Annotations by Alexey Sklyarenko

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) mentions Roman Tselovalnikov, a maternal uncle of Jakob Gradus (Shade’s murderer):

Line 17: And then the gradual; Line 29: gray

Investigating the phenomena in the Haunted Barn, Hazel Shade (in VN’s novel Pale Fire, 1962, the poet’s daughter) asked the luminous circlet if it were a will-o-the-wisp:

In Canto Two of his poem John Shade (the poet in VN's novel Pale Fire, 1962) speaks of his dead daughter and says:

Alas, the dingy cygnet never turned
Into a wood duck. (ll. 318-319)

In his commentary Kinbote (Shade’s mad commentator who imagines that he is Charles the Beloved, the last self-exiled king of Zembla) writes:

Describing his first meeting with Shade (the poet in VN's novel Pale Fire, 1962) in the faculty club, Kinbote (a confirmed vegetarian) mentions the usual questions that were fired at him about eggnogs and milkshakes being or not being acceptable to one of his persuasion:

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), he and Shade were talking one day about Prejudice:

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 alluding to him in public, Sybil Shade (the poet's wife) used to call him "an elephantine tick; a king-sized botfly; a macaco worm; the monstrous parasite of a genius:"

Line 247: Sybil

Describing IPH (a lay Institute of Preparation for the Hereafter) in Canto Three of his poem, John Shade (the poet in VN's novel Pale Fire, 1962) says that IPH borrowed some peripheral debris from mystic visions: 

While snubbing gods, including the big G,

Iph borrowed some peripheral debris

From mystic visions; and it offered tips

(The amber spectacles for life's eclipse) -

How not to panic when you're made a ghost:

When Humbert Humbert (the narrator and main character in VN's novel Lolita, 1955) visits Lolita (now married to Dick Schiller and big with child) in Coalmont, she tells him about her life after her escape from the Elphinstone hospital with Clare Quilty (a playwright and pornographer) and calls Elphinstone "Elephant:"

“Sit down,” she said, audibly striking her flanks with her palms. I relapsed into the black rocker.

“So you betrayed me? Where did you go? Where is he now?”

In an attempt to save his life Clare Quilty offers Humbert Humbert (the narrator and main character in VN's novel Lolita, 1955) the in folio de-luxe Bagration Island by the explorer and psychoanalyst Melanie Weiss:

Describing his contacts with publishers, 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) compares himself to an exiled prince who is unaware of the Golconda in his cuff links: