Annotations by Alexey Sklyarenko

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

In VN’s novel Otchayanie (Despair, 1934) Hermann mentions Pascal’s wise thought about two persons who resemble each other:

Кажется у Паскаля встрeчается гдe-то умная фраза о том, что двое похожих друг на друга людей особого интереса в отдeльности не представляют, но коль скоро появляются вмeстe -- сенсация. Паскаля самого я не читал и не помню, гдe слямзил это изречение.

In VN’s novel Look at the Harlequins! (1974) Other Books by the Narrator include Vadim’s novel The Dare (1950):

In VN's novel Otchayanie (“Despair,” 1934) Hermann speaks of mirrors and mentions krivye zerkala, zerkala-chudovishcha (crooked mirrors, monsters among mirrors):

In a letter to Hermann (the narrator and main character in VN's novel Otchayanie, “Despair,” 1934) Ardalion compares Hermann to a great grisly wild boar with putrid tusks:

While sleeping at a hotel with Felix, Hermann (the narrator and main character in VN's novel Otchayanie, “Despair,” 1934) dreams of lzhesobachka (a small mock dog):

In VN’s novel Transparent Things (1972) the narrators mention Hugh Person’s main “umbral companion:”

In VN's novel Otchayanie (Despair,” 1934) Hermann suggests that Ardalion tries drawing his face in profile:

In VN's novel Otchayanie (Despair,” 1934) Hermann says that he does not believe in God and mentions beskonechnaya igra (the endless acting of the fiends in disguise who impersonate our dear dead in the hereafter):

In Canto One of his poem John Shade (the poet in VN’s novel Pale Fire, 1962) compares our world to a cage and says that “we are most artistically caged:”

My picture book was at an early age

The painted parchment papering our cage:

Mauve rings around the moon; blood-orange sun;

Twinned Iris; and that rare phenomenon

The iridule - when, beautiful and strange,