Annotations by Alexey Sklyarenko

In Canto Four of his poem John Shade (the poet in VN’s novel Pale Fire, 1962) describes shaving:

Since my biographer may be too staid

Or know too little to affirm that Shade

Shaved in his bath, here goes: "He'd fixed a sort

Of hinge-and-screw affair, a steel support

Running across the tub to hold in place

The shaving mirror right before his face

In Canto Three of his poem John Shade (the poet in VN's novel Pale Fire, 1962) speaks of IPH (a lay Institute of Preparation for the Hereafter) and mentions "big if:"

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) describes Hazel Shade’s and his own attempts to decipher a message from the ghost:

Jane allowed me to copy out some of Hazel's notes from a typescript based on jottings made on the spot: 

10:14 P.M. Investigation commenced.

In Canto Two of his poem John Shade (the poet in VN’s novel Pale Fire, 1962) speaks of his daughter and says that she twisted words:

                         She twisted words: pot, top
Spider, redips. And "powder" was "red wop."
She called you a didactic katydid.
She hardly ever smiled, and when she did,

According to Kinbote (Shade’s mad commentator who imagines that he is Charles the Beloved, the last self-exiled king of Zembla), in a conversation with him Shade (the poet in VN’s novel Pale Fire, 1962) compared Shakespeare to a Great Dane and himself, to a grateful mongrel:

In his Commentary to Shade’s poem Kinbote (who imagines that he is Charles the Beloved, the last self-exiled king of Zembla) mentions Odon (a world-famous actor and Zemblan patriot who helps the King to escape from Zembla) and a mad Mandevil who had lost a leg in trying to make anti-matter:

In Canto Two of his poem John Shade (the poet in VN's novel Pale Fire, 1962) says that he and his wife Sybil have been married forty years and mentions free calendars:

At the beginning of Canto Three of his poem John Shade (the poet in VN's novel Pale Fire, 1962) mentions l’if, lifeless tree, the grand potato and Yewshade:

L'if, lifeless tree! Your great Maybe, Rabelais:

According to John Shade (the poet in VN's novel Pale Fire, 1962), his daughter always nursed a small mad hope:

I think she always nursed a small mad hope. (Line 383)

In Canto Three of his poem Shade tells about IPH (a lay Institute of Preparation for the Hereafter) and, at the end of the Canto, mentions "faint hope:"

Here is a revised (much more interesting) version of my post of Oct. 10, 2015, “Nova Zembla & Judge Goldsworth in Pale Fire.” Enjoy!

Professor Pardon now spoke to me: "I was under the impression that you were born in Russia, and that your name was a kind of anagram of Botkin or Botkine?"