Annotations by Alexey Sklyarenko

In his conversation with Marina (in VN’s novel Ada, 1969, Van’s, Ada’s and Lucette’s mother) in "Ardis the Second" Van uses the word erunda (nonsense) and Marina mentions takie malyutki (so tiny children):

Naked-faced, dull-haired, wrapped up in her oldest kimono (her Pedro had suddenly left for Rio), Marina reclined on her mahogany bed under a golden-yellow quilt, drinking tea with mare’s milk, one of her fads.

In VN’s novel Zashchita Luzhina (“The Luzhin Defense,” 1930) Luzhin’s father, the writer, is the author of a forgotten novel called Ugar (Fumes):

In his novel Zashchita Luzhina (“The Luzhin Defense,” 1930) VN mentions Okean (“The Ocean,” 1911), a tragedy in seven scenes by Leonid Andreyev:

In VN’s novel Zashchita Luzhina (“The Luzhin Defense,” 1930) Valentinov is Luzhin’s shakhmatnyi opekun (chess father):

In VN’s novel Zashchita Luzhina (“The Luzhin Defense,” 1930) Luzhin tells to the girl whom he met in a German spa that she will be his wife and uses the word umolyayu (I implore you):

VN’s novel Zashchita Luzhina (“The Luzhin Defense,” 1930) begins as follows:

In VN’s novel Zashchita Luzhina (“The Luzhin Defense,” 1930) Luzhin’s classmates call him Antosha, because the boy’s father, the author of books for children, wrote a novel Priklyucheniya Antoshi (“Tony’s Adventures”):

At a Russian charity ball in Berlin Luzhin, the main character in VN’s novel Zashchita Luzhina (“The Luzhin Defense,” 1930), meets his schoolmate Petrishchev:

The characters in VN’s novel Zashchita Luzhina (“The Luzhin Defense,” 1930) include Valentinov, Luzhin’s tutor and manager whom Luzhin’s father, the writer, wants to use in his new book:

In Canto Three of his poem John Shade (the poet in VN’s novel Pale Fire, 1962) wonders if he should stop investigating his abyss and mentions a web of sense:

Life Everlasting – based on a misprint!

I mused as I drove homeward: take the hint,

And stop investigating my abyss?

But all at once it dawned on me that this

Was the real point, the contrapuntal theme;