Annotations by Alexey Sklyarenko

Telling Van about Uncle Dan's odd Boschean death, Demon Veen (in VN's novel Ada, 1969, Van's and Ada's father) mentions our Russian roulette and Irish loo that we introduced at a lucky moment in the history of Western casinos:

Describing his life with Rita (a girl whom he picked up at a roadside bar between Montreal and New York), Humbert Humbert (the narrator and main character in VN's novel Lolita, 1955) mentions an amnesic stranger whom he and Rita discovered in their hotel room and who spoke with an accent that Rita recognized as pure Brooklynese:

Describing his life with Lolita in Beardsley (a small University town), Humbert Humbert (the narrator and main character in VN's novel Lolita, 1955) mentions Butler’s Academy for Boys:

I did my best, your Honour, to tackle the problem of boys. Oh, I used even to read in the Beardsley Star a so-called Column for Teens, to find out how to behave!

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), Shade's face reminded one of a fleshy Hogarthian tippler of indeterminate sex:

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 Zemblan Revolution broke out on May 1, 1958:

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) says that he has suffered very much, and more than anyone can imagine:

In VN’s novel The Real Life of Sebastian Knight (1941) Sebastian Knight (who used to draw a black chess knight to sign his stories) dies in a sanatorium in St Damier (near Paris). As Sebastian's half-brother V. points out, damier is French for “chess board:”

In Canto One of his poem John Shade (the poet in VN’s novel Pale Fire, 1962) describes his childhood and says that he was brought up by dear bizarre Aunt Maud:

In Canto One of his poem John Shade (the poet in VN’s novel Pale Fire, 1962) describes his childhood and says that he was brought up by dear bizarre Aunt Maud:

The action in VN's novel Ada (1969) takes place on Demonia, Earth's twin planet also known as Antiterra. The Antiterran counterpart of the British Queen Victoria (1819-1901), King Victor (alias Mr Ritcov) is a frequent guest of Villa Venus (one hundred palatial brothels, or floramors, built by David van Veen, a wealthy architect of Flemish extraction, in memory of his grandson Eric):