Annotations by Alexey Sklyarenko

At the end of her letter to Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969), written a month before Demon's death in a mysterious airplane disaster above the Pacific, Ada (now married to Andrey Vinelander) mentions cretinous critics, especially lower-upper-middle-class Englishmen, who accuse Van's style of being ‘coy’ and ‘arch:’

Describing his love-making with Cordula Tobak in a drab little hotel in Paris, Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) mentions a rectangular moue (little grimace) made by Cordula:

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) mentions Caliban:

Describing his love-making with Cordula Tobak in a drab little hotel in Paris, Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) compares Cordula to a child braving her first merry-go-round:

Describing his meeting with Cordula Tobak (born de Prey, Van's former mistress) in 1901, in Paris, Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) mentions the brown and green Bois de Belleau through which Van walks Cordula for a stretch in the direction of her osobnyachyok (small mansion):

After the dinner in 'Ursus' (the best Franco-Estotian restaurant in Manhattan Major) and debauch à trois with Van and Ada in Van's Manhattan flat Lucette (in VN's novel Ada, 1969, Van's and Ada's half-sister) pins to the pillow a note scrawled in Arlen Eyelid Green:

Describing the beginning of his lifelong romance with Ada, Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) mentions Ada's drawing teacher, Miss Wintergreen:

At the picnic on Ada’s sixteenth birthday Daniel Veen (in VN's novel Ada, 1969, Lucette's father, Van's and Ada's Uncle Dan) walks over to the adjacent picnickers with his glass of Hero wine in one hand and a caviar canapé in the other:

In the meantime, Uncle Dan, very dapper in cherry-striped blazer and variety-comic straw hat, feeling considerably intrigued by the presence of the adjacent picnickers, walked over to them with his glass of Hero wine in one hand and a caviar canapé in the other.

Describing Demon’s visit to Ardis in the summer of 1888, Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) mentions dead Demon’s ‘crimes’ about which Marina (Van's, Ada's and Lucette's mother) used to ramble on in the late Eighteen-Nineties:

Describing Lucette’s visit to Kingston, Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) mentions his favorite novel The Slat Sign: