Annotations by Alexey Sklyarenko

According to Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969), Marina (Van's, Ada's and Lucette's mother) confessed with an enigmatic and rather smug smile that much as she liked the rhythmic blue puffs of incense, and the dyakon’s rich growl on the ambon, and the oily-brown ikon coped in protective filigree to receive the worshipper’s kiss, her soul remained irrevocably consecrated, naperekor (in spite of) Dasha Vinelander, to the ultimate wisdom o

Describing his conversation with Demon (Van's and Ada's father who just discovered that his children are lovers), Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) mentions the Nuremberg Old Maid's iron sting (an allusion to the iron maiden of Nuremberg, a medieval instrument of torture):

Demon Veen (in VN's novel Ada, 1969, Van's and Ada's father) learns about his children's affair by chance, thanks to Daniel Veen's odd Boschean death. Uncle Dan's father died in the library of Ardis Hall (where, in the Night of the Burning Barn, Van and Ada make love for the first time):

The narrator and main character in VN's novel Otchayanie ("Despair," 1934), Hermann Karlovich wonders if it is indeed a crime in itself for two people to be as alike as two drops of blood:

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) says that, if anybody told him that he resembled King Charles, he would counter with something on the lines of "all Chinese look alike" and change the subject:

According to Hermann Karlovich, the narrator and main character in VN's novel Otchayanie ("Despair," 1934), Ardalion (a cousin of Hermann's wife Lydia, the painter) is as poor as vorobey (a sparrow):

Describing his life with Ada after their final reunion in 1922, Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN's novel Ada, 1969) mentions the Film Festival in Sindbad:

In 1938 VN translated his Russian novel Camera Obscura (1932) into English as Laughter in the Dark. Translated back into Russian, Laughter in the Dark becomes Smekh v temnote. In VN's novel Otchayanie ("Despair," 1934) Hermann Karlovich (the narrator and main character) mentions smekh v temnote (a laugh in the darkness):

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 a visiting German lecturer from Oxford who said that King Charles wore no beard, and yet it was his very face:

Describing the difference between Terra and Antiterra (Earth's twin planet also known as Demonia), Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN's novel Ada, 1969) mentions the details of the L disaster that happened on Demonia in the beau milieu of the 19th century: