Annotations by Alexey Sklyarenko

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 Colonel Peter Gusev (King Alfin’s constant "aerial adjutant") and his son Oleg (the beloved playmate of Prince Charles Xavier Vseslav):

In his forewod and 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 Dr. Nattochdag, the head of Kinbote's department who was nicknamed Netochka by his colleagues:

In VN’s novel Ada (1969), the element that destroys Demon Veen (Van’s and Ada’s father who in March 1905 perishes in a mysterious airplane disaster above the Pacific) is air:

Numbers and rows and series — the nightmare and malediction harrowing pure thought and pure time — seemed bent on mechanizing his mind. Three elements, fire, water, and air, destroyed, in that sequence, Marina, Lucette, and Demon. Terra waited. (3.1)

At the beginning of Canto Four of his poem John Shade (the poet in VN’s novel Pale Fire, 1962) says:

Now I shall spy on beauty as none has
Spied on it yet. Now I shall cry out as
None has cried out. Now I shall try what none
Has tried. Now I shall do what none has done. (ll. 835-838)

Describing his enforced twelve-year-long separation with Ada, Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) mentions numbers and three elements (fire, water, and air) that destroyed, in that sequence, Marina (Van's, Ada's and Lucette's mother), Lucette (Van's and Ada's half-sister) and Demon (Van's and Ada's father):

He traveled, he studied, he taught.

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), after line 274 of Shade’s poem there is a false start in the draft:

I like my name: Shade, Ombre, almost 'man'
In Spanish... (note to Line 275)

Describing Shade's murder by Gradus, 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 outline of the funny little garment Shade wore under the shirt as all good Americans do:

Describing the last moments of Shade’s life, 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 miracle of a few written signs being able to contain immortal imagery, involutions of thought, new worlds with live people, speaking, weeping, laughing:

In Canto Three of his poem John Shade (the poet in VN’s novel Pale Fire, 1962) describes his heart attack and calls 1958 “a year of Tempests” and mentions Mars (in the Solar System, the fourth planet from the Sun):

In Canto Three of his poem John Shade (the poet in VN’s novel Pale Fire, 1962) speaks of IPH (a lay Institute of Preparation for the Hereafter) and mentions “Terra the Fair, an orbicle of jasp:”

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: