Annotations by Alexey Sklyarenko

In Canto Two of his poem John Shade (the poet in VN's novel Pale Fire, 1962) speaks of afterlife and mentions the Turk's delight: 

So why join in the vulgar laughter? Why

Scorn a hereafter none can verify:

The Turk's delight, the future lyres, the talks

With Socrates and Proust in cypress walks,

The seraph with his six flamingo wings,

And Flemish hells with porcupines and things?

It isn't that we dream too wild a dream:

The trouble is we do not make it seem

Sufficiently unlikely; for the most

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 once told Shade "people who live in glass houses should not write poems:"

Describing Gradus’ trip from the Wordsmith University Library to Judge Goldsworth’s house in New Wye, 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 the trilby that he hopes was forgotten by Gradus in Gerald Emerald’s car:

Gradus returned to the Main Desk.

"Too bad," said the girl, "I just saw him leave."

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 was introduced to Shade on Monday, February 16, 1959:

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 maiden name of Shade’s mother was Caroline Lukin:

In VN's novel Pnin (1957) the narrator several times mentions Frieze Hall at Waindell College:

The characters in VN's novel Pnin (1957) include Sam Poore, President of Waindell College:

In Canto Three of his poem John Shade (the poet in VN’s novel Pale Fire, 1962) describes his heart attack and mentions Lang, the artist who made his wife's portrait:

It was a year of Tempests: Hurricane
Lolita swept from Florida to Maine.
Mars glowed. Shahs married. Gloomy Russians spied.
Lang made your portrait. And one night I died. (ll. 679-682)

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) calls Queen Disa (the wife of Charles the Beloved) "a banished queen:"

Describing his visit to a Mrs. Z. in Canto Three of his poem, John Shade (the poet in VN’s novel Pale Fire, 1962) mentions Mrs. Z.'s blue hair:

It was a story in a magazine

About a Mrs. Z. whose heart had been

Rubbed back to life by a prompt surgeon's hand.

She told her interviewer of "The Land

Beyond the Veil" and the account contained

A hint of angels, and a glint of stained

Windows, and some soft music, and a choice

Of hymnal items, and her mother's voice;