Mikhail Bulgakov
Burgin & O'Connor · 1995
Diana Burgin and Katherine Tiernan O'Connor's 1995 translation is the one I'd start with — it reads beautifully in English while staying close to Bulgakov, with excellent notes drawing on decades of scholarship. (The unabridged audiobook uses it too.) Some rank P&V higher for fidelity; for a first read, this is the most enjoyable. This is where I'd start.
Pevear & Volokhonsky · 1997
Pevear and Volokhonsky let the English strain to keep Bulgakov's Russian logic, which makes their version feel more austere — and, to many scholars, more faithful. The 50th-anniversary Penguin Deluxe is the handsome one. Choose it if you want the flavor of the original over smoothness.
Michael Glenny · 1967
Michael Glenny's 1967 translation was the first into English and still reads the most smoothly — but it was made from an early text and is the least accurate of the three. Fine if readability is everything; not the one for studying what Bulgakov actually wrote.
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