James Hogg’s ghoulish metaphysical crime novel 'The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner' (1824) was presented as a found documented dating from the 17th century, describing in different voices the path to devilry of an antinomian Calvinist, Robert Wringhim. Mikhail Bulgakov’s 'The Master and Margarita', written between 1928 and 1940, also hinges around a pact with Satan (Woland), who arrives in Moscow to create mayhem among its literary community and helps reunite an outcast writer, the Master, with his lover, Margarita. In this episode, Marina and Adam look at the ways in which these two ferocious works of comic horror tackle the challenge of representing fanaticism, be it Calvinism or Bolshevism, and consider why both writers used the fantastical to test reality.

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Further reading in the LRB:

Liam McIlvanney on James Hogg:

⁠https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v26/n22/liam-mcilvanney/about-myself⁠

Michael Wood on Bulgakov:

⁠https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v19/n20/michael-wood/sympathy-for-the-devil