Vladimir Nabokov

Annotations by Alexey Sklyarenko

Description

Please read Alexey Sklyarenko's annotations on Pale FireAda and other Nabokov works here.

By Alexey Sklyarenko, 17 July, 2024

Describing the king’s escape from Zembla, Kinbote (in VN’s novel Pale Fire, 1962, Shade’s mad commentator who imagines that he is Charles the Beloved, the last self-exiled king of Zembla) mentions lazy Garh, the farmer's daughter who shows to the king the shortest way to the pass:

 

By Alexey Sklyarenko, 16 July, 2024

Describing the king’s escape from Zembla, Kinbote (in VN’s novel Pale Fire, 1962, Shade’s mad commentator who imagines that he is Charles the Beloved, the last self-exiled king of Zembla) mentions an old gold piece that the king asked Griff, a gnarled grunter (mountain farmer), to accept:

 

By Alexey Sklyarenko, 15 July, 2024

In his poem about a miragarl ("mirage girl") quoted by Kinbote (in VN’s novel Pale Fire, 1962, Shade’s mad commentator who imagines that he is Charles the Beloved, the last self-exiled king of Zembla) in his commentary the society poet and sculptor Arnor mentions a dream king in the sandy wastes of time and three hundred camels:

 

By Alexey Sklyarenko, 12 July, 2024

In his commentary to Shade's poem Kinbote (in VN’s novel Pale Fire, 1962, Shade’s mad commentator who imagines that he is Charles the Beloved, the last self-exiled king of Zembla) calls Professor Pnin, the Head of the bloated Russian Department at Wordsmith University, "a regular martinet in regard to his underlings:"

 

By Alexey Sklyarenko, 12 July, 2024

According to Kinbote (in VN’s novel Pale Fire, 1962, Shade’s mad commentator who imagines that he is Charles the Beloved, the last self-exiled king of Zembla), Leningradus (as Kinbote mockingly calls Jakob Gradus, Shade's murderer) should not aim his peashooter at people even in dreams:

 

By Alexey Sklyarenko, 11 July, 2024

Describing the death of Queen Blenda, Kinbote (in VN’s novel Pale Fire, 1962, Shade’s mad commentator who imagines that he is Charles the Beloved, the last self-exiled king of Zembla) mentions Otar, the Prince's platonic pal, a pleasant and cultured adeling with a tremendous nose and sparse hair:

 

By Alexey Sklyarenko, 10 July, 2024

Describing the death of Queen Blenda, Kinbote (in VN’s novel Pale Fire, 1962, Shade’s mad commentator who imagines that he is Charles the Beloved, the last self-exiled king of Zembla) mentions Otar, the Prince's platonic pal, a pleasant and cultured adeling with a tremendous nose and sparse hair: