Annotations by Alexey Sklyarenko

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 calls IPH "a grave in Reason's early spring:"

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

The grand potato. I.P.H., a lay

Institute (I) of Preparation (P)

For the Hereafter (H), or If, as we

Called it - big if! - engaged me for one term

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) describes his rented house and mentions Professor C.’s ultramodern villa from whose terrace one can glimpse to the south the larger and sadder of the three conjoined lakes called Omega, Ozero, and Zero:

One of the three main characters in VN’s novel Pale Fire (1962), Professor Kinbote (Shade’s mad commentator who imagines that he is Charles the Beloved, the last self-exiled king of Zembla) is the author of a remarkable book on surnames. Describing Gradus's visit to Oswin Bretwit (the former Zemblan consul in Paris) on July 7, 1959, Kinbote points out that the name Bretwit means Chess Intelligence:

During her second road trip with Humbert Humbert (the narrator and main character in VN's novel Lolita, 1955) across the USA, Lolita falls ill and on Tuesday, 28 June 1949, is hospitalized in Elphinstone (a small town in the Rocky Mountains). Visiting Lolita at the hospital, Humbert Humbert brings her, among other books, The History of Dancing and The Russian Ballet:

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 settlement in the remotest Northwest:

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), he suggested to Shade Solus Rex as the title of his poem:

The characters in VN's novel Ada (1969) include Kim Beauharnais, a kitchen boy and photographer at Ardis whom Van Veen (the narrator and main character) blinds for spying on him and Ada and attempting to blackmail Ada. Describing Kim Beauharnais's album, Van calls Kim "Bewhorny:"

In VN's novel Ada (1969), Van and Ada make love for the first time in the Night of the Burning Barn:

Describing John Shade's last birthday, 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 buchmann, a little pillar of library books forgotten by Sybil Shade (the poet's wife):

Telling about the activities of Gradus (Shade's murderer) in Switzerland, 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) describes Gradus’ visit to Joe Lavender’s villa Libitina: