Vladimir Nabokov

Annotations by Alexey Sklyarenko

Description

Please read Alexey Sklyarenko's annotations on Pale FireAda and other Nabokov works here.

By Alexey Sklyarenko, 23 October, 2022

Describing the suicide of poor mad Aqua (the twin sister of Van's, Ada's and Lucette's mother Marina), Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN's novel Ada, 1969) mentions the Dr Froit of Signy-Mondieu-Mondieu in the Ardennes and a Dr Sig Heiler:

 

By Alexey Sklyarenko, 21 October, 2022

In VN’s play Sobytie (“The Event,” 1938) the action takes place on the fiftieth birthday of Antonina Pavlovna Opayashin (the lady writer). At her birthday party Antonina Pavlovna says that in India there is a belief that only great people die on their birthday:

 

Антонина Павловна. За себя я спокойна. В Индии есть поверье, что только великие люди умирают в день своего рождения. Закон целых чисел.
Любовь. Такого поверья нет, мамочка. (Act Two)