Annotations by Alexey Sklyarenko

As a boy of ten, Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) puzzled out the exaggerated but, on the whole, complimentary allusions to his father’s volitations and loves in another life in Lermontov’s diamond-faceted tetrameters:

In Canto One of his poem John Shade (the poet in VN's novel Pale Fire, 1962) speaks of his dead parents and mentions a preterist (one who collects cold nests):

I was an infant when my parents died.
They both were ornithologists. I've tried
So often to evoke them that today
I have a thousand parents. Sadly they
Dissolve in their own virtues and recede,
But certain words, chance words I hear or read,
Such as "bad heart" always to him refer,
And "cancer of the pancreas" to her.

A preterist: one who collects cold nests. (ll. 71-79)

Describing his rented house, 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 a damask paperknife (described as "one ancient dagger brought by Mrs. Goldsworth's father from the Orient"):

Describing his and Ada's favorite house, the château recently built in Ex, in the Swiss Alps, Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) mentions the famous glittering air, le cristal d’Ex:

Describing his meetings with Ada (now married to Andrey Vinelander) in Mont Roux, in October 1905, Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) compares the morning to a crinolined prude and mentions Desdemonia (the planet where artists are the only gods):

On the day preceding Ada's sixteenth birthday (July 21, 1888) Greg Erminin (in VN's novel Ada, 1969, Grace's twin brother) gives Ada a little camel of yellow ivory carved in Kiev, five centuries ago, in the days of Timur and Nabok:

On the day preceding Ada's sixteenth birthday (July 21, 1888) Greg Erminin (in VN's novel Ada, 1969, Grace's twin brother) gives Ada a little camel of yellow ivory carved in Kiev, five centuries ago, in the days of Timur and Nabok:

Describing his novel Letters from Terra, Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) mentions the poet Max Mispel and his article ‘The Weed Exiles the Flower’ (Melville & Marvell):

In VN's novel Otchayanie ("Despair," 1934) Hermann Karlovich (the narrator and main character) says that he likes to bind words by the mock marriage of a pun:

Мне нравилось – и до сих пор нравится – ставить слова в глупое положение, сочетать их шутовской свадьбой каламбура, выворачивать наизнанку, заставать их врасплох. Что делает советский ветер в слове ветеринар? Откуда томат в автомате? Как из зубра сделать арбуз?

In VN’s novel Ada (1969) Van Veen (the narrator and main character) learns card tricks from Mr Plunkett (a reformed card-sharper):