Annotations by Alexey Sklyarenko

Describing the torments of poor mad Aqua (the twin sister of Van's, Ada's and Lucette's mother Marina) Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) mentions the Arlington harridan:

Describing the young Prince's cohabitation with Fleur de Fyler (the younger daughter of Countess de Fyler, Queen Blenda’s lady-in-waiting), 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 two ancient flutes, both sad-tuned and feeble, and a broken viola d'amore that Fleur de Fyler kept trying to mend:

Describing the Shadows (a regicidal organization), 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 a copy of a French newspaper with the headline: L'EX-ROI DE ZEMBLA EST-IL À PARIS?:

Describing his first road trip with Lolita across the USA, Humbert Humbert (the narrator and main character in VN's novel Lolita, 1955) mentions Lolita's bi-iliac garland still as brief as a lad’s:

Describing the death of Queen Blenda (the mother of Charles the Beloved), 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 the drunk who started to sing a ribald ballad about "Karlie-Garlie:"

Describing the Shadows (a regicidal organization), 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 a romantic and noble glamor that an objective historian associates with Karlism:

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), Shade began writing Canto Two of his poem on July 5, 1959, and on the same day Gradus (Shade’s murderer) traveled from Onhava (the capital of Zembla) to Copenhagen:

Line 181: Today

In Canto One of his poem John Shade (the poet in VN’s novel Pale Fire, 1962) speaks of his childhood and mentions the svelte stilettos of a frozen stillicide:

All colors made me happy: even gray.

My eyes were such that literally they

Took photographs. Whenever I'd permit,

Or, with a silent shiver, order it,

Whatever in my field of vision dwelt -

An indoor scene, hickory leaves, the svelte

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 Zemblan anatomy and his - or rather, his grandfather's - cheval glass, a triptych of bottomless light, a really fantastic mirror, signed with a diamond by its maker, Sudarg of Bokay:

At the end of Canto Four of his poem John Shade (the poet in VN’s novel Pale Fire, 1962) mentions horseshoes being tossed somewhere:

But it's not bedtime yet. The sun attains

Old Dr. Sutton's last two windowpanes.

The man must be - what? Eighty? Eighty-two?

Was twice my age the year I married you.

Where are you? In the garden. I can see

Part of your shadow near the shagbark tree.

Somewhere horseshoes are being tossed. Click, Clunk.

(Leaning against its lamppost like a drunk.)