To a secret friend

"A Theatrical Novel" is a captivating, at times funny, at times sad and tragic, account of the everyday life and backstage life of the most famous Russian theater of the 20th century, the Moscow Art Theater, as well as the fate of the writer and his manuscript. Who and what isn't here! This is a unique chronicle of the young author's "trips" (in which Bulgakov himself and his play "The Days of the Turbins" are easily recognizable) through the theatrical and artistic life of Moscow. Among the people he meets are many famous writers, theater figures, and stage stars of the 1930s—from Alexei Tolstoy, Stanislavsky, and Nemirovich-Danchenko to Olga Knipper-Chekhova and Valentin Kataev. Don't be surprised, Bulgakov speaks very unflatteringly of all these celebrities—this is his alternative view of them, but that makes it all the more interesting. The collection also includes the unfinished story "To a Secret Friend."