Annotations by Alexey Sklyarenko

At the beginning 0f his poem John Shade (the poet in VN's novel Pale Fire, 1962) mentions that crystal land outside the window:

I was the shadow of the waxwing slain

By the false azure in the windowpane;

I was the smudge of ashen fluff - and I

Lived on, flew on, in the reflected sky.

And from the inside, too, I'd duplicate

Myself, my lamp, an apple on a plate:

Uncurtaining the night, I'd let dark glass

Hang all the furniture above the grass,

And how delightful when a fall of snow

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 his rented house and mentions the three conjoined lakes called Omega, Ozero, and Zero:

After the dinner in 'Ursus' (the best Franco-Estotian restaurant in Manhattan Major) with Ada and Lucette (Van's and Ada's half-sister) Van uses the amenities of a little vessie (Canady form of W.C.) in his Manhattan penthouse apartment:

On the morning after the Night of the Burning Barn (when Van and Ada make love for the first time) Ada tells Van that she has to finish a translation for Mlle Larivière (Lucette’s governess):

Describing the family dinner in 'Ardis the Second,' Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN's novel Ada, 1969) mentions Richard Leonard Churchill’s novel about a certain Crimean Khan, “A Great Good Man:”

‘Might I have another helping of Peterson’s Grouse, Tetrastes bonasia windriverensis?’ asked Ada loftily.

When Demon Veen (in VN's novel Ada, 1969, Van's and Ada's father) takes his leave after the family dinner in "Ardis the Second," he quips ‘Partir c’est mourir un peu, et mourir c’est partir un peu trop' (to go away is to die a little, and to die is to go a way a little too much):

After a quick cup of coffee and a drop of cherry liqueur Demon got up.

Describing the family dinner in "Ardis the Second," Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) says that Demon (Van's and Ada's father) sat next to Marina (Van's, Ada's and Lucette's mother) at the Praslin’s last Christmas:

Describing the family dinner in "Ardis the Second," Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) mentions the French cuisine that had contributed its chaudfroids and foie gras:

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) mentions Gradus’s puny ghost, shargar:

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), at one time young Gradus (Shade's murderer) studied pharmacology in Zurich, and at another, traveled to misty vineyards as an itinerant wine taster: