Close Readings: Mikhail Bulgakov and James Hogg

The LRB Podcast

London Review of Books

Society & Culture

4.4 • 579 Ratings

🗓️ 2 July 2025

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

James Hogg’s ghoulish metaphysical crime novel 'The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner' (1824) was presented as a found documented dating from the 17th century, describing in different voices the path to devilry of an antinomian Calvinist, Robert Wringhim. Mikhail Bulgakov’s 'The Master and Margarita', written between 1928 and 1940, also hinges around a pact with Satan (Woland), who arrives in Moscow to create mayhem among its literary community and helps reunite an outcast writer, the Master, with his lover, Margarita. In this extended extra from ‘Fiction and the Fantastic’, Marina Warner and Adam Thirlwell look at the ways in which these two ferocious works of comic horror tackle the challenge of representing fanaticism, be it Calvinism or Bolshevism, and consider why both writers used the fantastical to test reality. ‘Fiction and the Fantastic’ is part of the LRB's Close Readings podcast. Sign up to Close Readings: Directly in Apple Podcasts: ⁠https://lrb.me/crapplefflrbpod In other podcast apps: ⁠https://lrb.me/closereadingsff Sponsored link: Deaf Republic at the Royal Court: https://royalcourttheatre.com/whats-on/deaf-republic/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This episode of the LRB podcast is supported by the Royal Court Theatre.
0:05.9	A theatrical adaptation of the Ukrainian-American poet Ilya Kerminsky's modern fable of war, humanity and collective resistance,
0:13.5	Deaf Republic, is coming to the Royal Court Theatre from Friday the 29th of August.
0:18.8	The well-renowned theatre company, Dead Centre, will be making
0:21.5	their Royal Court debut in collaboration with the sign language poet Zoe McWinney. Told through
0:27.2	a mix of spoken English, British sign language, creative captioning and silence, Deaf
0:32.1	Republic will feature a cast of deaf and hearing actors, aerial performers, puppetry, live cinema and poetry to bring
0:39.5	Ilya Kaminsky's contemporary epic to life. Find out more and book your tickets at
0:44.2	Royal Court Theatre.com or phone the box office on 0207565,000. The Royal Court Theatre is next
0:53.3	to Sloan Square Tube Station in Chelsea, London.
1:14.2	You're listening to the London Review of Books podcast.
1:18.1	This week we have a long extract from one of our close reading series,
1:20.8	Fiction and Fantastic, with Marina Warner.
1:26.4	Talking in this episode to the novelist Adam Serlewell about two novels that hinge on pacts with the Devil, James Hoggs, private memoirs and
1:29.9	Confessions of a justified sinner, and Mikhail Bulgarovst's The Master and Margarita. In previous episodes,
1:36.8	Marina and Adam have discussed the stories of Kafka and the Gothic tales of Isaac Dinnerson and Jan Potoski,
1:43.6	and in their next episode, they'll look at
1:45.3	Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. You can listen to all those in full and to all our other
1:49.4	close reading series covering literature from ancient Greece to the present day for just
1:53.3	$4.99 a month or $49.99 a year. Follow the links in the description. Hello, welcome to a new episode of podcasts on fiction and the fantastic in the series
2:04.5	Close Readings, produced by the London Review of Books.
2:08.2	I'm Marina Warner, a writer who's often explored myths and fairy tales, and I'm very happy to be
	...

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