Annotations by Alexey Sklyarenko

In his little pocket diary that he kept in Ramsdale as Charlotte's lodger, Humbert Humbert (the narrator and main character in VN's novel Lolita, 1955) says that, before moving to Ramsdale, Lolita and her mother Charlotte lived in Pisky, the Haze home town in the Middle West:

In his foreword to Humbert Humbert’s manuscript John Ray, Jr. (a character in VN’s novel Lolita, 1955) mentions “My Cue,” a biography written by Vivian Darkbloom (Clare Quilty's coauthor):

During her second road trip with Humbert Humbert (the narrator and main character in VN's novel Lolita, 1955) across the USA, Lolita falls ill and on Tuesday, 28 June 1949, is hospitalized in Elphinstone (a small town in the Rocky Mountains). Describing his stay at the Elphinstone Silver Spur Court, Humbert Humbert mentions big Frank, a robust and kindly trucker who had been blown through a wall overseas:

When Humbert Humbert (the narrator and main character in VN's novel Lolita, 1955) visits Lolita (now married to Dick Schiller and big with child) in Coalmont, she tells him about her life after her escape from the Elphinstone hospital with Clare Quilty (a playwright and pornographer) and calls Elphinstone (a small town in the Rocky Mountains) "Elephant:"

“Sit down,” she said, audibly striking her flanks with her palms. I relapsed into the black rocker.

“So you betrayed me? Where did you go? Where is he now?”

In his foreword to Humbert Humbert's manuscript, John Ray, Jr. (a character in VN's novel Lolita, 1955) mentions his colleague, Dr. Blanche Schwarzmann:

According to Humbert Humbert (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Lolita, 1955), you can always count on a murderer for a fancy prose style:

Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta.

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 his uncle Conmal, the Zemblan translator of Shakespeare:

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 saw Disa for the first time at a masked ball in his uncle’s palace:

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) quotes the words of his Zemblan nurse,  "Minnamin, Gut mag alkan, Pern dirstan (my darling, God makes hungry, the Devil thirsty):"

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), Oleg Gusev (Charles Xavier Vseslav's beloved playmate) was killed in a toboggan accident:

Oleg, Duke of Rahl, 1916-1931, son of Colonel Gusev, Duke of Rahl (b .1885, still spry); K.'s beloved playmate, killed in a toboggan accident, 130. (Index)