Annotations by Alexey Sklyarenko

The narrator and main character in VN's novel Otchayanie (“Despair,” 1934), Hermann is an atheist:

According to John Ray, Jr. (in VN’s novel Lolita, 1955, the author of the Foreword to Humbert’s manuscript), Humbert Humbert had died in legal captivity, of coronary thrombosis, on November 16, 1952, a few days before his trial was scheduled to start:

In VN’s novel Ada (1969) Van’s and Ada’s Uncle Dan is also known as Durak Walter or simply Red Veen:

In VN’s novel Ada (1969) the action takes place on Demonia, Earth’s twin planet also known as Antiterra. Describing the difference between Terra and Antiterra, Van Veen (the narrator and main character in Ada) mentions our enchanters, our demons:

Describing the patio party on the next day after his arrival in “Ardis the Second,” Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) mentions G. A. Vronsky (the movie man who makes a film of Mlle Larivière’s novel Les Enfants Maudits) sipping his vodka-and-tonic:

Describing Demon’s visit to Ardis in the summer of 1888, Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) mentions dead Demon’s ‘crimes’ about which Marina used to ramble on in the late Eighteen-Nineties:

Describing Ardis Hall, Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) mentions an old ‘jikker’ or skimmer, a blue magic rug with Arabian designs:

Describing the death of his, Ada’s and Lucette’s mother Marina (the twin sister of Demon's poor mad wife Aqua), Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) mentions three elements (fire, water and air) and uses the word naperekor (in spite of):

Describing Villa Venus (Eric Veen’s floramors), Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) mentions Cherry, a little Salopian of eleven or twelve:

Leaving Ardis forever, Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) recalls Ada’s favorite tree, Ginkgo biloba:

‘The express does not stop at Torfyanka, does it, Trofim?’

‘I’ll take you five versts across the bog,’ said Trofim, ‘the nearest is Volosyanka.’

His vulgar Russian word for Maidenhair; a whistle stop; train probably crowded.