Vladimir Nabokov

Annotations by Alexey Sklyarenko

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Please read Alexey Sklyarenko's annotations on Pale FireAda and other Nabokov works here.

By Alexey Sklyarenko, 12 July, 2021

When Van and Ada look at the photographs in Kim Beauharnais’ album, Ada mentions their red boat Souvenance visible through the rushes:

 

In an equally casual tone of voice Van said: ‘Darling, you smoke too much, my belly is covered with your ashes. I suppose Bouteillan knows Professor Beauharnais’s exact address in the Athens of Graphic Arts.’

By Alexey Sklyarenko, 7 July, 2021

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) mentions an especially brilliant impersonator of the King, the tennis ace Julius Steinmann:

 

By Alexey Sklyarenko, 5 July, 2021

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), Jakob Gradus (Shade’s murderer) is the son of a Protestant minister in Riga:

 

By Alexey Sklyarenko, 3 July, 2021

Describing the Zemblan Revolution, 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 the Modems (Moderate Democrats):

 

By Alexey Sklyarenko, 3 July, 2021

Describing Gradus’ trip from Wordsmith Library to Judge Goldsworth’s house in New Wye, 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 the trilby that he hopes was forgotten by Gradus in Gerald Emerald’s car:

 

Gradus returned to the Main Desk.

"Too bad," said the girl, "I just saw him leave."

By Alexey Sklyarenko, 1 July, 2021

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) mentions Hodinski, Queen Yaruga’s lover and goliart (court jester) who is said to have forged in his spare time a famous old Russian chanson de geste: