Annotations by Alexey Sklyarenko

One of the three main characters in VN's novel Pale Fire (1962), Jakob Gradus (Shade's murderer) is a member of the Shadows (a regicidal organization). In his Commentary to Shade’s poem Kinbote (who imagines that he is Charles the Beloved, the last self-exiled king of Zembla) mockingly calls Gradus (who contended that the real origin of his name should be sought in the Russian word for grape, vinograd, to which a Latin suffix had adhered, making it Vinogradus) “Leningradus:”

Describing the deathbed delirium of Alexander Yakovlevich Chernyshevski, Fyodor Godunov-Cherdyntsev, the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Dar (“The Gift,” 1937), mentions otkrytie nebesnoy Ameriki (the discovery of a heavenly America):

Describing King Alfin’s death, 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 king’s constant "aerial adjutant," Colonel Peter Gusev:

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), Shade’s mother assisted her husband in his work and drew the admirable figures of his Birds of Mexico:

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 Queen Disa’s cousin, Harfar Baron of Shalksbore, who was nicknamed Curdy Buff by his admirers:

Describing the king’s escape from Zembla, 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 matted elfinwood:

Describing the king’s escape from Zembla, 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 lazy Garh, the farmer's daughter who shows to the king the shortest way to the pass:

In VN’s novel Ada (1969) Van Veen calls himself, his sister Ada his half-sister Lucette “the children of Venus:”

Describing his novel Letters from Terra (1892), Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) mentions Flora, Professor Leyman’s assistant:

According to Kinbote (Shade’s mad commentator who imagines that he is Charles the Beloved, the last self-exiled king of Zembla), he can enumerate only a few trees in the so-called Shakespeare Avenue at the campus of Wordsmith University: