Describing his childhood, Humbert Humbert (the narrator and main character in VN's novel Lolita, 1955) mentions the splendid Hotel Mirana that revolved around him as a kind of private universe:
During Van's first tea party at Ardis Marina (in VN's novel Ada, 1969, Van's, Ada's and Lucette's mother) tells Van that there is a ladybird on his plate:
Describing the torments of poor mad Aqua (the twin sister of Van's, Ada's and Lucette's mother Marina), Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN's novel Ada, 1969) says that clothes hangers seemed to Aqua the shoulders of decapitated Tellurians:
Describing the torments and suicide of poor mad Aqua (the twin sister of Van's, Ada's and Lucette's mother Marina), Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN's novel Ada, 1969) mentions the Dr Froit of Signy-Mondieu-Mondieu and a Dr Sig Heiler, spanker of girl bottoms and spunky spittoon-user:
At the picnic on Ada's twelfth birthday Greg Erminin (in VN's novel Ada, 1969, Grace's twin brother) puts on his sister’s blue skirt, hat and glasses, all of which transforms him into a very sick, mentally retarded Grace:
One of the three main characters in VN’s novel Pale Fire (1962), Jakob Gradus (Shade’s murderer) is a son of Martin Gradus, a Protestant minister in Riga:
Describing the torments of poor mad Aqua (the twin sister of Van's, Ada's and Lucette's mother Marina), Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN's novel Ada, 1969) mentions a half-Russian, half-dotty old doctor who quoted a poem by Guido Cavalcanti:
At the beginning of VN's story Time and Ebb (1944) the narrator mentions his dear friends Norman and Nura Stone:
In the first floriferous days of convalescence after a severe illness, which nobody, least of all the patient himself, expected a ninety-year-old organism to survive, I was admonished by my dear friends Norman and Nura Stone to prolong the lull in my scientific studies and relax in the midst of some innocent occupation such as brazzle or solitaire.
Describing his meetings with Ada (now married to Andrey Vinelander) in October 1905, in Mont Roux, Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN's novel Ada, 1969) mentions the arbors of Rufomonticulus:
