Annotations by Alexey Sklyarenko

In Canto Two of his poem John Shade (the poet in VN's novel Pale Fire, 1962) speaks of his dead daughter and mentions old Pan:

Another winter was scrape-scooped away.

The Toothwort White haunted our woods in May.

Summer was power-mowed, and autumn, burned.

Alas, the dingy cygnet never turned

Into a wood duck. And again your voice:

"But this is prejudice! You should rejoice

That she is innocent. Why overstress

The physical? She wants to look a mess.

Virgins have written some resplendent books.

In his Foreword and 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 Gerald Emerald, a young instructor at Wordsmith University who gives Gradus (Shade's murderer) a lift to Kinbote's rented house in New Wye, and that distinguished Zemblan scholar Oscar Nattochdag:

In Canto One of his poem John Shade (the poet in VN’s novel Pale Fire, 1962) speaks of his childhood and says that he was brought up by dear bizarre Aunt Maud:

Describing King Alfin's death, 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 Prince Andrey Kachurin, the famous Russian stunter and War One hero, who had shown to King Alfin a tricky vertical loop in Gatchina:

When he visits Queen Disa at her Mediterranean villa, 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) brings her a bouquet of flowers-of-the-gods:

At the end of Canto Three of his poem John Shade (the poet in VN's novel Pale Fire, 1962) quotes the words of his wife Sybil, "Darling, shut the door:"

Stormcoated, I strode in: Sybil, it is

My firm conviction - "Darling, shut the door.

Had a nice trip?" Splendid - but what is more

I have returned convinced that I can grope

My way to some - to some - "Yes, dear?" Faint hope. (ll. 830-834)

Shade is an authority on Pope. Alexander Pope's Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot (1735) begins as follows:

The narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada (1969), Van Veen arrives at the site of his pistol duel with Captain Tapper, of Wild Violet Lodge, in Johnny Rafin's Paradox, a cheap 'semi-racer:'

According to John Ray, Jr. (in VN's novel Lolita, 1955, the author of the Foreword to Humbert Humbert’s manuscript), Mrs. “Richard F. Schiller” (Lolita's married name) died in childbed, giving birth to a stillborn girl, on Christmas Day 1952, in Gray Star, a settlemen in the remotest Northwest:

Describing his second road trip with Lolita across the USA and their visit to Elphinstone (where Lolita falls ill, is hospitalized and is abducted from the hospital), Humbert Humbert (the narrator and main character in VN's novel Lolita, 1955) uses the phrase soyons logiques (let's be logical):

Describing his life in Paris with his first wife Valeria, Humbert Humbert (the narrator and main character in VN's novel Lolita, 1955) mentions a glorified pot-au-feu ("pot on the fire," a stew composed of meat — typically an assortment of beef cuts — along with carrots, potatoes, and an array of other vegetables):