Vladimir Nabokov

Annotations by Alexey Sklyarenko

Description

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

By Alexey Sklyarenko , 23 May, 2022

In VN's play Sobytie ("The Event," 1838) the action takes place at the end of the summer, on the fiftieth birthday of Antonina Pavlovna Opoyashin (the lady writer):

 

Входит Антонина Павловна Опояшина, мать Любови, с пестрым мячом в руках. Это аккуратная, даже несколько чопорная женщина, с лорнетом, сладковато-рассеянная.

Антонина Павловна.

Здравствуйте, мои дорогие. Почему-то это попало ко мне. Спасибо, Алеша, за чудные цветочки.

Трощейкин (он не поднимает головы от работы во всю эту сцену).

By Alexey Sklyarenko , 21 May, 2022

The narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada (1969), Van Veen is the author of Letters from Terra, ‘a philosophical novel:’

 

Ada’s letters breathed, writhed, lived; Van’s Letters from Terra, ‘a philosophical novel,’ showed no sign of life whatsoever.

(I disagree, it’s a nice, nice little book! Ada’s note.)

By sarra_ben_dhia , 19 May, 2022

Hello! This is my first post on thenabokovian.

I am currently writing my research paper on Nabokov's Lolita  for my master's degree.  I was wondering whether anyone knows if "ces matins gris si doux..." (p.49) is a quote from a poem as Nabokov usually puts his quotes between quotation marks. 

 

Thanks in advance.

SBD