Vladimir Nabokov

Annotations by Alexey Sklyarenko

Description

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

By Alexey Sklyarenko , 16 January, 2026

When Humbert Humbert (the narrator and main character in VN's novel Lolita, 1955) alludes to Lolita's comparatively recent flu, Dr Blue (the chief physician in the Elphinstone hospital) curtly says that this is another bug, he has forty such cases on his hands: 

 

By Alexey Sklyarenko , 15 January, 2026

In the “cryptogrammic paper chase” that Clare Quilty prepares for Humbert's frustration and loads with theatrical allusions Humbert Humbert (the narrator and main character in VN's novel Lolita, 1955) discovers the silly but funny “D. Orgon, Elmira, NY:”

 

By Alexey Sklyarenko , 15 January, 2026

Describing his visit to Ivor Quilty (the Ramsdale dentist), Humbert Humbert (the narrator and main character in VN's novel Lolita, 1955) mentally tells Clare Quilty (a playwright and pornographer whom Humbert murders for abducting Lolita from the Elphinstone hospital) “Réveillez-vous, Laqueue, il est temps de mourir!  (Wake up, Laqueue, it is time to die!):"

 

By Alexey Sklyarenko , 14 January, 2026

Describing his visit to Ivor Quilty (the Ramsdale dentist), Humbert Humbert (the narrator and main character in VN's novel Lolita, 1955) says that he had been keeping Clare Quilty’s face masked in his dark dungeon, where Quilty (a playwright and pornographer whom Humbert murders for abducting Lolita from the Elphinstone hospital) was waiting for him to come with barber and priest: