Annotations by Alexey Sklyarenko

Describing his rented house, 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 his landlord’s four daughters (Alphina, Betty, Candida and Dee):

In Canto Four of his poem John Shade (the poet in VN's novel Pale Fire, 1962) describes two methods of composing and mentions the abstract battle being concretely fought:

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:

According to the spectral narrators in VN's novel Transparent Things (1972), the future is but a figure of speech, a specter of thought:

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

The poet in VN's novel Pale Fire (1962), John Shade is killed by Jakob Gradus (a member of the Shadows, a regicidal organization) on the evening of July 21, 1959. The Battle of the Pyramids, also known as the Battle of Embabeh, was fought on 21 July 1798 during the French invasion of Egypt and Syria. Occurring near the village of Embabeh, Ottoman Egypt, the battle was named by Napoleon after the distant Great Pyramid of Giza. Napoleon Bonaparte's last battle was the Battle of Waterloo (fought on Sunday, June 18, 1815).

Describing his enforced twelve-year-long separation (1893-1905) from Ada, Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN's novel Ada, 1969) mentions the pyramids of Ladorah:

He traveled, he studied, he taught.

Describing his enforced twelve-year-long separation (1893-1905) from Ada, Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN's novel Ada, 1969) mentions the pyramids of Ladorah and Lake Van:

He traveled, he studied, he taught.

Describing his second road trip with Lolita across the USA, Humbert Humbert (the narrator and main character in VN's novel Lolita, 1955) mentions Elphinstone, a small town in the Rocky Mountains where Lolita falls ill and is hospitalized on Tuesday, June 28: 

As they watch Kim Beauharnais's album, Ada tells Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN's novel Ada, 1969), "No more destruction, Van. Only love:" 

But what about the rare radiance on those adored lips? Bright derision can easily grade, through a cline of glee, into a look of rapture:

Describing his childhood, Humbert Humbert (the narrator and main character in VN's novel Lolita, 1955) mentions the splendid Hotel Mirana that revolved around him as a kind of private universe, a whitewashed cosmos within the blue greater one that blazed outside:

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, June 28, 1949, is hospitalized in Elphinstone (a small town in the Rocky Mountains). Describing his visits to the Elphinstone hospital, Humbert mentions poor Bluebeard and roly-poly Romeo: