Annotations by Alexey Sklyarenko

According to John Ray, Jr. (in VN's novel Lolita, 1955, the author of the Foreword to Humbert Humbert's manuscript), he had just been awarded the Poling Prize for a modest work (“Do the Senses make Sense?”) wherein certain morbid states and perversions had been discussed.

Describing the difference between Terra and Antiterra (aka Demonia, Earth’s twin planet on which VN’s novel Ada, 1969, is set), Van Veen (the narrator and main character in Ada) mentions Gavronsky (as Ada calls G. A. Vronsky, the movie man who made a film of Mlle Larivière’s novel Les Enfants Maudits):

According to John Ray, Jr. (in VN's novel Lolita, 1955, the author of the Foreword to Humbert Humbert's manuscript), he had just been awarded the Poling Prize for a modest work (“Do the Senses make Sense?”) wherein certain morbid states and perversions had been discussed.

The Poling Prize seems to hint at Polignac, a French politician (1780-1847) mentioned by Poprishchin in Gogol’s story Zapiski sumasshedshego (“The Notes of a Madman,” 1835):

In VN’s novel Lolita (1955) the number 342 reappears three times. 342 Lawn Street is the address of the Haze house in Ramsdale. 342 is Humbert Humbert's and Lolita's room in The Enchanted Hunters (a hotel in Briceland where they spend their first night together). According to Humbert Humbert, between July 5 and November 18, 1949, he registered (if not actually stayed) at 342 hotels, motels and tourist homes.

In VN's novel Lolita (1955) Clare Quilty mistakes Humbert Humbert (the narrator and main character who came to murder Quilty) for a man from the telephone company and calls him Brewster:

Describing the first lap of his road trip across the USA with Lolita, Humbert Humbert (the narrator and main character in VN's novel Lolita, 1955) mentions the Mann Act and the Gods of Semantics:

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 gods, including the big G:

While snubbing gods, including the big G,

Iph borrowed some peripheral debris

From mystic visions; and it offered tips

According to John Ray, Jr. (in VN's novel Lolita, 1955, the author of the Foreword to Humbert Humbert's manuscript), he had just been awarded the Poling Prize for a modest work (“Do the Senses make Sense?”) wherein certain morbid states and perversions had been discussed.

The Poling Prize seems to hint at Linus Pauling (1901-94), an American scientist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1954. Humbert Humbert’s landlord, Professor Chem, teaches chemistry at Beardsley College:

In the Tobakoff cinema hall Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) and his half sister Lucette watch Don Juan’s Last Fling, a movie in which Ada played the gitanilla:

‘Hey, look!’ he cried, pointing to a poster. ‘They’re showing something called Don Juan’s Last Fling. It’s prerelease and for adults only. Topical Tobakoff!’

Describing the political situation on Terra (Antiterra’s twin planet), Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) mentions Athaulf the Future: