Vladimir Nabokov

Annotations by Alexey Sklyarenko

Description

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

By Alexey Sklyarenko , 22 October, 2023

Describing the difference between Terra and Antiterra (aka Demonia, Earth’s twin planet on which Ada is set), Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) mentions the deepest thinkers, the purest philosophers, Paar of Chose and Zapater of Aardvark:

 

By Alexey Sklyarenko , 21 October, 2023

Describing Shade's murder by Gradus, 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) quotes a line from Matthew Arnold's poem The Scholar-Gipsy (1853):

 

By Alexey Sklyarenko , 18 October, 2023

One of Countess de Fyler's two daughters, Fleur de Fyler (in VN's novel Pale Fire, 1962, Queen Disa's favorite lady-in-waiting) sleeps in a patifolia (a huge, oval, luxuriously flounced, swansdown pillow the size of a triple bed that Charles Xavier had installed in the middle of the Persian rug-covered floor):

 

By Alexey Sklyarenko , 16 October, 2023

Describing the forty days between Queen Blenda's death and his coronation, 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 a so-called patifolia (a huge, oval, luxuriously flounced, swansdown pillow the size of a triple bed) that Charles Xavier had installed in the middle of the Persian rug-covered floor:

 

By Alexey Sklyarenko , 15 October, 2023

In his Foreword and 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) mentions Professor Hurley, the fine administrator and inept scholar who since 1957 headed the English Department of Wordsmith College:

 

By Alexey Sklyarenko , 14 October, 2023

At the end of 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 himself "poor King, poor Kinbote:"

 

"And you, what will you be doing with yourself, poor King, poor Kinbote?" a gentle young voice may inquire.

By Alexey Sklyarenko , 13 October, 2023

At the dinner in Bellevue Hotel in Mont Roux Dorothy Vinelander (in VN's novel Ada, 1969, Ada's sister-in-law) tells Van that her brother (Andrey Vinelander, Ada's husband) is redchayshiy chelovek (a most rare human being):

 

By Alexey Sklyarenko , 11 October, 2023

Describing his first visit to Villa Venus (Eric Veen's floramors), Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) mentions la gosse, trembling Adada:

 

I have frequented bordels since my sixteenth year, but although some of the better ones, especially in France and Ireland, rated a triple red symbol in Nugg’s guidebook, nothing about them pre-announced the luxury and mollitude of my first Villa Venus. It was the difference between a den and an Eden.