The Master and Margarita
By Mikhail Bulgakov
 
First UK edition in English, first impression: London: Collins and Harvill Press, 1967.
 
Octavo. Original green cloth, spine lettered in gilt. With the original pictorial dust jacket designed by Alex Jawdokimov, priced 30s.
 
A near-fine copy, the binding square and firm with bright gilt and only trivial rubbing to extremities; light spotting to the top edge, the contents otherwise remarkably clean and fresh.
 
The dust jacket very good, price-clipped, with slight fading to the red lettering on the spine panel; a short closed tear to the head of the lower panel; a small area of dampstaining visible to the verso of the spine panel; spotting to the top edge, chiefly on the reverse; overall presenting as a sharp, attractive example.
 
The first authorised English translation of Bulgakov’s satirical masterpiece, translated by Michael Glenny. Written in secret during the height of the Stalinist purges, the novel remained unpublished at the time of Bulgakov’s death in 1940. It finally appeared in a heavily censored form in the journal Moskva in 1966–67. This edition introduced Anglophone readers to the "Devil in Moscow," cementing its reputation as one of the most influential and subversive novels of the twentieth century. Its cultural footprint is notable, famously serving as the primary inspiration for the Rolling Stones' Sympathy for the Devil.