Annotations by Alexey Sklyarenko

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:"

Describing his conversation with Demon (in VN's novel Ada, 1969, Van's and Ada's father) before the family dinner in "Ardis the Second," Van Veen says that nothing is fuller than an empty mind:

In VN's novel Ada (1969) Demon Veen (Van's and Ada's father) learns about his children's affair by chance, because of Uncle Dan's Boschean death. Describing Demon's unexpected visit to his Manhattan flat, Van mentions a piece of nobler metal placed by Demon among the silver domes that Valerio (a waiter at ‘Monaco,’ a restaurant in the entresol of the tall building crowned by Van’s penthouse) brings to Van and Ada:

The boy who debauches Lolita (the eponymous heroine of VN's novel, 1955) in Camp Q, Charlie Holmes (the camp-mistress's son) is a green-shirted, redheaded impish lad:

On Admiral Tobakoff Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN's novel Ada, 1969) quite kindly asks Lucette (Van's and Ada's half-sister) where she thinks she is going and Lucette promptly replies "to Ardis, with you, for ever and ever:"

Quite kindly he asked where she thought she was going.

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: