Annotations by Alexey Sklyarenko

The action in VN’s play Sobytie (“The Event,” 1938) takes place on the fiftieth birthday of Antonina Pavlovna Opayashin, a lady writer. At her birthday party Antonina Pavlovna calls Izvestnyi pisatel’ (the Famous Writer) zalyotnyi gost’ (an accidental guest):

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), of the not very many ways known of shedding one's body, falling, falling, falling is the supreme method:

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 a wild letter from Queen Disa that she wrote in governess English:

Describing his landlord'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 Judge Goldsworth's four daughters: Alphina, Betty, Candida and Dee:

Leaving the Kalugano hospital (where he recovered from the wound received in a pistol duel with Captain Tapper), Van Veen repeats the word non (Fr., “no”) three times:

In VN’s novel Ada (1969) Demon Veen (Van’s and Ada’s father) hopes that Cordula de Prey will recompense Van for playing Blindman’s Buff all summer with the babes of Ardis Wood (Ada and Lucette):

According to Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969), in the last game of Flavita (the Russian Scrabble) that he played at Ardis with Ada and Lucette (Van’s and Ada’s half-sister) Lucette’s letters formed the word Kremlin:

Describing the suicide of Marina’s twin sister Aqua, Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) mentions a Dr Froid and the cleansing fluid commercially known as Morona:

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), Villa Disa was at first called Villa Paradiso, or in Zemblan Villa Paradisa:

The characters in VN’s novel Pale Fire (1962) include Sybil Shade (the poet’s wife) and Queen Disa (the wife of Charles the Beloved, the last self-exiled king of Zembla). In the second stanza of his poem Moya pechal’ teper’ spokoyna… (“My sadness is now serene,” 1901) Bunin mentions golos Sibilly (the voice of a Sybil) and tishina primorskoy villy (the silence of a seaside villa):