Annotations by Alexey Sklyarenko

Describing the king's escape from Zembla, 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 northern end of the Zemblan peninsula (cut off basally by an impassable canal from the mainland of madness):

In Canto One of his poem John Shade (the poet in VN’s novel Pale Fire, 1962) describes Aunt Maud's room and mentions the paperweight of convex glass enclosing a lagoon:

At the beginning of VN's novel Lolita (1955) Humbert Humbert calls Lolita "My sin, my soul:"

Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta. (1.1)

At the beginning of VN's novel Lolita (1955) Humbert Humbert calls Lolita "My sin, my soul:"

Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta. (1.1)

At the end of 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) says that he will continue to exist:

"And you, what will you be doing with yourself, poor King, poor Kinbote?" a gentle young voice may inquire.

In his imaginary dialogue with Koncheyev (the rival poet) Fyodor Konstantinovich Godunov-Cherdyntsev, the narrator and main character in VN's novel Dar ("The Gift," 1937), says that Pushkin is zolotoy fond nashey literatury (the gold reserve of our literature):

"Не трогайте Пушкина: это золотой фонд нашей литературы. А вон там, в Чеховской корзине, провиант на много лет вперед, да щенок, который делает "уюм, уюм, уюм", да бутылка крымского".

In Canto Three of his poem John Shade (the poet in VN's novel Pale Fire, 1962) describes his heart attack that occured during a lecture he gave at the Crashaw Club:

The Crashaw Club had paid me to discuss 

Why Poetry Is Meaningful to Us. 

I gave my sermon, a dull thing but short. 

As I was leaving in some haste, to thwart 

The so-called "question period" at the end, 

In Canto Three of his poem John Shade (the poet in VN’s novel Pale Fire, 1962) describes his visit to Mrs. Z. who mentioned Shade’s poem about Mon Blon that appeared in the Blue Review:

Describing his first night with Lolita in The Enchanted Hunters (a hotel in Briceland, a small town in New England), Humbert Humbert (the narrator and main character in VN's novel Lolita, 1955) quotes his uncle Gustave's words sicher ist sicher (better safe than sorry):

In VN’s novel Lolita (1955) Lolita is sent by her mother to Camp Q where she is debauched by Charlie Holmes, the camp-mistress's son: