Annotations by Alexey Sklyarenko

In VN’s novel Pale Fire (1962) Canto Four of Shade’s poem (written in heroic couplets, a traditional form for English poetry) begins as follows:

Now I shall spy on beauty as none has
Spied on it yet. Now I shall cry out as
None has cried out. Now I shall try what none
Has tried. Now I shall do what none has done. (ll. 835-838)

Describing two methods of composing, method A and method B, John Shade (the poet in VN’s novel Pale Fire, 1962) mentions the automaton:

In method B the hand supports the thought,

The abstract battle is concretely fought.

The pen stops in mid-air, then swoops to bar

A canceled sunset or restore a star,

And thus it physically guides the phrase

At the beginning of Canto Four of his poem John Shade (the poet in VN’s novel Pale Fire, 1962) says that he will spy on beauty as none has spied on it yet and mentions two methods of composing:

Now I shall spy on beauty as none has
Spied on it yet. Now I shall cry out as
None has cried out. Now I shall try what none
Has tried. Now I shall do what none has done.
And speaking of this wonderful machine:

Investigating the phenomena in the Haunted Barn, Hazel Shade (the poet’s daughter in VN’s novel Pale Fire, 1962) asked the luminous circlet if it were a will-o-the-wisp:

Describing Hazel Shade’s investigations in the Haunted Barn, Kinbote (Shade’s mad commentator who imagines that he is Charles the Beloved, the last self-exiled king of Zembla) mentions the theatrical ululations and flashes of a thunderstorm:

In Canto Two of his poem John Shade (the poet in VN’s novel Pale Fire, 1962) speaks of his daughter and mentions her investigations in an old barn:

She had strange fears, strange fantasies, strange force
Of character - as when she spent three nights
Investigating certain sounds and lights
In an old barn. She twisted words: pot, top,
Spider, redips. And "powder" was "red wop." (ll. 344-348)

Describing the torments of poor mad Aqua (Demon Veen’s wife, 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) mentions the Dr Froit of Signy-Mondieu-Mondieu:

Describing Chateaubriand’s mosquito, Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) mentions his bitter lifestream:

According to John Shade (the poet in VN’s novel Pale Fire, 1962), his daughter called her mother "a didactic katydid:"

                         She twisted words: pot, top

Spider, redips. And "powder" was "red wop."

She called you a didactic katydid.

VN’s autobiography Speak, Memory (1951) begins ab incunabulis (from the cradle):