Annotations by Alexey Sklyarenko

Describing his first arrival at Ardis, Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN's novel Ada, 1969) mentions Torfyanka, a dreamy hamlet consisting of three or four log izbas, a milkpail repair shop and a smithy smothered in jasmine:

According to Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN's novel Ada, 1969), the pink-blooming chestnuts of Chose (Van's English University) always induced in him an amorous mood:

Describing his first erotic experience at Riverlane (Van's boarding school), Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN's novel Ada, 1969) mentions the round creamy charms of Bronzino’s Cupid:

Describing the picnic on Ada's twelfth birthday, when he walks on his hands for the first time, Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN's novel Ada, 1969) compares his Riverlane boarding school to a prison:

In her letter to Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN's novel Ada, 1969) Ada Vinelander (Van's sister and lover who is now married to Andrey Vinelander) says that her sister-in-law, Dorothy Vinelander (Dasha), finished Chose where she read History:

At the beginning of Canto Four of his poem John Shade (the poet in VN’s novel Pale Fire, 1962) says that now he will spy on beauty as none has spied on it yet:

Now I shall spy on beauty as none has
Spied on it yet. Now I shall cry out as
None has cried out. Now I shall try what none
Has tried. Now I shall do what none has done.
And speaking of this wonderful machine:

In a conversation at the Faculty Club John Shade (the poet in VN’s novel Pale Fire, 1962) says that the last King of Zembla walked out of the palace, and crossed the mountains, and left the country, not in the black garb of a pale spinster but dressed as an athlete in scarlet wool:

In Canto One of his poem John Shade (the poet in VN’s novel Pale Fire, 1962) speaks of his childhood and says that he was brought up by dear bizarre Aunt Maud:

According to 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), Gradus (Shade’s murderer) is a cross between bat and crab:

The grotesque figure of Gradus, a cross between bat and crab, was not much odder than many other Shadows, such as, for example, Nodo, Odon's epileptic half-brother who cheated at cards, or a mad Mandevil who had lost a leg in trying to make anti-matter. (note to Line 171)

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) tells about his uncle Conmal (the Zemblan translator of Shakespeare) and mentions the verbal inferno that Conmal preferred to a quiet military career: