Annotations by Alexey Sklyarenko

Describing his face, Hermann Karlovich, the narrator and main character in VN's novel Otchayanie ("Despair," 1934), compares a vein on his forehead to nedocherchennaya "mysl'" (a capital M imperfectly drawn):

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), he has his moments of volatility and fou rire:

Line 270: My dark Vanessa

Describing his transatlantic journey with Lucette (Van's and Ada's half-sister) on Admiral Tobakoff, Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) mentions the Helmeted Angel of the Yukonsk Ikon whose magic effect was said to change anemic blond maidens into konskie deti, freckled red-haired lads, children of the Sun Horse:

Quite kindly he asked where she thought she was going.

Describing his transatlantic journey with Lucette (Van's and Ada's half-sister) on Admiral Tobakoff, Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) mentions the Helmeted Angel of the Yukonsk Ikon whose magic effect was said to change anemic blond maidens into konskie deti, freckled red-haired lads, children of the Sun Horse:

Quite kindly he asked where she thought she was going.

A character in VN’s novel Ada (1969), Dorothy Vinelander (Ada's sister-in-law) eventually marries a Mr Brod or Bred, tender and passionate, dark and handsome, who travels in eucharistials and other sacramental objects throughout the Severnïya Territorii:

She [Ada] asked for a handkerchief, and he [Van] pulled out a blue one from his windjacket pocket, but her tears had started to roll and she shaded her eyes, while he stood before her with outstretched hand.

Describing the torments and suicide of poor mad Aqua (the twin sister of Van’s, Ada’s and Lucette’s mother Marina), Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) mentions a Dr Froid, one of the administerial centaurs, and the Dr Froit of Signy-Mondieu-Mondieu in the Ardennes, both of whom came from Vienne, Isère:

In March 1905 Demon Veen (in VN's novel Ada, 1969, Van's and Ada's father) perishes in a mysterious airplane disaster above the Pacific. A month before Demon's death Ada (now married to Andrey Vinelander) wrote a letter to Van telling him that they can meet in October:

Describing his reunion with Ada in December 1892, Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) mentions Ardis’ crisp bacon:

In his apologetic note to Lucette (in VN's novel Ada, 1969, Van's and Ada's half-sister) written after the dinner in ‘Ursus’ and debauch à trois in Van’s Manhattan flat Van says "we apollo" (meaning that he and Ada apologize for coaxing Lucette into their lovemaking):

Van walked over to a monastic lectern that he had acquired for writing in the vertical position of vertebrate thought and wrote what follows:

Poor L. 

In VN's novel Ada (1969) Demon Veen (Van's and Ada's father) learns about his children's affair by chance, thanks to Daniel Veen's odd Boschean death. On his way to Dan's lawyer Demon nearly runs into Mrs Arfour, a dentist's widow with a caterpillar dog: