Annotations by Alexey Sklyarenko

Describing the suicide of Marina’s twin sister Aqua, Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) mentions a Dr Froid and the cleansing fluid commercially known as Morona:

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), Villa Disa was at first called Villa Paradiso, or in Zemblan Villa Paradisa:

The characters in VN’s novel Pale Fire (1962) include Sybil Shade (the poet’s wife) and Queen Disa (the wife of Charles the Beloved, the last self-exiled king of Zembla). In the second stanza of his poem Moya pechal’ teper’ spokoyna… (“My sadness is now serene,” 1901) Bunin mentions golos Sibilly (the voice of a Sybil) and tishina primorskoy villy (the silence of a seaside villa):

Describing a party in “Ardis the Second,” Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) mentions Adorno, the star of Hate:

When Demon (in VN’s novel Ada, 1969, Van’s and Ada’s father) unexpectedly visits his son in order to tell him about Uncle Dan’s death, all Van can think of saying is ‘I am not alone’ (je ne suis pas seul):

When Lucette (Van’s and Ada’s half-sister who crosses the Atlantic with Van on Admiral Tobakoff) rings him up in his cabin, Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) tells her: ya ne odin (“I’m not alone”):

Leaving the Tobakoff cinema hall, Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) murmurs a humorous bad-sailor excuse:

At the end of VN’s novel Transparent Things (1972) Hugh Person dies in a hotel fire. In his poem Dvenadtsat’ (“The Twelve,” 1918) Alexander Blok mentions mirovoy pozhar (a worldwide conflagration):

Мы на горе всем буржуям
Мировой пожар раздуем,
Мировой пожар в крови —
Господи, благослови!

The main character in VN’s play Izobretenie Val’sa (“The Waltz Invention,” 1938), Salvator Waltz calls himself razrushitel’ (a destroyer). According to Waltz, he can destroy the world in six days:

Привыкнув к мысли, простой, как азбука, что я могу строптивый мир в шесть суток изничтожить, всяк волен жить как хочет, -- ибо круг описан, вы -- внутри, и там просторно, там можете свободно предаваться труду, игре, поэзии, науке... (Act Two)

In VN's play Izobretenie Val'sa ("The Waltz Invention," 1938) Salvator Waltz plans to move to the island of Palmera and asks the architect to build for him a fairy-tale palace in ten days: 

Гриб. Видите ли, ваше... ваше сиятельство, я, собственно, архитектор.

Вальс. А... так бы сразу и сказали. Глупое недоразумение. Мне от него захотелось есть. Отлично. Вам уже сообщили, что мне нужно?

Гриб. Вам нужен дворец.