
The Master and Margarita
Mikhail Bulgakov · 1930
The Devil visits Stalin-era Moscow and chaos ensues. Bulgakov wrote it knowing it could never be published in his lifetime; the manuscript was completed around 1940, not published until 1966. The satire is savage, the love story is transcendent, and the magical realism is total.
Literary Fiction · the Pro canon
The case for it, the case against, and the rest of the canon open with Pro.