Annotations by Alexey Sklyarenko

In VN's novel Pale Fire (1962) the poet Shade's full name is John Francis Shade; the full name of Charles the Beloved (the last self-exiled king of Zembla) is Charles Xavier Vseslav. In James Joyce's novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916) a portrait of saint Francis Xavier (a Navarrese cleric and missionary, 1506-52) pointing to his chest is mentioned:  

According to 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), in a conversation with him Shade mentioned certain trifles he did not forgive when grading his students' papers:

Describing his father's death in a mysterious airplane disaster above the Pacific, Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN's novel Ada, 1969) mentions Furnished Space, l’espace meublé:

In the opening chapter of VN's novel Transparent Things (1972) the spectral narrators mention a hillside stone over which a multitude of small animals have scurried in the course of incalculable seasons:

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

Describing his novel Letters from Terra, Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) mentions the poet Max Mispel who discerned in Van's novel the influence of Osberg (Spanish writer of pretentious fairy tales and mystico-allegoric anecdotes, highly esteemed by short-shift thesialists):

Describing the campus of Wordsmith University, 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 famous avenue of all the trees mentioned by Shakespeare (the so-called Shakespeare Avenue):

Describing his novel Letters from Terra, Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) mentions the poet Max Mispel who discerned in Van's novel the influence of Osberg as well as that of an obscene ancient Arab, expounder of anagrammatic dreams, Ben Sirine, thus transliterated by Captain de Roux, according to Burton in his adaptation of Nefzawi’s treatise on the best method of mating with obese or hunchbacked females:

In 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) quotes the beginning of a sonnet that Conmal (the king’s uncle, Zemblan translator of Shakespeare) composed directly in English:

Describing the torments and suicide of poor mad Aqua (the twin sister of Van's, Ada's and Lucette's mother Marina), Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) metnions a luxurious ‘sanastoria’ at Centaur, Arizona, and a Dr Sig Heiler (Aqua's last doctor):

In the "library" chapter of VN's novel Ada (1969) Van Veen (the narrator and main character) mentions a spectacular skin disease that Monsieur Philippe Verger (the Ardis librarian) shared with Miss Vertograd (the librarian of Demon Veen, Van's and Ada's father):