Annotations by Alexey Sklyarenko

The characters in VN’s novel Pale Fire (1962) include Sybil Shade (the poet’s wife) and Jakob Gradus (the poet’s murderer). At the beginning of his essay Pamyati F. M. Dostoevskogo (“In Memory of F. M. Dostoevski,” 1906) V. V. Rozanov compares Dostoevski to prorok (a prophet), and Dostoevski’s writings to novaya sivillina kniga (a new Sibylline Book):

The characters in VN's novel The Real Life of Sebastian Knight (1941) include Mr. Goodman, Sebastian Knight’s former secretary who wrote The Tragedy of Sebastian Knight soon after Sebastian Knight’s death. According to Sebastian’s half-brother V. (the narrator and main character in TRLSK), in his book Mr. Goodman tells several stories that he heard from Sebastian (who was pulling the leg of his future biographer):

In VN’s novel The Real Life of Sebastian Knight (1941) the narrator (Sebastian’s half-brother V.) mentions a black mask that covers Mr. Goodman’s face and compares Mr. Goodman's face to a cow udder:

'Pray be seated,' he said, courteously waving me into a leather armchair near his desk. He was remarkably well-dressed though decidedly with a city flavour. A black mask covered his face. 'What can I do for you?' He went on looking at me through the eyeholes and still holding my card.

Below is a postscript to my recent post “Miss Bachofen & barbok in Bend Sinister”

In VN’s novel Bend Sinister (1947) Miss Bachofen (a girl who came with Hustav to arrest Ember) mentions a story about the two sailors and the barbok [a kind of pie with a hole in the middle for melted butter]:

A celebrated philosopher, Adam Krug (the main character in VN’s novel Bend Sinister, 1947) never indulged in the search for the True Substance, the One, the Absolute:

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) calls his uncle Conmal (Shakespeare’s translator into Zemblan) “the venerable Duke:”

In VN’s novel Bend Sinister (1947) Miss Bachofen (a girl who comes with Hustav to arrest Ember) mentions a story about the two sailors and the barbok [a kind of pie with a hole in the middle for melted butter]:

In VN’s novel Look at the Harlequins! (1974) other books by the narrator include Esmeralda and her Parandrus (1941), Vadim’s novel that seems to correspond to VN’s Bend Sinister (1947). Parandrus is an ox-sized animal of medieval bestiaries. Esmeralda must be the name of a Spanish nobleman’s little daughter who discovered the paintings in the cave of Altamira:

In VN’s novel Bend Sinister (1947) the philosopher Adam Krug had always wished to know more about the Aurignacian Age and those portraits of singular beings (perhaps Neanderthal half-men—direct ancestors of Paduk and his likes—used by Aurignacians as slaves) that a Spanish nobleman and his little daughter had discovered in the painted cave of Altamira:

In VN’s novel Bend Sinister (1947) Dr. Alexander quotes the saying domusta barbarn kapusta (the ugliest wives are the truest):