Annotations by Alexey Sklyarenko

According to Humbert Humbert (the narrator and main character in VN's novel Lolita, 1955), he wanted to call himself "Otto Otto" and "Mesmer Mesmer:"

In Canto One of his poem Shade (the poet in VN’s novel Pale Fire, 1962) mentions Sherlock Holmes:

And then the gradual and dual blue

As night unites the viewer and the view,

And in the morning, diamonds of frost

Express amazement: Whose spurred feet have crossed

From left to right the blank page of the road?

Reading from left to right in winter's code:

A dot, an arrow pointing back; repeat:

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), he became a vegetarian after reading a story about an Italian despot:

Telling Van about Uncle Dan's death, Demon Veen (in VN’s novel Ada, 1969, Van’s and Ada’s father) says that Marina (Van’s, Ada’s and Lucette’s mother) will arrive in the late afternoon, wearing, no doubt, pleureuses, very becoming:

Before she met Demon Veen (in VN’s novel Ada, 1969, Van’s and Ada’s father), Marina’s twin sister Aqua had had an affair with a married man in Belokonsk (the Antiterran twin of Canadian Whitehorse):

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) where he lectured and dealt with childhood memories of strange nacreous gleams beyond the adults' range:

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), he is known on the campus as the Great Beaver:

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), the King escaped from the palace by the secret passage that leads to the theater’s green room. Describing the discovery of the secret passage, Kinbote mentions the three transverse streets, Academy Boulevard, Coriolanus Lane and Timon Alley:

VN’s novel Bend Sinister (1947) ends in the sentence “A good night for mothing:”

In VN’s novel Bend Sinister (1947) mouches volantes (“flying flies,” entoptic phenomena) are mentioned: