Annotations by Alexey Sklyarenko

On Demonia (in VN's novel Ada, 1969, Earth's twin planet also known as Antiterra) 'Russia' is a quaint synonym of Estoty (the American province extending from the Arctic no longer vicious Circle to the United States proper) and Canada (a country in North America) is known as Canady:

Describing a conversation about religions in "Ardis the First," Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) uses the phrase "long before Moses:"

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), it took Shade twenty days to write Pale Fire:

Describing Shade's murder by Gradus, 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 his fury and hurry:

We had reached the Goldsworth side of the lane, and the flagged walk that scrambled along the side lawn to connect with the gravel path leading up from Dulwich Road to the Goldsworth front door, when Shade remarked, "You have a caller."

In a conversation at the Faculty Club a professor of physics whom 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) calls Pink says that King Charles ("that sorry ruler," as Pink calls him) is known to have escaped disguised as a nun:

Describing the King’s escape from Zembla (and then again at the end of his Commentary), 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 red-capped Steinmann:

When Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) visits Philip Rack (Lucette's music teacher who was poisoned by his jealous wife Elsie) in Ward Five of the Kalugano hospital (where hopeless cases are kept), Rack tells Van that he sent his last flute melody, and a letter for all the family, and no answer has come:

In a letter to Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN's novel Ada, 1969) written after the suicide of Lucette (Van's and Ada's half-sister who jumps into the Atlantic from Admiral Tobakoff) Demon Veen (Van's and Ada's father) mentions Howard Hool, a Hollywood actor who played the protagonist in Don Juan's Last Fling (a film that Van and Lucette watch in the Tobakoff cinema hall) and who complained that he had been made to play an impossible cross between two Dons:

Son:

According to Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN's novel Ada, 1969), his novel Letters from Terra came out under the imprint of two bogus houses, ‘Abencerage’ in Manhattan, and ‘Zegris’ in London:

Describing his novel Letters from Terra, Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN's novel Ada, 1969) mentions the Tsars, conquerors of Tartary and Trst: