Annotations by Alexey Sklyarenko

In his essay The Art of Literature and Commonsense (1941) VN says that the Russian language supplies definitions for two types or stages of inspiration, vostorg and vdokhnovenie:

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), Samuel Shade (the poet’s father) had studied medicine in his youth and was vice-president of a firm of surgical instruments in Exton:

According to Professor Hurley, the chief passion of Samuel Shade (the poet’s father in VN’s novel Pale Fire, 1962) was the study of the feathered tribe:

In his Foreword and 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 Professor Hurley, the fine administrator and inept scholar who since 1957 headed the English Department of Wordsmith College:

In his Foreword 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 Dr. Nattochdag, the head of Kinbote's department who was nicknamed Netochka:

In VN’s novel Pnin (1957) Pnin asks Professor “Twynn” if he is a Bachelor of Hearts:

On the day of his party, as he was finishing a late lunch in Frieze Hall, Wynn, or his double, neither of whom had ever appeared there before, suddenly sat down beside him and said: 'I have long wanted to ask you something--you teach Russian, don't you? Last summer I was reading a magazine article on birds--'

In his note to Lines 376-377 of 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) wants us to see “Forward” and his note to line 894:

Lines 376-377: was said in English Lit to be

This is replaced in the draft by the more significant - and more tuneful - variant:

At the end of his Commentary Kinbote (in VN’s novel Pale Fire, 1962, Shade’s commentator who imagines that he is Charles the Beloved, the last self-exiled king of Zembla) quotes a Zemblan saying “God makes hungry, the Devil thirsty:”

At the end of his note to Lines 376-377 of Shade's poem Kinbote (in VN’s novel Pale Fire, 1962, Shade’s commentator who imagines that he is Charles the Beloved, the last self-exiled king of Zembla) mentions Southey:

Lines 376-377: was said in English Lit to be

This is replaced in the draft by the more significant - and more tuneful - variant:

the Head of our Department deemed

Describing Demon’s affair with Marina, Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) mentions Skonky (Baron d’Onsky’s oneway nickname):