The Master and Margarita - English Translations

English Translations

There are quite a few published English translations of The Master and Margarita, including but not limited to the following:

• Mirra Ginsburg, New York: Grove Press, 1967.
• Michael Glenny, New York: Harper & Row, 1967; London: Harvill, 1967; with introduction by Simon Franklin, New York: Knopf, 1992; London: Everyman's Library, 1992.
• Diana Burgin and Katherine Tiernan O'Connor, annotations and afterword by Ellendea Proffer, Ann Arbor: Ardis, 1993, 1995; New York: Vintage Books, 1996.
• Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, London: Penguin, 1997.
• Michael Karpelson, Lulu Press, 2006.
• Hugh Aplin, One World Classics, 2008. ISBN 978-1-84749-014-8

Ginsburg's translation was from a censored Soviet text and is therefore incomplete.

The early translation by Glenny runs more smoothly than that of the modern translations; some Russian-speaking readers consider it to be the only one creating the desired effect, though it may be somewhat at liberty with the text. The modern translators pay for their attempted closeness by losing idiomatic flow.

However, according to Kevin Moss, who has at least two published papers on the book in literary journals, the early translations by Ginsburg and Glenny are quite hurried and lack much critical depth. As an example, he claims that the more idiomatic translations miss Bulgakov's "crucial" reference to the devil in Berlioz's thought:

• "I ought to drop everything and run down to Kislovodsk." (Glenny)
• "It's time to throw everything to the devil and go to Kislovodsk." (Burgin, Tiernan O'Connor)
• "It's time to send it all to the devil and go to Kislovodsk." (Pevear, Volokhonsky)
• "To hell with everything, it's time to take that Kislovodsk vacation." (Karpelson)
• "It’s time to let everything go to the devil and be off to Kislovodsk.” (Aplin)

Several literary critics have hailed the Burgin/Tiernan O’Connor translation as the most accurate and complete English translation, particularly when read in tandem with the matching annotations by Bulgakov's biographer, Ellendea Proffer. However, these judgements predate the translation by Pevear and Volokhonsky. Limited information is available on the Karpelson translation.

A graphic novel, an adaption by Andrzej Klimowski and Danusia Schejbal, published by Self Made Hero in 2008 provides a fresh visual translation/interpretation.