Annotations by Alexey Sklyarenko

At the beginning of VN's novel Camera Obscura (1933) Cheepy, the charming guinea pig painted by Robern Horn, a gifted but unprincipled cartoonist (who in Laughter in the Dark, the novel's 1938 English version, becomes Axel Rex), holds in its paws the skull of a rodent (labeled Cavia cobaja) and exclaims "poor Yorick!":

In Canto Four of his poem John Shade (the poet in VN's novel Pale Fire, 1962) describes shaving and mentions slaves who make hay between his mouth and nose:

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 young Baron Radomir Mandevil (a man of fashion and Zemblan patriot):

The characters in VN’s novel Podvig (“Glory,” 1932”) include Darwin, Martin Edelweiss's best friend and rival at Cambridge, and the distinguished scholar Archibald Moon (the author of a book on Russia):

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 Uran the Last, the Emperor of Zembla who seems to correspond to Paul I (1754-1801, reigned in 1796-1801):

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 Iris Acht, a celebrated actress, favorite of Thurgus the Third (grandfather of Charles the Beloved):

The characters in VN's novel Dar ("The Gift," 1937) include Christopher Mortus, a hostile literary critic who reviewed Fyodor's book Zhizn' Chernyshevskogo ("The Life of Chernyshevski"):

Почти одновременно с этой увеселительной рецензией, появился отзыв Христофора Мортуса (Париж), -- так возмутивший Зину, что с тех пор у нее таращились глаза и напрягались ноздри всякий раз, как упоминалось это имя.

A character in VN's novel Lolita (1955), Gaston Godin (Humbert Humbert's friend and chess partner at Beardsley), eventually gets involved in a sale histoire, in Naples of all places:

In VN's novel Pale Fire (1962) one of Kinbote's notes to Shade's poem ends with a rather anti-Darwinian aphorism, "the one who kills is always his victim's inferior:"

Line 596: Points at the puddle in his basement room

In Canto One of his poem John Shade (the poet in VN’s novel Pale Fire, 1962) describes his childhood and calls icicles "the svelte stilettos of a frozen stillicide" and "trophies of the eaves:"

All colors made me happy: even gray.

My eyes were such that literally they

Took photographs. Whenever I'd permit,

Or, with a silent shiver, order it,

Whatever in my field of vision dwelt -

An indoor scene, hickory leaves, the svelte

Stilettos of a frozen stillicide -