Annotations by Alexey Sklyarenko

In VN's novel Lolita (1955) Humbert Humbert is afraid that his wife Charlotte will bundle off Lolita to St. Algebra:

There was a woodlake (Hourglass Lake - not as I had thought it was spelled) a few miles from Ramsdale, and there was one week of great heat at the end of July when we drove there daily. I am now obliged to describe in some tedious detail our last swim there together, one tropical Tuesday morning.

Describing the Zemblan Revolution, 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) mentions Queen Disa's Italianate villa built by her grandfather in 1908:

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), the Zemblan Revolution broke out on May 1, 1958:

In VN’s novel Lolita (1955) Lolita is sent by her mother to Camp Q where she is debauched by Charlie Holmes, the camp-mistress's son. Q in the camp's name is a qui pro quo (Lat., "who instead of whom," a bummel). Quo vadis? ("Whither goest thou?") are St. Peter's first words to the risen Christ during their encounter along the Appian Way. To Peter's question Christ replies: Romam eo iterum crucifigi ("I am going to Rome to be crucified again").

In his letter to Demon Veen (in VN's novel Ada, 1969, Van's and Ada's father) written before his duel with Captain Tapper, of Wild Violet Lodge, Van Veen says that his adversary may be the chap who was thrown out of one of Demon's gaming clubs for attempting oral intercourse with the washroom attendant, a toothless old cripple, veteran of the first Crimean War:

Describing Demon’s sword duel with Baron d’Onsky (‘Skonky’), Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN's novel Ada, 1969) mentions smart little Vatican, a Roman spa:

In Canto One of his poem John Shade (the poet in VN’s novel Pale Fire, 1962) speaks of his childhood and says that, as a little boy, he prayed for everybody to be always well:

A preterist: one who collects cold nests.

Here was my bedroom, now reserved for guests.

Here, tucked away by the Canadian maid,

I listened to the buzz downstairs and prayed

For everybody to be always well,

Uncles and aunts, the maid, her niece Adéle

Who'd seen the Pope, people in books, and God. (ll. 79-85)

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:

Describing his first arrival at Ardis, Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN's novel Ada, 1969) mentions the farmannikin (a special kind of box kite, untraceable nowadays even in the greatest museums housing the toys of the past):

In a theological dispute with Shade (the poet in VN’s novel Pale Fire, 1962) Kinbote (Shade’s mad commentator who imagines that he is Charles the Beloved, the last self-exiled king of Zembla) quotes St. Augustine's words "One can know what God is not; one cannot know what He is:"