Annotations by Alexey Sklyarenko

In Canto Three of his poem John Shade (the poet in VN’s novel Pale Fire, 1962) describes IPH (a lay Institute of Preparation for the Hereafter) and mentions a widower who lost two wives and who meets them again after his death:

In his Commentary 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) quotes a discarded variant in which Shade mentions poor old man Swift:

A beautiful variant, with one curious gap, branches off at this point in the draft (dated July 6):

In VN’s novel Dar (“The Gift,” 1937) Koncheyev’s collection of poetry Soobshchenie (Communication) is reviewed by Christopher Mortus (a hostile critic):

The characters in VN’s novel Dar (“The Gift,” 1937) include the poet Koncheyev (Fyodor's rival and imaginary interlocutor). His name seems to hint at Roman ne koncha perervat' (to interrupt an uncompleted novel), a line in Pushkin's poem V moi osennii dosugi (“During my days of autumn leisure,” 1835) written after the meter and rhyme scheme of the Eugene Onegin stanza:

In his poem Probuzhdenie (“Wake Up,” 1931) VN says that son (the sleep) has already lost dar zabven’ya (the gift of oblivion) and son (the dream) cannot read the line to the end:

Спросонья вслушиваюсь в звон

и думаю: ещё мгновенье,-

и вновь забудусь я... Но сон

уже утратил дар забвенья,-

не может дочитать строку,

The characters in VN’s novel Dar (“The Gift,” 1937) include the civil engineer Kern who prided himself on having been a close acquaintance of the late Alexander Blok:

In VN’s novel Priglashenie na kazn’ (“Invitation to a Beheading,” 1935) Cincinnatus asks M’sieur Pierre if rokovoy muzhik (the fateful churl) has not arrived yet:

-- Защита во всяком случае остроумная, -- сказал Цинциннат, -- но я в куклах знаю толк. Не уступлю.

 -- Напрасно, -- обиженно сказал м-сье Пьер. -- Это вы ещё по молодости лет, -- добавил он после молчания. -- Нет, нет, нельзя быть таким несправедливым...

In his reply to Bernard Pivot's question "You wrote this marvellous novel The Luzhin Defence: are you a very good chess player? And what do you think of Fischer’s attitude?" VN mentions enigmatic chess problems of which each one is the fruit of a thousand and one nights of insomnia:

In Canto Three of his poem John Shade (the poet in VN’s novel Pale Fire, 1962) speaks of IPH (a lay Institute of Preparation for the Hereafter) and mentions “Terra the Fair, an orbicle of jasp:”

While snubbing gods, including the big G,

Iph borrowed some peripheral debris

From mystic visions; and it offered tips

(The amber spectacles for life's eclipse) -

How not to panic when you're made a ghost:

In Canto Two of his poem John Shade (the poet in VN's novel Pale Fire, 1962) mentions a hereafter none can verify and a domestic ghost: