Vladimir Nabokov

Annotations by Alexey Sklyarenko

Description

Please read Alexey Sklyarenko's annotations on Pale FireAda and other Nabokov works here.

By Alexey Sklyarenko, 12 April, 2025

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 Revelation can be more perilous than Revolution:

 

By Alexey Sklyarenko, 12 April, 2025

The narrator and main character in VN's novel Dar ("The Gift," 1937), Fyodor Konstantinovhich Godunov-Cherdyntsev would have never met and fallen in love with Zina Mertz, if he did not move to 15 Agamemnonstrasse (the Shchyogolevs' Berlin address):

 

«Здравствуйте, – сказал Федор Константинович, кланяясь телефону, – мне Александра Яковлевна…»

By Alexey Sklyarenko, 8 April, 2025

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), the King escaped from the palace by the secret passage that leads to the theater’s green room. Describing the discovery of the secret passage, Kinbote mentions the three transverse streets, Academy Boulevard, Coriolanus Lane and Timon Alley:

 

By Alexey Sklyarenko, 6 April, 2025

Describing his dinner with Ada (now married to Andrey Vinelander) and her family in Bellevue Hotel in Mont Roux, Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) mentions the ‘Swiss White’ page of the wine list and uses the phrase ‘passing the buck:’  

 

Chance looked after the seating arrangement.

By Alexey Sklyarenko, 5 April, 2025

Describing the suicide of his and Ada's half-sister Lucette (who jumps from Admiral Tobakoff into the Atlantic), Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) mentions the ‘ectric’ light (a surrogate creeping back into international use):

 

By Alexey Sklyarenko, 4 April, 2025

Describing the beginning of Demon's affair with Marina, Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) mentions the similarities of young bodies of water:

 

Marina’s affair with Demon Veen started on his, her, and Daniel Veen’s birthday, January 5, 1868, when she was twenty-four and both Veens thirty.