Annotations by Alexey Sklyarenko

In Canto One of his poem John Shade (the poet in VN’s novel Pale Fire, 1962) describes his childhood and calls icicles "the svelte stilettos of a frozen stillicide" and "trophies of the eaves:"

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

Stilettos of a frozen stillicide -

At the beginning of Canto Four of his poem John Shade (the poet in VN’s novel Pale Fire, 1962) says that now he will spy on beauty as none has spied on it yet:

Now I shall spy on beauty as none has

Spied on it yet. Now I shall cry out as

None has cried out. Now I shall try what none

Has tried. Now I shall do what none has done.

And speaking of this wonderful machine:

I'm puzzled by the difference between

Two methods of composing: A, the kind

The narrator and main character in VN's novel Lolita (1955), Humbert Humbert tracks down Clare Quilty (a playwright and pornographer who abducted Lolita from the Elphinstone hospital) in his house near Parkington and murders him on September 25, 1952. The Battle of Stamford Bridge took place at the village of Stamford Bridge, East Riding of Yorkshire, in England, on 25 September 1066, between an English army under King Harold Godwinson and an invading Norwegian force led by King Harald Hardrada and the English king's brother Tostig Godwinson.

Describing the murder of Clare Quilty (a playwright and pornographer who abducted Lolita from the Elphinstone hospital), Humbert Humbert (the narrator and main character in VN's novel Lolita, 1955) mentions two flies beside themselves with a dawning sense of unbelievable luck:

Describing his first love, Humbert Humbert (the narrator and main character in VN's novel Lolita, 1955) mentions Annabel's fat, powdered mother, born Vanessa van Ness:

Describing the torments and suicide 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 a Dr Sig Heiler and his baggy khaki shorts:

In Canto One of his poem John Shade (the poet in VN's novel Pale Fire, 1962) says that a thousand years ago five minutes were equal to forty ounces of fine sand:

And there's the wall of sound: the nightly wall

Raised by a trillion crickets in the fall.

Impenetrable! Halfway up the hill

I'd pause in thrall of their delirious trill.

That's Dr. Sutton's light. That's the Great Bear.

A thousand years ago five minutes were

Equal to forty ounces of fine sand.

Describing his life with Iris Black (the first of his three or four successive wives), Vadim Vadimovich, the narrator and main character in VN's novel Look at the Harlequins! (1974), quotes his poem Vlyublyonnost':

Describing the torments and suicide 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) says that Aqua's last note was signed My sister's sister who teper' iz ada (now is out of hell):

Her last note, found on her and addressed to her husband and son, might have come from the sanest person on this or that earth.

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 mentions “Terra the Fair, an orbicle of jasp:”

While snubbing gods, including the big G,

Iph borrowed some peripheral debris

From mystic visions; and it offered tips

(The amber spectacles for life's eclipse) -

How not to panic when you're made a ghost: