Annotations by Alexey Sklyarenko

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), in a conversation with him Shade mentioned those joint authors of genius Ilf and Petrov:

In the last line of his poem On Translating “Eugene Onegin” (1955), the two stanzas written after the meter and rhyme scheme of the Eugene Onegin stanza, VN compares his English translation of EO to dove-droppings on Pushkin's monument:

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One of the three main characters in VN’s novel Pale Fire (1962), Kinbote (Shade’s mad commentator who imagines that he is Charles the Beloved, the last self-exiled king of Zembla) is the son of King Alfin and Queen Blenda. Alfin 250mg Tablet is an antifungal medicine. The name of the mother of Charles Xavier Vseslav seems to hint at Blend-a-med, a popular toothpaste produced since 1951 by Blendax GmbH (Mainz, Germany). Queen Blenda is a horsewoman:

In his Index 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 a very courageous master builder who was poisoned in the royal kitchens, together with his three young apprentices, Yan, Yonny, and Angeling:

In Canto Three of his poem John Shade (the poet in VN's novel Pale Fire, 1962) describes IPH (a lay Institute of Preparation for the Hereafter) and says that it snubbed gods, including the big G:

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:

In VN's novel Lolita (1955) the maiden name of Humbert Humbert's first wife is Valeria Zborovski:

Describing his first road trip with Lolita across the USA, Humbert Humbert (the narrator and main character in VN's novel Lolita, 1955) mentions Pharaonic, phallic, “too prehistoric for words” (blasé Lo) buttes of black lava: 

Before moving to Ramsdale, Dolores Haze (in VN's novel Lolita, 1955, Lolita's full name) and her mother Charlotte lived in Pisky, the Haze home town in the Middle West:

In VN’s novel Ada (1969) Van, Ada and their half-sister Lucette are the children of Venus:

In VN’s novel Lolita (1955) the number 342 reappears three times. 342 Lawn Street is the address of the Haze house in Ramsdale. 342 is Humbert Humbert's and Lolita's room in The Enchanted Hunters (a hotel in Briceland where Humbert and Lolita spend their first night together). According to Humbert Humbert, between July 5 and November 18, 1949, he registered (if not actually stayed) at 342 hotels, motels and tourist homes.