full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Alex Gendler: Why should you read "The Master and Margarita"?

Unscramble the Blue Letters

So how did Bulgakov maagne to publish such a subversive novel under an oppressive regime? Well… he didn’t. He wkoerd on "The Master and Margarita" for over ten years. But while Stalin’s personal favor may have kept Bulgakov safe from severe persecution, many of his plays and wtnirigs were kept from production, leaving him safe but effectively slinceed. Upon the author’s death in 1940, the manuscript remained ueshbipunld. A censored version was eventually printed in the 1960s, while copies of the unabridged mrcupisant continued to circulate among uogrrdeunnd literary circles. The full text was only published in 1973, over 30 years after its completion.

Open Cloze

So how did Bulgakov ______ to publish such a subversive novel under an oppressive regime? Well… he didn’t. He ______ on "The Master and Margarita" for over ten years. But while Stalin’s personal favor may have kept Bulgakov safe from severe persecution, many of his plays and ________ were kept from production, leaving him safe but effectively ________. Upon the author’s death in 1940, the manuscript remained ___________. A censored version was eventually printed in the 1960s, while copies of the unabridged __________ continued to circulate among ___________ literary circles. The full text was only published in 1973, over 30 years after its completion.

Solution

  1. writings
  2. worked
  3. manage
  4. underground
  5. manuscript
  6. silenced
  7. unpublished

Original Text

So how did Bulgakov manage to publish such a subversive novel under an oppressive regime? Well… he didn’t. He worked on "The Master and Margarita" for over ten years. But while Stalin’s personal favor may have kept Bulgakov safe from severe persecution, many of his plays and writings were kept from production, leaving him safe but effectively silenced. Upon the author’s death in 1940, the manuscript remained unpublished. A censored version was eventually printed in the 1960s, while copies of the unabridged manuscript continued to circulate among underground literary circles. The full text was only published in 1973, over 30 years after its completion.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
dark humor 2

Important Words

  1. bulgakov
  2. censored
  3. circles
  4. circulate
  5. completion
  6. continued
  7. copies
  8. death
  9. effectively
  10. eventually
  11. favor
  12. full
  13. leaving
  14. literary
  15. manage
  16. manuscript
  17. master
  18. oppressive
  19. persecution
  20. personal
  21. plays
  22. printed
  23. production
  24. publish
  25. published
  26. regime
  27. remained
  28. safe
  29. severe
  30. silenced
  31. subversive
  32. ten
  33. text
  34. unabridged
  35. underground
  36. unpublished
  37. version
  38. worked
  39. writings
  40. years