Annotations by Alexey Sklyarenko

In his 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) describes Gradus’ visit to Joe Lavender’s villa Libitina:
 

Describing his childhood trips with his father, Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) mentions a cummerbunded Dutchman who told another that Demon was a famous gambler:

Describing the picnic on Ada's sixteenth birthday, Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) mentions a company of strangers who walked into the forest across the road and sat down there to a modest colazione of cheese, buns, salami, sardines and Chianti:

Describing the beginning of his romance with Ada, Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) compares remembrance to Rembrandt:

At the picnic on Ada's sixteenth birthday Greg Erminin (Grace's twin brother in VN's novel Ada, 1969) notices a company of strangers and Van asks ‘Kto sii (who are they)?":  

In his suicide note addressed to Ada Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN's novel Ada, 1969) mentions a vague kind of 'Victorian' era:

In his suicide note addressed to Ada Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN's novel Ada, 1969) mentions a butcher’s apron, badly smeared:

At the end of her letter to Van Ada (now married to Andrey Vinelander) mentions an American farmer who finds the parson ‘peculiar’ because he knows Greek:

Describing the visit of an Andalusian architect to Ardis, Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) mentions the Russian ‘hrip’  (Spanish flu) that Uncle Dan had caught:

A gong bronzily boomed on a terrace.

At the Goodson airport Van tells Demon (in VN's novel Ada, 1969, Van's and Ada's father) that he is in for another spell of surgery and calls the surgeons "butchers:"