Annotations by Alexey Sklyarenko

In his Commentary 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 a discarded variant in which Shade says that he has a certain liking for Parody:

Lines 895-899: The more I weigh... or this dewlap

Instead of these facile and revolting lines, the draft gives:

895 I have a certain liking, I admit,

Describing his visit to Lolita (now big with child) in Coalmont, Humbert Humbert (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Lolita, 1955) says that the baby in Lolita’s womb was already dreaming of becoming a big shot and retiring around 2020 A. D.:

Describing his life with Rita, Humbert Humbert (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Lolita, 1955) mentions his essay on “Mimir and Memory” that appeared in the Cantrip Review:

Describing his life with Rita, Humbert Humbert (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Lolita, 1955) mentions Rita’s brother, the mayor and boaster of Grainball:

In his diary Humbert Humbert (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Lolita, 1955) compares himself to a spider that sits in the middle of a luminous web and gives little jerks to this or that strand:

According to Humbert Humbert, the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Lolita (1955), Rita was so kind that she would have given herself to any pathetic creature or fallacy, an old broken tree or a bereaved porcupine, out of sheer chumminess and compassion:

земля + небо + вода + Блок = Зембла + невод + яблоко

земля – earth

небо – sky

вода – water

Блок – Blok

Зембла – Zembla

невод – seine, sweep-net

яблоко – apple

At the end of his poem (and life) John Shade (the poet in VN’s novel Pale Fire, 1962) says that he understands existence only through his art:

Maybe my sensual love for the consonne

D'appui, Echo's fey child, is based upon

A feeling of fantastically planned,

Richly rhymed life.

In Canto Four of his poem John Shade (the poet in VN’s novel Pale Fire, 1962) describes shaving and compares his Adam’s apple to a prickly pear:

Since my biographer may be too staid

Or know too little to affirm that Shade

Shaved in his bath, here goes: "He'd fixed a sort

Of hinge-and-screw affair, a steel support

Running across the tub to hold in place

In Canto Four of his poem John Shade (the poet in VN’s novel Pale Fire, 1962) describes shaving and compares his Adam’s apple to a prickly pear:

Since my biographer may be too staid

Or know too little to affirm that Shade

Shaved in his bath, here goes: "He'd fixed a sort

Of hinge-and-screw affair, a steel support

Running across the tub to hold in place