Vladimir Nabokov

Annotations by Alexey Sklyarenko

Description

Please read Alexey Sklyarenko's annotations on Pale FireAda and other Nabokov works here.

By Alexey Sklyarenko, 15 April, 2024

Describing his first arrival at Ardis, Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN's novel Ada, 1969) mentions Torfyanka, a dreamy hamlet consisting of three or four log izbas, a milkpail repair shop and a smithy smothered in jasmine:

 

By Alexey Sklyarenko, 12 April, 2024

In her letter to Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN's novel Ada, 1969) Ada Vinelander (Van's sister and lover who is now married to Andrey Vinelander) says that her sister-in-law, Dorothy Vinelander (Dasha), finished Chose where she read History:

 

By Alexey Sklyarenko, 12 April, 2024

At the beginning of Canto Four of his poem John Shade (the poet in VN’s novel Pale Fire, 1962) says that now he will spy on beauty as none has spied on it yet:

 

Now I shall spy on beauty as none has
Spied on it yet. Now I shall cry out as
None has cried out. Now I shall try what none
Has tried. Now I shall do what none has done.
And speaking of this wonderful machine: