TY  - BOOK
AU  -  Bulgakov, Mikhail
AU  - Aplin, Hugh
TI  - Diaboliad, and other stories
SN  - 9781847494726
AV  - PZ3.B869  PG3476.B78
CY  - London : Alma Classics, 2016
KW  - Bulgakov, Mikhail
KW  - Soviet Union
KW  - Social life and customs
KW  - Fiction
KW  - READING IN ENGLISH
KW  - Russian literature
KW  - Literary classics
N1  - contains: Diaboliad, ‘No.13 -- The Elpit Workers -- Commune Building --  A Chinese Tale -- The Adventures of Chichikov
N2  - In Bulgakov’s ‘Diaboliad’, the modest and unassuming office clerk Korotkov is summarily sacked for a trifling error from his job at the Main Central Depot of Match Materials and tries to seek out his newly assigned superior, responsible for his dismissal. His quest through the labyrinth of Soviet bureaucracy takes on the increasingly surreal dimensions of a nightmare.

This early satirical story, reminiscent of Gogol and Dostoevsky, was first published in 1924 and incurred the wrath of pro-Soviet critics. Along with the three other stories in this volume, which also explore the themes of the absurd and bizarre, it provides a fascinating glimpse into the artistic development of the author of The Master and Margarita
ER  -