Annotations by Alexey Sklyarenko

Describing Villa Venus (Eric Veen’s floramors), Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) mentions a village in Normandy called, dreadfully, Deuil:

When Hugh Person (the main character in VN’s novel Transparent Things, 1972) first meets Armande, his future wife, on a Swiss local train, her hands are black-gloved:

When Hugh Person (the main character in VN’s novel Transparent Things, 1972) first meets Armande, she has a book, the paperback edition of Mr. R.’s novel Figures in a Golden Window, in her lap:

In the Russian version (1967) of Lolita VN adds a sentence about Dr Blue (the doctor in the Elphinstone hospital):

Я не люблю вас, доктор Блю, а почему вас не люблю, я сам не знаю, доктор Блю. Не сомневаюсь, что его ученость значительно уступала его репутации. Он уверил меня, что у нее "вирусная инфекция", и, когда я упомянул о ее недавней инфлуэнце, сухо сказал, что это другой микроб и что у него уже сорок таких пациентов на руках (все это звучит, конечно, как "горячка" старых беллетристов).

In VN’s novel Transparent Things (1972) Hugh Person strangles his wife Armande in his sleep, as he dreams of Julia Moore (Hugh's former mistress whom in his dream he struggles to save from falling to her death):

Just before the execution in VN’s novel Priglashenie na kazn’ (“Invitation to a Beheading,” 1935) the deputy city director mentions a comic opera Sokratis’, Sokratik (Socrates Must Decrease):

На помост, ловко и энергично (так что Цинциннат невольно отшатнулся), вскочил заместитель управляющего городом и, небрежно поставив одну, высоко поднятую ногу на плаху (был мастер непринужденного красноречия), громко объявил:

In VN’s story Usta k ustam (“Lips to Lips,” 1931) Euphratski calls Galatov Russkiy Dzhoys (the Russian Joyce):

In VN’s novel Lolita (1955) Humbert Humbert says that he always admired l'œuvre ormonde du sublime Dublinois (the Ormond masterpiece of the great Dubliner):

Describing his train trip to Kalugano, Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) mentions Cordula’s brief bright affair with Marquis Quizz Quisana:

In Memory of Don Johnson

In a botanical conversation in “Ardis the First” Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) puns “flowers into bloomers” and Ada mentions “mollyblob:”

Van: ‘That yellow thingum’ (pointing at a floweret prettily depicted on an Eckercrown plate) ‘— is it a buttercup?’