Vladimir Nabokov

Annotations by Alexey Sklyarenko

Description

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

By Alexey Sklyarenko, 27 March, 2025

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 details of the L disaster that happened on Demonia in the beau milieu of the 19th century:

 

By Alexey Sklyarenko, 27 March, 2025

As he speaks to Philip Rack (Lucette’s music teacher who was poisoned by his jealous wife Elsie and who dies in Ward Five of the Kalugano hospital), Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) mentions the “agony of agony” — Professor Lamort’s felicitous pleonasm:

 

By Alexey Sklyarenko, 25 March, 2025

Describing his first night with Lolita in The Enchanted Hunters (a hotel in Briceland), Humbert Humbert (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Lolita, 1955) says that his only regret is that he did not quietly deposit key “342” at the office, and leave the town, the country, the continent, the hemisphere, - indeed, the globe - that very same night:

 

By Alexey Sklyarenko, 24 March, 2025

At the age of ten Armande (in VN's novel Transparent Things, 1972, Hugh Person's wife) was the dream of a Lutwidgean:

 

"Everything is well," she declared cozily, and stood up, now robed in bright terry cloth with the suddenness of a magic metamorphosis. "Come, I want to offer you a nice cold drink and show you my albums."

By Alexey Sklyarenko, 22 March, 2025

When Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN's novel Ada, 1969) offers Ada a ride in the park, she tells him that last night two men (one of whom was Anskar, the producer) recognized her:

 

‘Now let’s go out for a breath of crisp air,’ suggested Van. ‘I’ll order Pardus and Peg to be saddled.’