Annotations by Alexey Sklyarenko

Describing his transatlantic journey with Lucette (Van's and Ada's half-sister) onboard Admiral Tobakoff, Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) mentions Honoloolers (the cocktails):

Describing the library of Ardis Hall, Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN's novel Ada, 1969) mentions Monsieur Philippe Verger (a visiting librarian at Ardis):

Describing Ada’s dramatic career, Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) mentions Painted Westerns:

On Demonia (Earth's twin planet, also known as Antiterra, on which VN's novel Ada, 1969, is set) the Iron Curtain (a term used by Winston Churchill in his Fulton speech on March 5, 1946) is known as the Golden Curtain:

The characters in VN's novel Ada (1969) include Percy de Prey (one of Ada's lovers, a country gentleman who goes to a distant war and perishes on the second day of the invasion of Crimea) and Cordula de Prey (Percy de Prey's second cousin, Van's mistress who marries Ivan Giovanovich Tobak, the shipowner, and, after divorcing her first husband, a Baynard). Cordula is an old botanical synonym for the slipper orchid genus Paphiopedilum.

On a train he took in Ladoga to go to Kalugano (where Philip Rack, Lucette's music teacher, lives with his wife Elsie), Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN's novel Ada, 1969) meets Cordula de Prey (Ada's schoolmate at Brownhill) and her mother, the actress:

Describing the difference between Terra and Antiterra (Earth’s twin planet also known as Demonia), Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) mentions the deepest thinkers, the purest philosophers, Paar of Chose and Zapater of Aardvark:

When Van and Ada watch Kim Beauharnais's album, Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN's novel Ada, 1969) mentions the remote mirage in Effrontery Minor:

‘Well,’ said Van, when the mind took over again, ‘let’s go back to our defaced childhood. I’m anxious’ — (picking up the album from the bedside rug) — ‘to get rid of this burden. Ah, a new character, the inscription says: Dr Krolik.’

‘Wait a sec. It may be the best Vanishing Van but it’s terribly messy all the same. Okay. Yes, that’s my poor nature teacher.’

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, June 28, 1949, is hospitalized in Elphinstone (a small town in the Rocky Mountains). Describing Lolita's hospitalization, Humbert Humbert mentions Aurora (the goddess of dawn in Roman mythology and Latin poetry):

One of the three main characters in VN's novel Pale Fire (1962), Kinbote (Shade's mad commentator who imagines that he is Charles the Beloved, the last self-exiled king of Zembla) dubbed his black gardener “Balthasar, Prince of Loam:”