ABSTRACT
From Pushkin’s time to the present day students of Russian literature have treated comparisons of all kinds with a certain caution. Thus it was that when first contemplating the present essay the author of these lines took the precaution of writing to Salman Rushdie to enquire whether he was acquainted with Bulgakov’s novel, and, if not, to recommend it to him. After a delay caused by absurd and tragic circumstances which are too well known to require description, on 9 October 1990 Salman Rushdie replied in a courteous letter of which the following is the most substantial part:
I am, of course, well aware of Bulgakov’s work, and am a devoted admirer of The Master and Margarita in particular. You are quite right to say that there are some parallels with The Satanic Verses, most obviously in the structure (a fantastic, quasi-historical reinvention of a religious story, set within another narrative). And if the Devil comes to Moscow in Bulgakov’s book, then a sort of devilish angel and angelic devil descend on London in mine. Even though the processes by which the interpolated narratives are made to work, and their functions within the text, are rather different in the two works; and even though my devil/angels are a very far cry from Bulgakov’s use of Lucifer himself, the echoes are there, and not unconsciously.1
