Black Snow

Semi-autobiographical and brimming with satireas many of Bulgakovs works wereBlack Snow paints a vibrant portrait of life behind the curtains of the Russian literary and theater arenas in the early 1900s.

Maxudov is a failed novelist who, after contemplating suicide, adapts his novel into a play thatseemingly at randomis chosen to be produced at the renowned Independent Theatre. As it so often does in theater, chaos ensuesincluding bloodthirsty battles between the shows two co-directors (modeled on Stanislavsky, the famed inventor of Method Acting, and his co-director) over control of the production, near-constant drama brewing between the actors, and the playwrights own growing host of misgivings and insecurities about his place in the theatrical community. With each rehearsal turning more disastrous than the last, it becomes less and less clear whether Maxudovs play will ever be performed at all.

The success of the play based on his first novel, The White Guard, launched Mikhail Bulgakovs long and tumultuous relationship with the Russian stage. Black Snow, written towards the end of the Russian author and playwrights life, takes numerous stabs at the theatrical community of which he was a part for many years as well as at the heavy censorship Bulgakov endured throughout his career, both in print and on the stage.

The Alma Classics edition of Black Snow is translated by Roger Cockrell with the authorization of the Bulgakov Estate and Andrew Nurnberg Associates. Roger Cockrell, previously the Head of the University of Exeters Russian Department, has worked extensively on expert translations of Russian works including Bolshevik Ideology and Literature, as well as other Bulgakov works such as The Fatal Eggs and The White Guard. His translation reflects the clear, humorous, and profound language of the original with colloquial English idioms and phrasings. Readers without previous experience in Russian literature will find this translation to be accessible and fun, even though the subtext of Bulgakovs works is the murky, mysterious underbelly of Soviet culture.