I’ve struggled through many a book refusing to seek out reviews and opinions of others. Looking at this as both influence and plagiarizing of ideas, I feel that it’s always best to go it first alone and then look at what others have found that I have missed, or differ in interpretation.
This novel is just loaded with symbolism, however; nothing, it seems, is straight out narrative relating the story(ies) which appears as the the first read(s). That is, the reader can accept the meeting of two writers with the devil in Moscow, and the meeting of Yeshua and Pontius Pilate, or can follow the subtleties to discover more. There is a commentary, chapter by chapter at the end of this version of the translated novel. Since I’d already read four chapters, I did allow myself to read the notes on those chapters. Very helpful and yet not too offputting about letting the reader discover things for himself. Especially since there are so many references it seems to both other works (Faust, The Bible) and historical and cultural facts (the state of Russia) that I would have to be more aware of these things to get the full understanding of Bulgakov’s meaning.
So yes, I shall bite the bullet and "cheat" through this one a bit.
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology