Annotations by Alexey Sklyarenko

The narrator and main character in VN's novel Ada (1969), Van Veen calls his and Ada's ear-trumpet age our "dot-dot-dotage:"

Before the family dinner in "Ardis the Second" Demon Veen (in VN's novel Ada, 1969, Van's and Ada's father) recollects a batch of old, orange-juice-stained Povesa (playboy) magazines that he saw in Akapulkovo (a Mexican resort whose name blends Acapulco with Pulkovo, the site of an observatory and airport near St. Petersburg):

Demon shed his monocle and wiped his eyes with the modish lace-frilled handkerchief that lodged in the heart pocket of his dinner jacket. His tear glands were facile in action when no real sorrow made him control himself.

Describing the torments of poor mad Aqua (the twin sister of Van's, Ada's and Lucette's mother Marina), Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN's novel Ada, 1969) mentions stone-heavy-dead St Zeus whom they carried through the gradual, gradual shade:

Describing the beginning of his life-long romance with Ada, Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN's novel Ada, 1969) mentions his diary, a shagreen-bound book:

Offering Ada a ride in the park, Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) mentions two horses, Pardus and Peg:

‘Now let’s go out for a breath of crisp air,’ suggested Van. ‘I’ll order Pardus and Peg to be saddled.’

Describing Lucette's visit to Kingston (Van's American University), Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN's novel Ada, 1969) mentions old Rattner, resident pessimist of genius: 

At the end of VN's novel Ada (1969) Dr Lagosse makes Van and Ada the last merciful injection of morphine:

Was it time for the morphine? No, not yet. Time-and-pain had not been mentioned in the Texture. Pity, since an element of pure time enters into pain, into the thick, steady, solid duration of I-can’t-bear-it pain; nothing gray-gauzy about it, solid as a black bole, I can’t, oh, call Lagosse.

Humbert Humbert (the narrator and main character in VN's novel Lolita, 1955) comes to Ramsdale and falls in love with Dolores Haze in June, 1947. At the time of his first meeting with Lolita Humbert (who was born in Paris, in 1910) is thirty-seven (the age of Pushkin's death) and Lolita (who was born on January 1, 1935) is twelve (the poet's murderer, George d'Anthès, and the poet's wife, Natalia Nikolaevna, were born in 1812, the year of Napoleon's invasion of Russia). VN was born in 1899, a hundred years after Pushkin's birth.

In VN's novel Look at the Harlequins! (1974) Other Books by the Narrator include A Kingdom by the Sea (1962), Vadim's novel that corresponds to VN's Lolita (1955). At the Orly airport on his way back from Leningrad Vadim Vadimovich (the narrator and main character in LATH) finds a copy of his novel:

Describing his trip to Leningrad, Vadim Vadimovich (the narrator and main character in VN's novel Look at the Harlequins!, 1974) calls Pushkin "our National Poet:"