Annotations by Alexey Sklyarenko

At the beginning of his poem John Shade (the poet in VN's novel Pale Fire, 1962) calls the snow-covered outdoor grounds "that crystal land:"

I was the shadow of the waxwing slain

By the false azure in the windowpane;

I was the smudge of ashen fluff - and I

Lived on, flew on, in the reflected sky.

And from the inside, too, I'd duplicate

Myself, my lamp, an apple on a plate:

Uncurtaining the night, I'd let dark glass

Hang all the furniture above the grass,

At the beginning of his Foreword 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) points out the fact that Shade's poem is written in heroic couplets:

In a conversation at the Faculty Club John Shade (the poet in VN's novel Pale Fire, 1962) tells Kinbote (Shade’s mad commentator who imagines that he is Charles the Beloved, the last self-exiled king of Zembla) that Judge Goldsworth (Kinbote's landlord who is on sabbatical in Europe) is "one of us:"

Shade [smiling and massaging my knee]: "Kings do not die - they only disappear, eh, Charles?"

"Who said that?" asked sharply, as if coming out of a trance, the ignorant, and always suspicious, Head of the English Department.

Describing his first road trip with Lolita across the USA, Humbert Humbert (the narrator and main character in VN's novel Lolita, 1955) mentions a hazy blue view beyond railings on a mountain pass, and the backs of a family (the McCrystals) enjoying it:

In his Foreword 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) quotes Shade's words “crystal to crystal:”

Describing the beginning of Demon's affair with Marina, Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) mentions Baron d'O. (or Baron O., a character in the stage perfomance in which Marina played the heroine) who strolled out of a side alley, all spurs and green tails:

Marina’s affair with Demon Veen started on his, her, and Daniel Veen’s birthday, January 5, 1868, when she was twenty-four and both Veens thirty.

Describing his first night on Admiral Tobakoff, Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) mentions the lake bearing his name in the ancient kingdom of Arrowroot:

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) mentions a canceled entry in his diary, "promnad vespert mid J. S.":

In VN's novel Ada (1969) Van's and Ada's parents and their half-sister Lucette are destroyed by three different elements:

Numbers and rows and series — the nightmare and malediction harrowing pure thought and pure time — seemed bent on mechanizing his mind. Three elements, fire, water, and air, destroyed, in that sequence, Marina, Lucette, and Demon. Terra waited. (3.1)

Describing the last years of his long life, Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN's novel Ada, 1969) calls himself "this strange, friendless, rather repulsive nonagenarian:"