Annotations by Alexey Sklyarenko

In his essay The Texture of Time Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN's novel Ada, 1969) says that if a creature loses its teeth and becomes a bird, the best the latter can do when needing teeth again is to evolve a serrated beak, never the real dentition it once possessed:

Among the combinations in which 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) finds the name of Shade's murderer is "a prig rad us:"

Among the combinations in which 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) finds the name of Shade's murderer is "a prig rad us:"

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) cites several combinations that contain the name of Shade's murderer:

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 the first two lines of Goethe’s Erlkönig (1782) in Zemblan translation:

Line 662: Who rides so late in the night and the wind

In a discarded variant quoted by 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 his commentary to Shade's poem Shade mentions great temples and Tanagra dust:

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 line 274 of Shade’s poem there is a false start in the draft:

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

Describing the last moments of John Shade’s life, 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 the forgotten butterfly of revelation:

Describing his rented house, 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 damask paperknife (described as "one ancient dagger brought by Mrs. Goldsworth's father from the Orient"):