Annotations by Alexey Sklyarenko

In his commentary and index 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) mentions King Alfin (the father of Charles the Beloved): 

One of the three main characters in VN's novel Pale Fire (1962), Jakob Gradus is a member of the Shadows (a regicidal organization). "Keep your face always toward the sunshine—and shadows will fall behind you" are the words often attributed to Walt Whitman (an American poet, 1819-1892).* This famous quote is widely shared by photographers to describe golden-hour portrait lighting.

Describing his rented house, 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) compares himself to a participant in a regatta:

Lines 47-48: the frame house between Goldsworth and Wordsmith

In Canto Two of his poem John Shade (the poet in VN’s novel Pale Fire, 1962) speaks of his dead daughter and says that she called her mother "a didactic katydid:"

                         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,

In his commentary to Shade's poem Kinbote (in VN’s novel Pale Fire, 1962, Shade’s commentator who imagines that he is Charles the Beloved, the last self-exiled king of Zembla) says that solitude is the playfield of Satan:

At the end of his commentary to Shade's poem Kinbote (in VN’s novel Pale Fire, 1962, Shade’s commentator who imagines that he is Charles the Beloved, the last self-exiled king of Zembla) quotes the words of his Zemblan nurse, "Minnamin, Gut mag alkan, Pern dirstan" (my darling, God makes hungry, the Devil thirsty):

Describing his transatlantic journey with Lucette (Van's and Ada's half-sister who commits suicide by jumping from Admiral Tobakoff into the Atlantic), Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) mentions the old Robinson couple, Robert and Rachel:

Describing the disguised king's arrival in America, 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 Kingsley, the British chauffeur, an old and absolutely faithful retainer:

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) mentions “the pine groves of Boscobel:”

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 disguised king arrived in America descending by parachute: