The Marbled Swarm is Dennis Cooper’s most haunting work to date. In secret passageways, hidden rooms, and the troubled mind of our narrator, a mystery perpetually takes shape—and the most compelling clue to its final nature is “the marbled swarm” itself, a complex amalgam of language passed down from father to son. Cooper ensnares the reader in a world of appearances, where the trappings of high art, old money, and haute cuisine obscure an unspeakable system of coercion and surrender. And as the narrator stalks an elusive truth, traveling from the French countryside to Paris and back again, the reader will be seduced by a voice only Dennis Cooper could create. "One of the great novels of the 20th century, a scary, darkly comic allegory". - Daily Telegraph Full of pungency and wit, this luminous work is Mikhail Bulgakov's crowning achievement, skilfully blending magical and realistic elements, grotesque situations and major ethical concerns. Written during the darkest period of Stalin's repressive reign and a devastating satire of Soviet life, it combines two distinct yet interwoven parts, one set in contemporary Moscow, the other in ancient Jerusalem, each brimming with incident and with historical, imaginary, frightful and wonderful characters. Although completed in 1940, The Master and Margarita was not published until 1966 when the first section appeared in the monthly magazine Moskva. Russians everywhere responded enthusiastically to the novel's artistic and spiritual freedom and it was an immediate and enduring success. This new translation has been made from the complete and unabridged Russian text. “A wild surrealistic romp...Brilliantly flamboyant and outrageous.” — Joyce Carol Oates, The Detroit News Mikhail Bulgakov wrote about his experiences as a doctor in his early work 'Notes of a Young Country Doctor'. His later works treated the subject of the artist and the tyrant under the guise of historical characters, but "The Master and Margarita" is generally considered his masterpiece.