uses science fiction and grotesque humor to lampoon bureaucratic incompetence and blind faith in progress. Both works reveal Bulgakov’s talent for blending fantasy with sharp political critique, and were suppressed in the Soviet Union for decades, circulating only in manuscript or abroad.

His masterpiece, THE MASTER AND MARGARITA (written 1928) was released more than a quarter-century after his death in 1966–1967. A dazzling, multilayered novel, it intertwines a satirical depiction of 1930s Moscow with a retelling of the trial of Jesus in ancient Jerusalem, all orchestrated by the Devil and his retinue. It explores love, artistic freedom, cowardice, and redemption with a blend of theological reflection, absurdist comedy, and lyrical romance. Today, it is widely regarded as one of the greatest novels of the twentieth century and the crowning achievement of Bulgakov’s defiant, imaginative career.


The following books are in PDF and/or ePUB format as noted:

== NOVELS ==

* Black Snow [tr. Cockrell] (RosettaBooks, 2015) – ePUB
* Black Snow [tr. Glenny] (Vintage UK, 2005) – ePUB
* A Dead Man's Memoir: A Theatrical Novel [tr. Bromfield] (Penguin, 2007) – ePUB
* A Dog's Heart [tr. Bouis] (RosettaBooks, 2015) – ePUB
* The Heart of a Dog [tr. Ginsburg] (Grove, 1987) – ePUB
* The Heart of a Dog [tr. Glenny] (Vintage UK, 2009) – ePUB
* The Heart of A Dog and Other Stories [tr. Cook-Horujy & Pyman] (Raduga, 1990) – PDF
* The Master and Margarita [tr. Aplin] (Alma Classics, 2018) – ePUB / PDF
* The Master and Margarita [tr. Burgin & O'Connor, intro. Figes] (Macmillan, 2010) – PDF
* The Master and Margarita [tr. Burgin & O'Connor, intro. Groskop] (Picador, 2019) – ePUB
* The Master and Margarita [tr. Burgin & O'Connor, notes. Proffer] (Overlook, 2021) – ePUB
* The Master and Margarita [tr. Ginsburg] (Grove, 1995) – ePUB / PDF
* The Master and Margarita [tr. Glenny] (Vintage UK, 2004 / Signet, 1967) – ePUB / PDF
* The Master and Margarita [tr. Pevear & Volokhonsky] (Penguin, 2007) – ePUB
* The Master and Margarita [tr. Pevear & Volokhonsky, revised] (Penguin, 2016) – ePUB
* The White Guard [tr. Cockrell] (Alma Classics, 2012) – ePUB / PDF
* The White Guard [tr. Glenny] (Vintage UK, 2006 / Collins, 1971) – ePUB / PDF
* The White Guard [tr. Schwartz] (Yale, 2008) – PDF
* A Young Doctor's Notebook [tr. Aplin] (RosettaBooks, 2015) – ePUB

== SHORT STORIES ==

* The Adventures of Chichikov [tr. Keich] (1962) – PDF
* A Country Doctor's Notebook [tr. Glenny] (Melville House, 2012) – ePUB
* Diaboliad [tr. Cook-Horujy] (Raduga, 1990) – ePUB
* Diaboliad and Other Stories [tr. Aplin] (Oneworld, 2010) – PDF
* Diaboliad and Other Stories [tr. Proffer, 2e] (Ardis, 1993) – PDF
* The Fatal Eggs [tr. Aplin] (Hesperus, 2003) – PDF
* The Fatal Eggs [tr. Cockrell] (Alma Classics, 2014) – ePUB / PDF\
* The Fatal Eggs [tr. Cook-Horujy] (Raduga, 1990) – ePUB
* The Fatal Eggs & Other Soviet Satire [tr. Ginsburg] (Grove, 1987) – ePUB
* Morphine [tr. Aplin] (New Directions, 2013) – ePUB
* Notes on a Cuff and Other Stories [tr. Cockrell] (Alma Classics, 2014) – ePUB
* Notes on the Cuff [tr. Cook-Horujy] (Raduga, 1990) – ePUB
* Notes on the Cuff and Other Stories [tr. Rice] (Ardis, 1991) – PDF

== DRAMA ==

* Adam and Eve [tr. Glenny] (Methuen, 1990) – PDF
* Early Plays [ed. Proffer] (Indiana, 1972) – PDF
* Flight and Bliss: Two Plays [tr. Ginsburg] (New Directions, 1985) – PDF
* Ivan Vasilievich: A Comedy in Three Acts [tr. Senelick] (Performing Arts Journal, 1983) – PDF
* Molière, or The Cabal of Hypocrites & Don Quixote [tr. Pevear & Volokhonsky] (TCG, 2017) – ePUB
* Zoyka's Apartment: A Tragic Farce in Three Acts [tr. Saunders & Dwyer, 2e] (Smith & Kraus, 1995) – PDF

== NON-FICTION ==

* The Life of Monsieur de Moliere [tr. Ginsburg] (New Directions, 1986) – ePUB

== LETTERS & DIARIES ==

* Diaries and Selected Letters [tr. Cockrell] (Alma, 2013) – ePUB
* Manuscripts Don’t Burn: A Life in Letters and Diaries [ed. Curtis] (Bloomsbury, 2013) – ePUB


Please seed and share with others. ?