Annotations by Alexey Sklyarenko

The main character in VN's novel Transparent Things (1972), Hugh Person is the son of Henry Emery Person:

At the picnic on Ada's sixteenth birthday Mlle Larivière (in VN's novel Ada, 1969, the governess of Van's and Ada's half-sister Lucette) mentions an English novel of high repute in which a lady is given a perfume called "Ombre Chevalier," which, according to Mlle Larivière, is really nothing but a fish:

Describing the picnic on Ada's twelfth birthday, when he walked on his hands for the first time, Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN's novel Ada, 1969) mentions his adult incapacity to ‘shrug’ things off and wonders if it was only physical or did it ‘correspond’ to some archetypal character of his ‘undersoul:’

Describing the difference between Terra and Antiterra (Earth's twin planet also known as Demonia), Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) mentions Faragod (apparently, the god of electricity):

The action in VN's novel Ada (1969) takes place on Demonia, Earth's twin planet also known as Antiterra. Describing the phenomenon of the Terra planet, Van Veen (the narrator and main character in Ada) says that minds bien rangés (not apt to unhobble hobgoblins) rejected Terra as a fad or a fantom, and deranged minds (ready to plunge into any abyss) accepted it in support and token of their own irrationality:

The narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada (1969), Van Veen spends two summers, the summer of 1884 and that of 1888, at Ardis, the family estate of Daniel Veen (Van's and Ada's Uncle Dan). According to Mlle Larivière (the governess of Van's and Ada's half-sister Lucette, Daniel Veen's daughter), Ardis means in Greek "point of an arrow." On the other hand, the toponym Ardis seems to hint at paradise.

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), King Alfin (the father of Charles the Beloved) was given his cognomen by Amphitheatricus, a not unkindly writer of fugitive poetry in the liberal gazettes: 

In his commentary and index 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 King Thurgus the Third, surnamed the Turgid (the grandfather of Charles the Beloved), and his mistress Iris Acht (a celebrated actress):

At the beginning of VN's novel Transparent Things (1972) the narrators mention the exact level of the moment: 

Here's the person I want. Hullo, person! Doesn't hear me.

Perhaps if the future existed, concretely and individually, as something that could be discerned by a better brain, the past would not be so seductive: its demands would be balanced by those of the future. Persons might then straddle the middle stretch of the seesaw when considering this or that object. It might be fun.

Describing Hugh Person's courtship of Armande, the narrators of VN's novel Transparent Things (1972) mention the battlements of Armande's Dragon (as they call Drakonita, a skiing resort near Witt):

Friday morning. A quick Coke. A belch. A hurried shave. He put on his ordinary clothes, throwing in the turtleneck for style. Last interview with the mirror. He plucked a black hair out of a red nostril.