Annotations by Alexey Sklyarenko

In Canto Three of his poem John Shade (the poet in VN's novel Pale Fire, 1962) describes IPH (a lay Institute of Preparation for the Hereafter) and says that it snubbed gods, including the big G:

While snubbing gods, including the big G,

Iph borrowed some peripheral debris

From mystic visions; and it offered tips

(The amber spectacles for life's eclipse) -

How not to panic when you're made a ghost:

In VN's novel Lolita (1955) the maiden name of Humbert Humbert's first wife is Valeria Zborovski:

Describing his first road trip with Lolita across the USA, Humbert Humbert (the narrator and main character in VN's novel Lolita, 1955) mentions Pharaonic, phallic, “too prehistoric for words” (blasé Lo) buttes of black lava: 

Before moving to Ramsdale, Dolores Haze (in VN's novel Lolita, 1955, Lolita's full name) and her mother Charlotte lived in Pisky, the Haze home town in the Middle West:

In VN’s novel Ada (1969) Van, Ada and their half-sister Lucette are the children of Venus:

In VN’s novel Lolita (1955) the number 342 reappears three times. 342 Lawn Street is the address of the Haze house in Ramsdale. 342 is Humbert Humbert's and Lolita's room in The Enchanted Hunters (a hotel in Briceland where Humbert and Lolita spend their first night together). According to Humbert Humbert, between July 5 and November 18, 1949, he registered (if not actually stayed) at 342 hotels, motels and tourist homes.

In VN's novel Ada (1969) Van and Ada find out that they are brother and sister thanks to Marina's old herbarium that they discovered in the attic of Ardis Hall:

At the end of his Commentary 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 a bigger, more respectable, more competent Gradus who will presently ring at his door:

"And you, what will you be doing with yourself, poor King, poor Kinbote?" a gentle young voice may inquire.

Describing the poltergeist phenomena in Shade's 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) mentions one of Aunt Maud's oils (Cypress and Bat):

Describing his life with Lolita at Beardsley, Humbert Humbert (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Lolita, 1955) mentions a Dr. Ilse Tristramson: