Annotations by Alexey Sklyarenko

At the beginning of VN's novel Ada (1969) Van Veen (the narrator and main character) speaks of his ancestors and mentions Macedonian and Bavarian settlers who enjoy a halcyon climate under the American Stars and Stripes:

Describing the beginning of Demon's affair with Marina, Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) mentions Belokonsk, the Russian twin of ‘Whitehorse’ (city in N.W. Canada) on Demonia (Earth's twin planet also known as Antiterra):

Marina’s affair with Demon Veen started on his, her, and Daniel Veen’s birthday, January 5, 1868, when she was twenty-four and both Veens thirty.

When Greg Erminin comes to Ardis (soon after the picnic on Ada's twelfth birthday), Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN's novel Ada, 1969) is reading Ada’s copy of Atala:

At the beginning of VN's novel Ada (1969) Van Veen (the narrator and main character) speaks of his ancestors and mentions ‘Russian’ Canady, otherwise ‘French’ Estoty, where not only French, but Macedonian and Bavarian settlers enjoy a halcyon climate under the American Stars and Stripes:

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 Arnor’s poem about a miragarl (mirage girl), for whose "careful jewels" a dream king in the sandy wastes of time would give tri stana verbalala (three hundred camels) ut tri phantana (and three fountains):

Describing a conversation at the Faculty Club, 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 mirror of exile and compares Gerald Emerald (a young instructor at Wordsmith University who gives Gradus a lift to Kinbote's rented house in New Wye) to a disciple in Leonardo's Last Supper:

At the beginning of VN's novel Ada (1969) Van Veen (the narrator and main character) speaks of his ancestors and mentions Macedonian and Bavarian settlers who enjoy a halcyon climate under the American Stars and Stripes:

According to Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN's novel Ada, 1969), his maternal grandfather, General Ivan Durmanov (1801-72), had lands in the Severn Tories (Severnïya Territorii), that tesselated protectorate still lovingly called ‘Russian’ Estoty, which commingles, granoblastically and organically, with ‘Russian’ Canady, otherwise ‘French’ Estoty:

At the beginning of VN's novel Ada (1969) Van Veen (the narrator and main character) says that his maternal grandfather, General Ivan Durmanov (1801-72), Commander of Yukon Fortress and peaceful country gentleman, had lands in the Severn Tories (Severnïya Territorii), that tesselated protectorate still lovingly called ‘Russian’ Estoty, which commingles, granoblastically and organically, with ‘Russian’ Canady, otherwise ‘French’ Estoty:

The characters in VN's novel Ada (1969) include Marina Durmanov (Van's, Ada's and Lucette's mother) and her twin sister Aqua. The surname Durmanov comes from durman (thornapple; intoxicant). In Pavel Bazhov's skaz (folk tale) Kamennyi tsvetok ("The Stone Flower," 1938) Danilo the Craftsman (a namesake of Daniel Veen, Marina's husband) is given an order to make a fine-molded cup, which he creates after a thornapple.