Annotations by Alexey Sklyarenko

In his Commentary to Shade’s poem Kinbote (who imagines that he is Charles the Beloved, the last self-exiled king of Zembla) describes Hazel Shade’s and his own attempts to decipher a message from the ghost:

Jane allowed me to copy out some of Hazel's notes from a typescript based on jottings made on the spot:

10:14 P.M. Investigation commenced.

10:23. Scrappy and scrabbly sounds.

In Canto Two of his poem John Shade (the poet in VN’s novel Pale Fire, 1962) speaks of his daughter and says that she twisted words:

                         She twisted words: pot, top
Spider, redips. And "powder" was "red wop."
She called you a didactic katydid.
She hardly ever smiled, and when she did,

According to Kinbote (Shade’s mad commentator who imagines that he is Charles the Beloved, the last self-exiled king of Zembla), in a conversation with him Shade (the poet in VN’s novel Pale Fire, 1962) compared Shakespeare to a Great Dane and himself, to a grateful mongrel:

In his Commentary to Shade’s poem Kinbote (who imagines that he is Charles the Beloved, the last self-exiled king of Zembla) mentions Odon (a world-famous actor and Zemblan patriot who helps the King to escape from Zembla) and a mad Mandevil who had lost a leg in trying to make anti-matter:

In Canto Two of his poem John Shade (the poet in VN's novel Pale Fire, 1962) says that he and his wife Sybil have been married forty years and mentions free calendars:

At the beginning of Canto Three of his poem John Shade (the poet in VN's novel Pale Fire, 1962) mentions l’if, lifeless tree, the grand potato and Yewshade:

L'if, lifeless tree! Your great Maybe, Rabelais:

According to John Shade (the poet in VN's novel Pale Fire, 1962), his daughter always nursed a small mad hope:

I think she always nursed a small mad hope. (Line 383)

In Canto Three of his poem Shade tells about IPH (a lay Institute of Preparation for the Hereafter) and, at the end of the Canto, mentions "faint hope:"

Here is a revised (much more interesting) version of my post of Oct. 10, 2015, “Nova Zembla & Judge Goldsworth in Pale Fire.” Enjoy!

Professor Pardon now spoke to me: "I was under the impression that you were born in Russia, and that your name was a kind of anagram of Botkin or Botkine?"

From Kinbote’s Commentary to Shade’s poem:

Line 247: Sybil

John Shade's wife, nee Irondell (which comes not from a little valley yielding iron ore but from the French for "swallow"). She was a few months his senior. I understand she came of Canadian stock, as did Shade's maternal grandmother (a first cousin of Sybil's grandfather, if I am not greatly mistaken).

Describing Kim Beauharnais’ album, Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) mentions the Knabenkräuter and other pendants of Ada’s lovers:

Nonchalantly, Van went back to the willows and said:

‘Every shot in the book has been snapped in 1884, except this one. I never rowed you down Ladore River in early spring. Nice to note you have not lost your wonderful ability to blush.’