Trivia / A Theatrical Novel

• Black Sheep Hit: A Theatrical Novel is obviously smaller in scope than The Master And Margarita. However it also never sins about good taste as M&M is somewhat trashy in many spots due to good helping of mystical and erotical bits on its pages. A Theatrical Novel doesn't include any fanservice at all, no Jesus, Satan, naked women or huge talking cats, it is thoroughly serious (albeit satyrical) work. Thus quite a few readers say that this is the strongest work by Bulgakov, though it cannot compete with the popularity of M&M.
• Completely Different Title: In English it can be either A Theatrical Novel or Black Snow, after a novel by Maksudov and it dramatisation.
• Died During Production: Bulgakov quit the novel in 1937 with still 3 years to live. Had he not stopped writing he could have finished it in the same year. However had he not died in 1940 he could have returned to A Theatrical Novel later. In the last months of his life, late 1939 and early 1940 Bulgakov directed all his efforts at his magnum opus - TheMasterAndMargarita. His hopes for the literary immortality were mostly based on that book so there was no way he would spend a minute on A Theatrical Novel.
• What Could Have Been: Word of Saint Paul had it that Bulgakov had planned where the plot of the novel should go. He intended that Aristarch Platonovich should return from India, but hewould not be any more responsive to Maksudov than Ivan Vasilievich. Maksudov himself would get engaged with a theatre decorator Aurora Gocier but the girl would later die of consumption. Then The Black Snow will still premiere in MAT but the critical and public response will be generally negative. Then Maksudov would jump off the bridge.
• Word of Saint Paul: Elena Bulgakova, the wife of Mikhail Bulgakov, kept the manuscript of the novel after her husband's death, also proofreading its text. Her other significant contribution was to attribite real-life identities to numerous characters of the roman à clef. She made a Long List of corresponences between the heroes and actual people.