Annotations by Alexey Sklyarenko

Describing the family dinner in “Ardis the Second,” Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) mentions Richard Leonard Churchill’s novel about a certain Crimean Khan once popular with reporters and politicians, ‘A Great Good Man:’

On the eve of Van’s departure from Ardis, Mlle Larivière (Lucette’s governess) reads to Marina (Van’s, Ada’s and Lucette’s mother) her story about a small girl called Rockette (that corresponds to Maupassant’s La Petite Rocque):

Describing his near-fatal illness, Vadim Vadimovich (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Look at the Harlequins!, 1974) mentions the pressed repeater that hissed in a pocket of his brain:

According to Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969), Mlle Larivière (Lucette’s governess) had been platonically and irrevocably in love with Marina (Van’s, Ada’s and Lucette’s mother) ever since she had seen her in ‘Bilitis:’

According to Vadim Vadimovich (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Look at the Harlequins!, 1974), it was his extravagant grand-aunt, Baroness Bredow, born Tolstoy, who summoned him to look at the harlequins:

According to Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969), Mlle Larivière (Lucette’s governess who writes fiction under the penname Guillaume de Monparnasse) knew by experience that nothing kept up the itch of inspiration so well as la chaleur du lit (bed’s warmth):

In his Commentary 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) quotes a discarded variant in which Shade says that he has a certain liking for Parody:

Lines 895-899: The more I weigh... or this dewlap

Instead of these facile and revolting lines, the draft gives:

895 I have a certain liking, I admit,

Describing his visit to Lolita (now big with child) in Coalmont, Humbert Humbert (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Lolita, 1955) says that the baby in Lolita’s womb was already dreaming of becoming a big shot and retiring around 2020 A. D.:

Describing his life with Rita, Humbert Humbert (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Lolita, 1955) mentions his essay on “Mimir and Memory” that appeared in the Cantrip Review:

Describing his life with Rita, Humbert Humbert (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Lolita, 1955) mentions Rita’s brother, the mayor and boaster of Grainball: