Annotations by Alexey Sklyarenko

VN’s novel Bend Sinister (1947) ends in the sentence “A good night for mothing:”

In VN’s novel Bend Sinister (1947) mouches volantes (“flying flies,” entoptic phenomena) are mentioned:

In VN’s novel Priglashenie na kazn’ (“Invitation to a Beheading,” 1935) one of inscriptions on the wall of Cincinnatus’s cell reads: Smer’te do smerti, - potom pozdno budet (Measure me while I live—after it will be too late):

"Бытие безымянное, существенность беспредметная..." - прочел Цинциннат на стене там, где дверь, отпахиваясь, прикрывала стену.

"Вечные именинники, мне вас --" - написано было в другом месте.

According to the narrator of VN’s story Istreblenie tiranov (“Tyrants Destroyed,” 1936), laughter saved him:

Sybil, or The Two Nations (1845) is a novel by Benjamin Disraeli (who would later become Prime Minister of Great Britain). In Disraeli’s novel The Infernal Marriage (1834) Pluto, the king of hell, whisks Proserpine, the daughter of Jupiter, away to Hades. Hades = Shade; Sybil Shade (the poet’s wife) = Queen Disa (the wife of Charles the Beloved) = Sofia Botkin (born Lastochkin).

The characters in VN’s novel Pale Fire (1962) include Sybil Shade (the poet’s wife) and Jakob Gradus (the poet’s murderer). At the beginning of his essay Pamyati F. M. Dostoevskogo (“In Memory of F. M. Dostoevski,” 1906) V. V. Rozanov compares Dostoevski to prorok (a prophet), and Dostoevski’s writings to novaya sivillina kniga (a new Sibylline Book):

The characters in VN's novel The Real Life of Sebastian Knight (1941) include Mr. Goodman, Sebastian Knight’s former secretary who wrote The Tragedy of Sebastian Knight soon after Sebastian Knight’s death. According to Sebastian’s half-brother V. (the narrator and main character in TRLSK), in his book Mr. Goodman tells several stories that he heard from Sebastian (who was pulling the leg of his future biographer):

In VN’s novel The Real Life of Sebastian Knight (1941) the narrator (Sebastian’s half-brother V.) mentions a black mask that covers Mr. Goodman’s face and compares Mr. Goodman's face to a cow udder:

'Pray be seated,' he said, courteously waving me into a leather armchair near his desk. He was remarkably well-dressed though decidedly with a city flavour. A black mask covered his face. 'What can I do for you?' He went on looking at me through the eyeholes and still holding my card.

Below is a postscript to my recent post “Miss Bachofen & barbok in Bend Sinister”

In VN’s novel Bend Sinister (1947) Miss Bachofen (a girl who came with Hustav to arrest Ember) mentions a story about the two sailors and the barbok [a kind of pie with a hole in the middle for melted butter]:

A celebrated philosopher, Adam Krug (the main character in VN’s novel Bend Sinister, 1947) never indulged in the search for the True Substance, the One, the Absolute: