Describing the death of Queen Blenda (in VN’s novel Pale Fire, 1962, the mother of Charles Xavier Vseslav), Kinbote (Shade’s mad commentator who imagines that he is Charles the Beloved, the last self-exiled king of Zembla) mentions the unshaven dark young nattdett (child of night) and the drunk who started to sing a ribald ballad about "Karlie-Garlie:"
In her last note poor mad Aqua (in VN’s novel Ada, 1969, the twin sister of Van's, Ada's and Lucette's mother Marina) mentioned Nurse Joan the Terrible and Ruby Black (Van’s black wet-nurse who also went mad):
According to Vadim Vadimovich, the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Look at the Harlequins! (1974), his method of choosing and blending words could hardly be called a timesaving expedient:
In VN’s novel Look at the Harlequins! (1974) Other Books by the Narrator include Vadim’s collection of short stories Exile from Mayda (1947):
"I shall call this close friend of mine, whose case we are about to examine, Mr. Twidower, a name with certain connotations, as those of you who remember the title story in my Exile from Mayda will note."
Telling Cincinnatus about his amorous prowess, M’sieur Pierre (the executioner in VN’s novel Priglashenie na kazn’, “Invitation to a Beheading,” 1935) uses the phrase sam s usam (I’m no piker myself) and mentions his pruzhina (a spring):
Trying to calm him down, the doctor tells Hermann, the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Otchayanie (“Despair,” 1934), that the little countess is quite infatuated with him:
Он поговорил еще немного и встал. Я отдал ему платок.
At a meal in “Ardis the First” Ada (the title character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) calls muzhiks in Tartary (who misapply Kuroslep, the Russian word for marsh marigold, to the buttercup) “poor slaves:”
Van: ‘That yellow thingum’ (pointing at a floweret prettily depicted on an Eckercrown plate) ‘— is it a buttercup?’
