Annotations by Alexey Sklyarenko

In Canto One of his poem John Shade (the poet in VN's novel Pale Fire, 1962) describes his childhood and says that, as a boy, he felt nature glued to him and how his childish palate loved the taste half-fish, half-honey, of that golden paste:

My God died young. Theolatry I found

Degrading, and its premises, unsound.

No free man needs a God; but was I free?

How fully I felt nature glued to me

And how my childish palate loved the taste

Describing his reunion with Ada in December 1892, Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) says that he underwent certain tests, and although pooh-poohing the symptom as coincidental, all the doctors agreed that Van might be a doughty and durable lover but could never hope for an offspring: 

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) says that the Zemblan word coramen denotes the rude strap with which a Zemblan herdsman attaches his humble provisions and ragged blanket to the meekest of his cows when driving them up to the vebodar (upland pastures):

Line 137: lemniscate

According to Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969), during the last game of Flavita (the Russian Scrabble) that he played with Ada and Lucette at Ardis Ada mentioned Torfyanaya (or, as Blanche called it, La Tourbière), a village near Ardis where Blanche's family lived:

At the end of 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) says that, as a boy of six, he suffered from adult insomnia:

At the end of his commentary to Shade's poem Kinbote (in VN’s novel Pale Fire, 1962, Shade’s commentator who imagines that he is Charles the Beloved, the last self-exiled king of Zembla) quotes a Zemblan saying "Gut mag alkan, Pern dirstan (God makes hungry, the Devil thirsty):”

Describing his novel Letters from Terra, Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) mentions Theresa, a character in his novel:

As he speaks to Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969), Trofim Fartukov (the Russian coachman in "Ardis the Second") addresses Van ‘Barin, a barin (master, listen what I say):'

‘The express does not stop at Torfyanka, does it, Trofim?’

Describing his novel Letters from Terra, Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) mentions the First Clown in Elsinore (a distinguished London weekly) and the poet Max Mispel, the authors of two reviews of Van's novel:

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) mentions a person (Shade's former literary agent) who has wondered with a sneer if Mrs. Shade's tremulous signature might not have been penned "in some peculiar kind of red ink:"