Annotations by Alexey Sklyarenko

Describing his first night with Lolita in The Enchanted Hunters (a hotel in Briceland), Humbert Humbert (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Lolita, 1955) says that his only regret is that he did not quietly deposit key “342” at the office, and leave the town, the country, the continent, the hemisphere, - indeed, the globe - that very same night:

When Humbert Humbert (the narrator and main character in VN's novel Lolita, 1955) and Lolita play tennis in a Colorado resort between Snow and Elphinstone, a red-haired fellow (Bill Mead) and his girlfriend (Fay Page, actress) join them:

Describing his walks with John Shade (the poet in VN's novel Pale Fire, 1962), Charles Kinbote (Shade's mad commentator who imagines that he is Charles the Beloved, the last self-exiled king of Zembla) quotes the words of Paul Hentzner’s little son, “here Papa pisses” (a play on Pippa Passes, the title of a 1841 verse drama by Robert Browning, 1812-1889):

Describing his transatlantic journey with Lucette (Van's and Ada's half-sister) onboard Admiral Tobakoff, Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) mentions Honoloolers (the cocktails):

Describing the library of Ardis Hall, Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN's novel Ada, 1969) mentions Monsieur Philippe Verger (a visiting librarian at Ardis):

Describing Ada’s dramatic career, Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) mentions Painted Westerns:

On Demonia (Earth's twin planet, also known as Antiterra, on which VN's novel Ada, 1969, is set) the Iron Curtain (a term used by Winston Churchill in his Fulton speech on March 5, 1946) is known as the Golden Curtain:

The characters in VN's novel Ada (1969) include Percy de Prey (one of Ada's lovers, a country gentleman who goes to a distant war and perishes on the second day of the invasion of Crimea) and Cordula de Prey (Percy de Prey's second cousin, Van's mistress who marries Ivan Giovanovich Tobak, the shipowner, and, after divorcing her first husband, a Baynard). Cordula is an old botanical synonym for the slipper orchid genus Paphiopedilum.

On a train he took in Ladoga to go to Kalugano (where Philip Rack, Lucette's music teacher, lives with his wife Elsie), Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN's novel Ada, 1969) meets Cordula de Prey (Ada's schoolmate at Brownhill) and her mother, the actress:

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 the deepest thinkers, the purest philosophers, Paar of Chose and Zapater of Aardvark: