Annotations by Alexey Sklyarenko

In VN’s novel Priglashenie na kazn’ (“Invitation to a Beheading,” 1935) Cincinnatus’s brother-in-law sings from an opera:

The narrator and main character in VN’s novel Otchayanie (“Despair,” 1934), Hermann is a chocolate manufacturer. The trademark on the wrapper of Hermann's chocolate shows dama v lilovom (a lady in lilac), with a fan:

Looking for the title of his manuscript, Hermann (the narrator and main character in Despair) considers Zerkalo ("A Mirror"), Skhodstvo (“The Likeness”) and Poet i chern’ (“The Poet and the Rabble”):

On his way to Koenigsdorf Hermann (the narrator and main character in Despair) meets two schoolboys with unpleasant birdlike features that make him think of voronyata (young crows):

At the beginning of VN’s novel Look at the Harlequins! (1974) Vadim Vadimovich mentions the Glowworm Group directed by Ivor Black, a fine amateur actor:

In his essay The Texture of Time (1924) Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) mentions Alice in the Camera Obscura, a book that was given to him on his eighth birthday:

As he speaks to dying Rack (Lucette’s music teacher who was poisoned by his jealous wife Elsie and dies in Ward Five of the Kalugano hospital), Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) mentions the “agony of agony,” Professor Lamort’s felicitous pleonasm:

According to Hermann (the narrator and main character in Despair), Felix likes rhymed adages:

Ты на войне побывал?" – спросил я и несколько раз сряду прочистил горло, – голос был хриплый.

"Да, – ответил он, – а что?"

"Так, ничего. Здорово боялся, что убьют, – правда?"

Он подмигнул и проговорил загадочно:

"У всякой мыши – свой дом, но не всякая мышь выходит оттуда".

Я уже успел заметить, что он любит пошлые прибаутки, в рифму; не стоило ломать себе голову над тем, какую, собственно, мысль он желал выразить.

According to Orlovius (a character in VN’s novel Despair, 1934), the chief thing by him is optimismus:

According to Hermann (the narrator and main character in Despair), after the murder of Felix he cannot put up with mirrors: