Annotations by Alexey Sklyarenko

On the eve of his last and longest (seventeen-year-long) separation with Ada (who refuses to leave her ill husband, Andrey Vinelander) Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) returns from a trip to Sorcière where he bought a villa for himself and Ada (officially, Van’s cousin) and had supper with the former owner, a banker’s widow, amiable Mme Scarlet and her blond, pimply but pretty, daughter Eveline:

Describing the decline of Villa Venus (Eric Veen’s floramors), Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) mentions the Rajah of Cachou (an impostor) who was infected with a venereal disease by a (genuine) great-grandniece of Empress Josephine:

According to Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969), a set of Flavita (Russian Scrabble) was given to Marina’s children (Van, Ada and Lucette) by Baron Klim Avidov:

Telling Van that she has to finish a translation for Mlle Larivière (Lucette’s governess), Ada says that she will be down in exactly sixty-three minutes:

The main character in VN’s novel Bend Sinister (1947), Adam Krug is a celebrated philosopher. In Chapter One (XXIII: 14) of Eugene Onegin Pushkin calls Onegin "a philosopher at eighteen years of age:"

Изображу ль в картине верной

Уединенный кабинет,

Где мод воспитанник примерный

Одет, раздет и вновь одет?

Because her fingernails are badly bitten, Ada introduces the view to Van (who just came to Ardis and had tea with Marina and Ada) pollice verso (Lat., thumbs down):

On the morning following the Night of the Burning Barn (when they make love for the first time) Van and Ada agree to go for a walk before lunch and find a secluded place and Ada tells Van to wait for her in the Baguenaudier Bower:

When Demon Veen (in VN’s novel Ada, 1969, Van’s and Ada’s father) visits Ardis in the summer of 1888 and is greeted by Ada, Van experiences umilenie, attendrissement:

Here Ada herself came running into the room. Yes-yes-yes-yes, here I come. Beaming!

After their dinner in ‘Ursus’ and debauch à trois with Lucette (in VN’s novel Ada, 1969, Van’s and Ada’s half-sister) in Van’s Manhattan flat Ada stretches across Van toward a box of Wipex (apparently, paper towels):

When Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) describes his nights at Ardis, Ada takes over and mentions a minty whiff of Summer Savory or Yerba Buena on a coastal slope that has to be smelled through the transparency of death and ardent beauty: