Annotations by Alexey Sklyarenko

Dolores Haze (in VN's novel Lolita, 1955, the heroine's real name) was born in Pisky (a town in the Middle West) on January 1, 1935. In that year twenty-five-year-old Humbert Humbert (the narrator and main character in Lolita) married his first wife Valechka (Valeria Zborovski, the daughter of a Polish doctor) in Paris:

In VN's novel Lolita (1955) Humbert Humbert (the narrator and main character) calls his pursuer (Clare Quilty, a playwright and pornographer) "a veritable Proteus of the highway:"

A character in VN's novel Ada (1969), Grace Erminin (Greg's twin sister) marries a Wellington:

In the Kalugano hospital where Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) recovers from a wound received in a pistol duel with Captain Tapper, of Wild Violet Lodge, Dr Fitzbishop (the Kalugano surgeon) tells Van that poor Philip Rack (the music teacher of Van's and Ada's half-sister Lucette, and a composer of genius) was poisoned by his jealous wife Elsie and that the poison was the not always lethal ‘arethusoides:’

Describing his transatlantic journey with Lucette (Van's and Ada's half-sister who commits suicide by jumping from Admiral Tobakoff into the ocean), Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) mentions two American psychiatrists who had died an odd death in the Bocaletto range, the older fellow from heart failure and his boy friend by suicide:

Describing his transatlantic journey with Lucette (Van's and Ada's half-sister who commits suicide by jumping from Admiral Tobakoff into the ocean), Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) mentions Captain Cowley (a bore and an ignoramus):

At the Tobakoff bar Lucette (in VN's novel Ada, 1969, Van's and Ada's half-sister who commits suicide by juming from Admiral Tobakoff into the Atlantic) tells Toby the barman that Van will pay him tomorrow and bash his false teeth in:

On the fascinating flyleaf of Van's pocket book of poetry (a collection of the most beautiful and famous short poems in the English language) with which Van wants to reward Lucette (in VN's novel Ada, 1969, Van's and Ada's half-sister) there are several profiles of boys (Cheshcat, Zogdog, Fancytart, and Ada-like Van himself):

They tried all sorts of other tricks.

The element that destroys Demon Veen (in VN’s novel Ada, 1969, Van’s and Ada’s father who perishes in a mysterious airplane disaster above the Pacific) is air:

Furnished Space, l’espace meublé (known to us only as furnished and full even if its contents be ‘absence of substance’ — which seats the mind, too), is mostly watery so far as this globe is concerned. In that form it destroyed Lucette. Another variety, more or less atmospheric, but no less gravitational and loathsome, destroyed Demon.

In his apologetic note to Lucette (Van’s and Ada’s half-sister) written after the dinner in 'Ursus' and debauch à trois in Van's Manhattan flat Van Veen (the narrator and main character of VN’s novel Ada, 1969) mentions pilots of tremendous airships and coarse, smelly coachmen: