When Kim Beauharnais (in VN's novel Ada, 1969, a kitchen boy and photographer at Ardis whom Van blinds for spying on him and Ada and attempting to blackmail Ada) visits Ada at Ardis, he vaguely resembles a janizary in some exotic opera, stomping in to announce an invasion or an execution:
According to 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), when Andronnikov and Niagarin (the two Soviet experts whom the new Zemblan government hired to find the crown jewels) sang beautiful sentimental military duets at eventide on the rampart, the sky turned away showing its ethereal vertebrae:
Describing the picnic on Ada's twelfth birthday, when he walks on his hands for the first time, Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN's novel Ada, 1969) mentions King Wing (Demon's wrestling master) and Vekchelo, a professional maniambulist:
Describing Demon's affair with Marina, Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN's novel Ada, 1969) mentions a Bohemian lady (Baron d'Onsky's mistress from whom Demon learns about Marina's infidelity):
At the end of her letter to Lolita Mona Dahl (in VN's novel Lolita, 1955, Lolita's best friend at Beardsley) sends her best regards to the Governor (i. e. Humbert Humbert):
Describing his childhood, Humbert Humbert (the narrator and main character in VN's novel Lolita, 1955) mentions the splendid Hotel Mirana that revolved around him as a kind of private universe:
During Van's first tea party at Ardis Marina (in VN's novel Ada, 1969, Van's, Ada's and Lucette's mother) tells Van that there is a ladybird on his plate:
Describing the torments of poor mad Aqua (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) says that clothes hangers seemed to Aqua the shoulders of decapitated Tellurians:
