Annotations by Alexey Sklyarenko

Describing his debauch á trois with Ada snd Lucette after the dinner in ‘Ursus,’ Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) mentions a bordel's vue d’oiseau:

During one of their ten meetings in Mont Roux in October 1905 Ada (now married to Andrey Vinelander) tells Van (Van Veen, the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) about her campng out in the mountains with Mayo, a cowhand:

‘My upper-lip space feels indecently naked.’ (He had shaved his mustache off with howls of pain in her presence). ‘And I cannot keep sucking in my belly all the time.’

Describing the case of Spencer Muldoon, Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) mentions nurse Langford:

A teasy problem demanded Dr Veen’s presence in England.

According to Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969), in her tight rubber cap Lucette (Van’s and Ada’s half-sister) evokes the Helmeted Angel of the Yukonsk Ikon whose magic effect is said to change anemic blond maidens into konskie deti, freckled red-haired lads, children of the Sun Horse:

According to Dorothy Vinelander (in VN's novel Ada, 1969, Ada's sister-in-law), Demon Veen (Van's and Ada's father who in March 1905 perishes in a mysterious airplane disaster above the Pacific) resembled a Russian aristocrat much more than he did an Irish Baron:

According to Dorothy Vinelander (in VN's novel Ada, 1969, Ada's sister-in-law), Demon Veen (Van's and Ada's father who perishes in a mysterious airplane disaster above the Pacific) resembled a Russian aristocrat much more than he did an Irish Baron:

Describing the family dinner in "Ardis the Second," Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) mentions the Great Lake of Slaves:

In VN's novel Ada (1969) Andrey Vinelander's postscript to Ada's letter to Van begins with the words Dushevno klanyayus’ (I sincerely bow):

In a letter to Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) Ada (now married to Andrey Vinelander) calls herself "a petite fille modèle practicing archery near a vase and a parapet:"

At the beginning of VN's novel Ada (1969) Van Veen (the narrator and main character) speaks of his ancestors and mentions Macedonian and Bavarian settlers who enjoy a halcyon climate under the American Stars and Stripes: