Annotations by Alexey Sklyarenko

The element that destroys Demon Veen (in VN’s novel Ada, 1969, Van’s and Ada’s father who perishes in a mysterious airplane disaster above the Pacific) is air:

Furnished Space, l’espace meublé (known to us only as furnished and full even if its contents be ‘absence of substance’ — which seats the mind, too), is mostly watery so far as this globe is concerned. In that form it destroyed Lucette. Another variety, more or less atmospheric, but no less gravitational and loathsome, destroyed Demon.

Describing his final reunion with Ada in July 1922, Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) mentions the huge memorable oil in the lounge of Les Trois Cygnes (Van's hotel in Mont Roux) — three ample-haunched Ledas swapping lacustrine impressions — that had been replaced by a neoprimitive masterpiece showing three yellow eggs and a pair of plumber’s gloves on what looked like wet bathroom tiling:

Describing the last ten years of his life with Ada, Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) cites the epoch-making confession (‘In my student days I became a deflowerer because I failed to pass my botany examination’) of Dr. Froit of Signy-Mondieu-Mondieu:

Describing the beginning of his lifelong romance with Ada, Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) mentions Ada's drawing teacher, Miss Wintergreen, and her natures mortes:

The action in VN’s novel Ada (1969) takes place on Demonia (Earth's twin planet also known as Antiterra). Describing the torments 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 Ada) says that on Terra (Aqua's real destination) electriciry (banned on Demonia after the L disaster in the beau milieu of the 19th century) was used as freely as water and air, as bibles and brooms:

Describing Victor Vitry's film version of his novel Letters from Terra, Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) says that Terra convalesced after enduring the rack and the stake, the bullies and beasts that Germany inevitably generates when fulfilling her dreams of glory:

Describing his love-making with Cordula Tobak in a drab little hotel in Paris, Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) mentions a rectangular moue (little grimace) made by Cordula:

Describing King Alfin's death in an aviation accident, 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 angels who netted King Alfin's mild pure soul:

A few hours before her death Lucette (in VN's novel Ada, 1969, Van's and Ada's half-sister who commits suicide by jumping from Admiral Tobakoff into the Atlantic) tells Van that she is frail and feverish:

‘Please,’ said Lucette, ‘I’m tired of walking around, I’m frail, I’m feverish, I hate storms, let’s all go to bed!’

‘Hey, look!’ he cried, pointing to a poster. ‘They’re showing something called Don Juan’s Last Fling. It’s prerelease and for adults only. Topical Tobakoff!’

In his poem “The Nature of Electricity” quoted by Kinbote (Shade’s mad commentator who imagines that he is Charles the Beloved, the last self-exiled king of Zembla) in his commentary to Shade's poem John Shade (the poet in VN’s novel Pale Fire, 1962) mentions Shelley’s incandescent soul that lures the pale moths of starless nights: