Annotations by Alexey Sklyarenko

According to an anonymous joker, 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) has halitosis (bad breath):

In Canto Three of his poem John Shade (the poet in VN’s novel Pale Fire, 1962) mentions his collection of essays The Untamed Seahorse that appeared shortly before (or soon after) his daughter’s death:

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), he superstitiously cannot write out the odd dark word employed by his black gardener with respect to Gradus:

In his Commentary and Index 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 the Russian adventurer Hodinski, Queen Yaruga’s goliart (court jester) and a poet of genius who is said to have forged in his spare time a famous old Russian chanson de geste:

In a conversation with Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) Lucette (Van’s and Ada’s half-sister) mentions tonen’kiy-tonen’kiy (thin little) layer, under which there is absolutely nothing, except Van’s image:

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), Gradus (Shade’s murderer) is a cross between bat and crab:

The grotesque figure of Gradus, a cross between bat and crab, was not much odder than many other Shadows, such as, for example, Nodo, Odon's epileptic half-brother who cheated at cards, or a mad Mandevil who had lost a leg in trying to make anti-matter. (note to Line 171)

In Canto Three of his poem John Shade (the poet in VN’s novel Pale Fire, 1962) describes a game of chess with his wife and mentions the writer's grief:

"What is that funny creaking - do you hear?"

"It is the shutter on the stairs, my dear."

"If you're not sleeping, let's turn on the light.

One of the three main characters in VN's novel Pale Fire (1962), Jakob Gradus (Shade's murderer) is a member of the Shadows (a regicidal organization). In his Commentary to Shade’s poem Kinbote (who imagines that he is Charles the Beloved, the last self-exiled king of Zembla) mockingly calls Gradus (who contended that the real origin of his name should be sought in the Russian word for grape, vinograd, to which a Latin suffix had adhered, making it Vinogradus) “Leningradus:”

Describing the deathbed delirium of Alexander Yakovlevich Chernyshevski, Fyodor Godunov-Cherdyntsev, the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Dar (“The Gift,” 1937), mentions otkrytie nebesnoy Ameriki (the discovery of a heavenly America):

Describing King Alfin’s death, 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 the king’s constant "aerial adjutant," Colonel Peter Gusev: