Annotations by Alexey Sklyarenko

At The Enchanted Hunters (in VN's novel Lolita, 1955, a hotel in Briceland where Humbert and Lolita spend their first night together) a hostess mistakes Humbert Humbert for Mr. Braddock:

The characters in VN's novel Lolita (1955) include Vivian Darkbloom (anagram of Vladimir Nabokov), a lady writer, Clare Quilty's coauthor. From John Ray, Jr. (the author of the Foreword to Humbert's manuscript) we know that she has written a biography, "My Cue," to be published shortly:

In VN's novel Lolita (1955) Humbert Humbert and Lolita spend their first night together in The Enchanted Hunters, a hotel in Briceland:

Describing his life with Lolita, Humbert Humbert (the narrator and main character in VN's novel Lolita, 1955) says that he dwelled deep in his elected paradise - a paradise whose skies were the color of hell-flames - but still a paradise:

For the dinner in "Ardis the Second" Demon Veen (in VN's novel Ada, 1969, Van's and Ada's father) wants a bottle of Château Latour d’Estoc:

‘Good! Ah, the portentous footfall is approaching, I hear. Prascovie de Prey has the worst fault of a snob: overstatement. Bonsoir, Bouteillan. You look as ruddy as your native vine — but we are not getting any younger, as the amerlocks say, and that pretty messenger of mine must have been waylaid by some younger and more fortunate suitor.’

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), after Shade's death he distributed the ninety-two index cards with the manuscript of Shade's poem about his person and sewed up all four pockets:

In his commentary to Shade's poem 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) quotes Shade's words about their common acquaintance, "The man is as corny as a cook-out chef apron:" 

In VN's story Lik (1939) the two main characters are the actor Alexander Lik (in the English version Lik is the stagename of Lavrentiy Ivanovich Kruzhevnitsyn) and his cousin (and former schoolmate) Oleg Koldunov. In his diary (the entry of July 8, 1909) Alexander Blok repeats the word liki (pl. of lik, "face, countenance") four times and mentions zakoldovannaya priroda (bewitched nature) and raskoldovannye lyudi (unspelled people):

In Kalugano Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN's novel Ada, 1969) asks Johnny Rafin, Esq. (Van's second in his pistol duel with Captain Tapper, of Wild Flower Lodge) if there is a good whorehouse in the vicinity:

In VN's novel Lolita (1955) Humbert Humbert is afraid that his wife Charlotte will bundle off Lolita to St. Algebra:

There was a woodlake (Hourglass Lake - not as I had thought it was spelled) a few miles from Ramsdale, and there was one week of great heat at the end of July when we drove there daily. I am now obliged to describe in some tedious detail our last swim there together, one tropical Tuesday morning.