Name: The Master and Margarita
ISBN: 9781840024487

What Hacker News says

nulloremptyJul 2026

Since we are on the topic of russian literature I'd definitely recommend reading something other than the usual suspects Dostoevsky and Tolstoy.

One of my personal favourites is Bulgakov'с Master and Margarita and The Bull's Hour by Ivan Efremov.

Bull's Hour is actually amazing as it explores societies built on different principles using a form of a novel.

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jszymborskiJun 2026

I started with Karamazov, then C&P, then the Idiot.

I loved excerpts of Karamazov (The Grand Inquisitor, Dimitry's troika ride, any passage with Grushenka) but I also found it rough to get through. I really don't think I was ultimately able to appreciate it as a whole.

C&P felt much smoother and finally I devoured The Idiot. Those novels felt like night and day compared to Karamazov.

With Karamazov, I feel like there is some subtext or context I'm missing and would have loved to have had a companion text or course to help me.

When I first Master and Margarita, it came with incredible footnotes, and rereading it again I found I sometimes recalled the footnotes more than the text. I recommended the book to a friend, but their edition didn't have the footnotes so they bounced right off it.

Anyway if anyone knows of an edition better than the Penguin Classic of BK I'm all ears.

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ReptileManJun 2026

Yes, but the people that have read Moscow 2042 count in the numbers of fingers on the hand of carefree bandsaw user compared to the people that have read Crime and Punishment. Which when I read it I understood that I was punished, but had not idea what my crime was.

The only widely known fun book outside of Russia is Master and Margarita.

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onliMar 2026

Hm, you are right. Those lists can't be perfect and giving this a second look, I guess my comment was hasty. For the choices I thought weird I can mostly see the justification when researching the titles a bit more (and partly by checking for their names in my language -> properly identifying them).

For what it's worth and what mostly triggered my comment, I expected 1984 to be on the list but thought it missing, but as mentioned in the other comments I was wrong about that, it's just listed with the numbers written out. Le petit prince I wouldn't have wanted on the list, I know it's popular and french, but I never got the appeal. Ulysses, as mentioned below, surprised me as I thought it's only popular in some countries, and regardless of that I think its just not readable. I would kick out two of the Lord of the ring books, one is enough and it's not like each of them had a different impact.

Maybe even more subjective, The Hound of the Baskervilles is important and well known and everything, but does it really held up when you read it today? If not, which would be my opinion, should it be on the list regardless? And I'd consider replacing Thomas Mann Zauberberg with Tod in Venedig, just because I liked it a lot.

For missing books: Louis Begley is an author I felt to be missing, probably with Wartime lies, or About Schmidt. The first Harry Potter as well, but I understand that in 1999 it was too early for that judgement. Stephenson's Snow Crash is missing, maybe replaceable with Neuromancer to have something of that genre. Talking german literature with Thomas Mann above, Alfred Andersch Die Rote would have a place on my personal list, as well as Die Wand by Marlen Haushofer. Haruki Murakami is missing, though maybe with 1Q84 he better fits into a list of the current century. Stephen King? Paul Auster? Philip Roth? Though maybe that would be for The Human Stain, and that's from 2000.

As an aside, I was happily surprised to see The Master and Margarita on the list. It's one of the more known books that I thought had a very special charm, but not one I'd expect to see working on many, as one would have to have read Goethe's Faust and liked it...

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krupanOct 2024

Nobody has mentioned:

- The Lord of the Rings. It is the secret gateway for us nerds to get into literature and poetry (do not skip the poems!). Read all the reference materials like The Silmarillion, The Hobbit, J.R.R.'s letters, the books his son Christopher edited and published, etc. If the poems seem weird or don't make sense, research why they are worded and structured the way they are.

- The Master and Margarita. Obscure and very unique. Make sure to get a good translation (if you don't know Russian) that has some annotations to explain the "inside" jokes/references

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bitcuriousOct 2024

Hm.

If I say best as in long lasting, “Master and Margarita” uniquely has the power to make me feel a kind of romance when I remember it, not just while reading.

The short story “Fumes the Memorious” changed in a literal sense how I perceived the world, at least for an hour or so.

“Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers” was the best self-help book I’ve ever read, and fundamentally changes my politics as well. I came to recognize the significance of true and perceived agency as a factor in mental health.

“Seeing like a state” was the worst written and edited book I’ve read that I nevertheless recommend to people because the ideas therein are fascinating.

It’s an impossible question, as the list of answers only gets longer with time spent on looking for answers. So I suppose Master and Margarita, as that was the first answer.

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