本书收入苏联二、三十年代两部中篇，布里加科夫的《狗心》和普拉东诺夫的《基坑》，这两部小说在苏联被禁锢半个世纪之久，直到今天在双双走向读者，并在苏联引起轰动。小说《狗心》以一个怪诞独特的文学形象，对社会一系列重大问题进行了深刻的反思。

本书针对这位前苏联历史上具争议性的剧作家与小说家，收录其戏剧作品，通过评论作家与作品，也对这位有勇气用《逃亡》来表现国内战争的大师进行了致意。

《剧院情史》具有明显的自传性质，小说主人公马克苏多夫实际上便是布尔加科夫本人，独立剧院即莫斯科艺术剧院，而剧院领导伊万·瓦西里耶维奇分明是斯坦尼斯拉夫斯基的化身。

The first complete, annotated English Translation of Mikhail Bulgakov's comic masterpiece. An audacious revision of the stories of Faust and Pontius Pilate, The Master and Margarita is recognized as one of the essential classics of modern Russian literature. The novel's vision of Soviet life in the 1930s is so ferociously accurate that it could not be published during its author's lifetime and appeared only in a censored edition in the 1960s. Its truths are so enduring that its language has become part of the common Russian speech. One hot spring, the devil arrives in Moscow, accompanied by a retinue that includes a beautiful naked witch and an immense talking black cat with a fondness for chess and vodka. The visitors quickly wreak havoc in a city that refuses to believe in either God or Satan. But they also bring peace to two unhappy Muscovites: one is the Master, a writer pilloried for daring to write a novel about Christ and Pontius Pilate; the other is Margarita, who loves the Master so deeply that she is willing literally to go to hell for him. What ensues is a novel of in exhaustible energy, humor, and philosophical depth, a work whose nuances emerge for the first time in Diana Burgin's and Katherine Tiernan O'Connor's splendid English version. (back cover)

《大师和玛格丽特》究竟是怎样一部书？它是一本“对二三十年代苏联社会现实进行恶意嘲讽”、“主张向恶势力投降并为它服务”的怪诞小说呢？抑或是“启迪人们内心的善，净化人的心灵”、“帮助人们牢牢把握住自己内心的道德准绳”、歌颂“人对真善美的大胆追求的”“当代苏联文学中的一部主要杰作”呢？众说纷纭。本书作者布尔加科夫又究竟是一个“不理解无产阶级十月革命”、“暴露了本身的人道主义弱点”的平庸作家呢？还是一位思想深邃、“以大无畏精神向一切恶提出挑战”、“集讽刺作家、幻想题材作家、现实主义作家的天才于一身”的文学大师呢？他为何曾把花费两年心血写到第十五章的这部作品的原稿付之一炬，后来又重新握笔，前后历时十二载，八易其稿呢？他在自知身患绝症、不久人世的情况下，在生活困苦、精神压力沉重、明知这部作品不可能发表的处境中，是什么力量支持他坚持修改并补充它，直至生命之烛燃尽呢？现在看来，至少可以说：盖棺时某些人论定他为“反政治的小说家和不严肃的幽默家”，把他的作品说成是“存心取悦于读者”、“恶意讽刺现实”等，这些结论是下得过于仓促了。为布尔加科夫恢复名誉成为苏联文艺界一桩重要事件，他的作品在八十年代仍如此畅销，这里必定有其内在原因。我们应该努力通过作者的思想、生活及创作道路探索他的创作意图，在作品本身中寻找其艺术魅力的源泉及上述问题的答案。