Mikhail Bulgakov: the man and the artist

Le Regard Libre N° 66 - Jérémy Berthoud

At a time when debates about the distinction between man and artist are raging, it doesn't seem out of season to take an interest in Mikhail Bulgakov's Theatrical Novel, published in 1937. In this work, the author recounts, almost autobiographically, with sarcasm and feigned naiveté, the epic process of writing, publishing and adapting his first novel into a play.

Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov (1891-1940) is one of those authors who never confined himself to a single genre, as his very title The Theatrical Novel testifies. Novels, short stories, plays - it would be tedious to list them all. For the sake of completeness, we'll concentrate on his first novel, La Garde blanche (1925), and the theatrical adaptation he wrote of it.