Annotations by Alexey Sklyarenko

In his foreword 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) says that he is the most impractical fellow in the world and mentions an old fox in the book publishing business:

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 the society sculptor and poet Arnor:

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) quotes Arnor’s poem about a miragarl (mirage girl), for whose "careful jewels" a dream king in the sandy wastes of time would give tri stana verbalala (three hundred camels) ut tri phantana (and three fountains):

One of the greater Shadows, Izumrudov visits Gradus (one of the three main characters in VN's novel Pale Fire, 1962, Shade's murderer) in Nice and tells him the king's new name and address in America on July 16, 1959:

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 the society sculptor and poet Arnor:

According to Humbert Humbert (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Lolita, 1955), he once overheard Lolita say to Eva Rosen (Lolita's classmate at Beardsley College, a little displaced person from France), “You know, what's so dreadful about dying is that you are completely on your own:”

In a dialogue on the porch of The Enchanted Hunters (a hotel in Briceland where Humbert Humbert and Lolita spend their first night together) a stranger (apparently, Clare Quilty) tells Humbert Humbert (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Lolita, 1955) that his child needs a lot of sleep and that sleep is a rose, as the Persians say:

In his foreword 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) describes the poet's physical appearance and mentions the forces of perfection which purifed and chiseled his verse:

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:

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 King Alfin (the father of Charles the Beloved):