Annotations by Alexey Sklyarenko

When they cross the Atlantic on Admiral Tobakoff, Lucette (in VN’s novel Ada, 1969, Van’s and Ada’s half-sister) tells Van that she would consider herself a pied cheat if the small parts she conceals in public were not of the same color as those on show:

They met again in the afternoon.

Describing Villa Venus (one hundred palatial brothels, or floramors, built by David van Veen all over the world in memory of his grandson Eric), Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) mentions the lovely cul-de-sac south of the viaduct of fabulous Palermontovia:

In his poem “Wanted” composed after Lolita was abducted from him Humbert Humbert (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Lolita, 1955) mentions an old perfume called Soleil Vert:

My Dolly, my folly! Her eyes were vair ,

And never closed when I kissed her.

Know an old perfume called Soleil Vert? 

Are you from Paris, mister?

In VN’s novel Priglashenie na kazn’ (“Invitation to a Beheading,” 1935) Cincinnatus works in the toy workshop:

In VN’s novel Priglashenie na kazn’ (“Invitation to a Beheading,” 1935) Cincinnatus works in the toy workshop:

In VN’s novel Priglashenie na kazn’ (“Invitation to a Beheading,” 1935) young Cincinnatus spent the evenings in the Floating Library, in memoriam of Dr Sineokov:

One of the two main characters in VN’s novel Priglashenie na kazn’ (“Invitation to a Beheading,” 1935) is M'sieur Pierre, the executioner. One of the main characters in Tolstoy’s novel Voina i mir (“War and Peace,” 1869) is Count Pierre Bezukhov. Cincinnatus and M'sieur Pierre arrive at the site of the execution in the same carriage:

To an interviewer’s question “what distinguishes us from animals” VN replied “being aware of being aware of being:”

What distinguishes us from animals?

In VN’s novel Zashchita Luzhina (“The Luzhin Defense,” 1930) Luzhin senior begins to write The Gambit, a novella about a chess-playing small boy, in 1928:

In VN’s novel Zashchita Luzhina (“The Luzhin Defense,” 1930) the action begins on Friday, August 28, 1908, Leo Tolstoy’s eightieth birthday. In his diary (the entry of March 7, 1904) Tolstoy compares death to a window which has been slammed shut:

Смерть — это захлопнутое окно, через которое смотрел на мир, или опущенные веки и сон, или переход от одного окна к другому.